ce sont les vacanes~ youpi~

candies from my kids.

i don't know how hard it is for a kid to share his candies.

but it was so touching when julie gave me all her chocolates.

and yesterday, after the gouter de noel.

leho gave me a piece of his mandarin.

it was so sweet. :)

dear santa,

if you really exist, please do not read the following, for what my kids said might bother you (a tiny bit).

two more days till xmas break, you would be crazy to try and teach them anything at all.

so with my little ones, i just did what i've done on monday, again.

but it just got super hilarious.

i drew a xmas tree, a xmas gift, an angel, a father xmas (i insisted on using this term cos that's what's written in the textbook, sure, rolling eyes), a xmas pudding.

after having gone over all of them first, i asked them one by one by pointing at the pictures on the board.

"penelope, qu'est-ce que c'est?" pointing at father xmas. (what's this?)

"pere noel."

"oui, c'est le pere noel, mais en anglais?" (yes, you're right, but in english?)

"euh, poisson?" (hm, fish?)

"presque, mais non." (close, but no.)

"papa noel?"

"non. c'est fa__ xmas?"

"euh, far-par xmas?"

"non."

"far-mar xmas?"

...

"theo, qu'est-ce que c'est?" pointing at the xmas tree.

"pere noel!"

"c'est pas vrai! regards, c'est quoi encore?" (you're kidding, look, what's this again?)

"euh, un sapin." (hmm, a xmas tree.)

"oui, tres bien, mais en anglais?" (very good, but in english?)

"say-pain?"

"non."

"sar-peen?"

"non! mais non! ca commence avec xmas tch..."

"kway-mah-s tchoo?"

"kris-mah-s tch-ree."

"kway-mah tch-ree."

...

"comment on dit pere noel en anglais?" (how do you say 'pere noel' in english?)

"je sais je sais! c'est penguin!" (i know i know, it's penguin!)

"peut-etre pas. le pere noel, il est pas de noir et blanc." (maybe not, he's not black and white."

"euh, c'est quoi deja?" (what's that again?)

"farther xmas."

"far-ar, kay-mar."

so yeah, he could well be anything, a fish, a sapin (xmas tree), a penguin!

but hey, at least they still believe in father xmas!

this is official...

i've bonded with my kids.

when they see me, they'll run to me with open arms wearing the biggest smiles.

and they'll also ask for a bisous.

once one kid does that, a couple of other kids will come and ask for a bisous too. (peer pressure?)

i love how they're so impressed with the tiniest presents that i gave them today.

they were so excited and happy that they got "caddles" (read: caddle = cadeau according to my kids) in so much advance.

i like how they said 'thank you' without knowing what it means.

and how they sang 'wee wooo weee ya mey-yee koo-mah-yees" while lining up to go down for lunch.

bonnes fetes mes ptits!

un accent japonais?

i think the english pronunciation of "R" might be just as hard for the french as it is in french for their english speaking counterparts.

some of my kids didn't get fRance correctly.

it was okay with me, they can pass with pronouncing france as it is in french and we'll totally understand them.

but somehow, the fact that they are pronouncing R as L makes me curious.

where, on earth, did they get that idea from?

okay, i might not have a perfect oxford accent.

but hey, i can pronounce fRance as how it should be done, the british way, too.

i noticed this problem when i introduced them "i am french and i am from france."

now it is rather annoying hearing them saying "meh-lli kah-lees-mah-yee-s".

and my little girl M, she insisted on singing "i wish you a merry xmas" instead of "we".

okay, yes, got it, you, yourself, one person, mademoiselle M, wants to wish me a happy xmas.

thanks hun.

fLance

mr panda has already come to all the classes and is rather popular.

more so than i am, i'd say.

cos everyone thinks that he's cute.

my cp kids even asked if they could kiss him.

and after i granted them permission, they lined up to kiss him.

so adorable.

mr panda introduced himself by stating his name, his age and where he's from.

i asked my kids to interact with mr panda.

"good afternoon."

"gut after-nouille."

"what's your name?"

"what's your name?" (omg, not again! we're back to square one?)

before i corrected him, he went on "my name is mathias."

"tres bien, mais, c'est bon de dire 'my name is mathias'. on a pas besoin de repeter la question. " （very good, but just saying 'my name is mathias' is enough, no need to repeat the question.)

"how old are you?"

"i am fine."

euh, i think this kid would do rather well being a politician.

"non, how old are you, ca veut dire t'as quel age." (no, that means how old are you?)

"ah, je sais, j'ai 7 ans."

"en anglais!"

"c'est quoi deja?" (what's that already?)

"i~am~."

"i am sept ans!"

"euh, ca, c'est franglais!" (um, this is franglais!)

"okay, kids, do we still remember our numbers? one, two... d'accord, tu veux le refaire?" (do you want to do it again?)

"j'ai seven!"

oh-la-la.

"i am seven!"

"i am seven."

phew~

"now, where are you from?"

"i am france?" and he said france in french.

"c'est bien ca, la france est un pays, t'es ton pays?" (this is good, france is a country, you're your country?)

"euh..."

"i am FROM france."

"i am flom flance."

"i am fRom fRance."

"i am fRom fLance."

"FRANCE."

"france." (in french)

oh i give up.

the new tricolour flag

with the cp's we started doing colours.

"what colour is this?" i raised a piece of blank paper.

"il y a rien!" (there's nothing.)

"tres bien, il y a rien, donc, c'est de quelle couleur?" (very good, there's nothing, so what colour is this?)

"blanc!" (white)

"it's white in english, repeat after me, white!"

"white~"

couple of minutes later, we were revising what we had already done.

"what colour is this?"

"blue!"

"tres bien, blue."

"what colour is this?"

"rouge."

"en anglais!"

"laid?"

"mais non!" (no~)

"looood?"

"non!"

"loud?"

"non, red!"

"okay, what colour is this?"

"blue!"

"non, c'est pas blue!" (no, it's not blue.)

"blah?"

"yes i'd agree with you, this colour is rather a blah, but no."

"bleh?"

"blue blah bleh, tres bien... n'importe quoi!"

"white!"

"oh~ white~"

i do hope that by the end of this academic year, they'll remember that their national flag is of blue white and red.

not some weird combination of blue blah and laid.

we're anything but humans

we did "brown bear brown bear what do you see?" today.

so we went through all the vocabs and i wanted to see if they really knew what was going on.

as i flicked through pages and stopped, they needed to give me the name of the animal and tell me what colour it was.

"good! black sheep."

"no, it's sheep, not fish."

"good! it's a green frog."

some animals were easier than other ones.

"what did the green frog see?"

"hello duck."

"well, not quite. Yellow duck, Yellow, not hello."

"yellow duck yellow duck, what do you see?"

"brown ours."

"en anglais, stp!" (in english, plz)

long pause...

"repeat after me, BE-AH."

okay, animals went well, i stopped at the page of kids.

"what did the brown bear see?"

longer pause...

"comment on dit, les enfants en anglais?" (how do we say 'les enfants' in english?)

nothing still...

"okay, ca commence avec 'tch'..." (okay, it begins with 'tch')

"je sais je sais! chips!"(i know i know! chips!)

"chips! mais non, chips, c'est pour manger." (chips! but no, you EAT chips.)

"chair?!"

what chair?

"non! okay, chilllll..."

"chilli!"

i thought it must be lunch time soon, cos why else they kept coming up with food?

"okay, chilllddrrr."

"je sais je sais, chillds!" (i know i know, chillds!)

"euh, presque, mais non."(um, close enough, but no.)

"oh, c'est trop dur! on a pas pris!" (oh, that's too hard, we haven't done it before!)

"si, elle a deja dit!" - thanks mrs L (the class teacher who sits in during english). (yes, she has just told you!)

"repetez apres moi, chi-l-dr-en!" (repeat after me)

"children~"

"good, now children, you can put your things away and go have lunch now! bon appetit!"

love letters etc.

so i decided to be more sociable and sat in a geometry class before lunch today.

they were doing right angles and parallelograms stuff.

after they finished drawing, they lined up to show the class teacher their worksheets and she corrected them.

i, after have had helped out the kid who sat next to me, had nothing to do, so bored, i started reading a dictionary which sat right on the desk (logic!).

i thought it was weird that a girl kept smiling at me whenever i looked her direction.

it's not my first time to be with them in the same classroom.

and fyi, french people don't normally smile at strangers.

now that i'm no longer a stranger to them, they smile at me as often as we have eye contacts.

then i was wondering if i had something on my face.

couple of minutes later, she came to my desk and handed me a picture she drew!

on the top, it says "i love you."

"tu sais que veut dire 'i love you'?", i asked.

"oui, c'est a dire, je t'aime."

"awww, moi aussi. merci, c'est tres joli!"

and then, this "kate" girl ran to gimme a "present" after lunch.

(whenever i asked what their names were, bizarrely enough, they all introduced themselves to me by their "english names".

with my 6-y-o's, i didn't give them english names, though the other teachers think it helps them to understand the different sounds of the same letter.

i tend to think that french names are rather cool, they should just stick to their french names.)

and in this pocket, there's a note:

it reads: j'aime l'anglais avec toi. je trouve que c'est comme un reve de pouvoir apprendre l'anglais.

(i love doing english with you, i find it a dream to be able to learn english.)

this makes me smile from ear to ear.

when they're not screaming or talking non-stop during classes, they're just like little angels.

mr. panda

my 6-y-o's are equally excited about meeting mr panda.

though they came up with the most random questions.

- est-ce que mr panda est ne a paris? (is mr panda born in paris?)

- non, ils habitent qu'en chine. (they only live in china.)

they knew that mr panda is only a sock.

but they still gasped when i told them that mr panda is from china and he's only 3 years old.

- il est tout p'tit, mr panda. (he's so little!)

- il est venu en france avec toi? (did he come here with you?)

- puis-je le toucher? (can i pat him?)

- oui, vas-y. (sure, go ahead.)

then after the class was dismissed, all the kids came to pat mr panda.

even though they knew that it was only a sock.

laïcité

if you've ever done any french, you would have come across this word called "laïcité".

being laïque in france means that there's no such thing as religious studies at school.

well, some private schools do have such classes and that's why they're private.

so during the break time, a girl in my cp class came to complain about a boy telling them that there are vampires and she got so scared.

the teacher got so annoyed, she told her, "well, have you seen a vampire before? with your own eyes?"

"no."

"there you go, there's no such thing if you haven't seen it."

the poor little girl seemed unconvinced.

"i assure you there's no such thing, just like father christmas and god, it's just a made-up word."

here you're a perfect example of the classic french laïcité.

highlights of the day

1. CP class with my 6-y-o's. they just started learning vows and consonants.

there's "so", "sa", "su", "se", "si", "sui"...

an example of the sound "si" in these phrases: sirop, la piscine, six.

the teacher was going over these with the kids.

when they were at "la piscine", the teacher was telling them that on their way home, they'll see a direction sign, that says "la piscine".

one kid yelled out "j'aime la piscine!"

the teacher didn't even look at him, kept a straight face, "moi aussi" and continued on telling other kids how "c" is mute in "piscine".

i just cracked up at that point.

2. during break time.

kids will come to teachers to tell on other kids how they're behaving badly.

2 kids got into a fight, the boy was trying to strangle the girl, not pretty.

then their class teacher came, in the middle of the story.

heard the word "strangle" and looked at the boy, "charming personality, elliot."

she then shut him up and sent him away not wanting to hear any further explanations.

3. my kids got so excited by mr panda, whom i introduced them to today.

thanks to lu, this mr panda is generously given by her.

mr panda got so much attention, when i put it away after class, the kids all said, "goodbye mr panda" without me asking!

4. my naughty 7-y-o's all came to the blackboard after we finished our alphabets today.

"je veux te faire un bisous!" zoe asked.

yes, sure, go ahead.

"moi aussi, moi aussi." the-girl-who-never-shuts-up-or-sits-down-in-class jumped up and down.

then before i could pack my things up and leave, 6 kids were in line to hug and kiss me.

awww, how much i hate them when they're doing random things during class.

and how much i love them when they're just being themselves.

american pop culture

no, i'm not teaching them about the american culture.

i know nothing about it.

so i didn't tell my kids about halloween, not going to tell them about thanksgiving, either.

we don't do those things.

halloween, maybe on the commercial side and a good excuse to get chocolates for ourselves.

though we always tend to just eat out that night to avoid annoying little brats knocking on our door asking for sweets.

anyways, as i was going through the list of animals with my ce2's today.

we came across 'ladybug'.

- comment on dit 'coccinelle' en anglais?

- silence.

- okay, it's a ladybug.

- lehdii bar.

- no, lay-di-bu-g.

- oh, je sais, comme lady gaga! a girl was so excited when the word 'lady gaga' came up.

- presque, there's 'lady', but this is a bug, not gaga, okay, repeat after me. BUG.

i remember one time i was playing with the kids during break time.

someone asked me if i know who katy perry is and if we could do her songs in class.

then with my hateful cm2, they REQUESTED to do lady gaga and eminem songs in class.

i dunno if we're really going to do any songs not scripted in the textbook.

or maybe we shall do lily allen instead?

i can speak whale II.

- "how are you?"

- "i'm happy."

what?

- "do you say 'i'm happy' when you're asked this question in french?"

- "non."

- "voila, we don't use that particular expression in english either, well, most of the time, no."

i have got a couple of kids who are happy.

and 2 kids who are so-so.

3 kids who are "how are you".

to sum the greetings lesson up, i told my kids:

the ONLY answer to "how are you" is "i'm fine, thank you." nothing else.

well, maybe "and you" at the end to keep the conversation going.

if not we could easily be talking about the weather for at least 5 more minutes.

i'm thinking whether i shall introduce "how do you do" to them.

it might get really confusing for them and they'll answer me "i'm fine, thanks".

utter n'importe-quoi-ness.

i speak whale.

we're slowly moving onto doing alphabets.

the little ones barely know their alphabets in french by heart, now i'm throwing the english version on them.

rather ruthless.

whenever i asked them to recite their alphabets, they'll start by giving me "AH".

- non! AH, c'est en francais!

- HEY?

- non, EY. repetez apres moi. (repeat after me)

- EY.

- B, C, D, EUH.

- non, eee, comme "i" en francais. (like "i" in french)

- iiiiiii.

- f, GAR.

- non, comme "dji".

- d'accord, dji.

- HASH?

- non.

- HAAR?

- non.

- EYSH?

- non, ey-tch.

- oh~ ey-tch.

- eeee?

- non, c'est pas "e", c'est comme quelque chose qui nous fait mal. (it's like how we hurt ourselves by hitting something)

- oh! aaiii.

- voila. i.

- jiii?

- non, jey.

- KAR?

- kay.

- LAY?

- non, c'est pas lay, qui le connait? (who knows what's that?)

- LAR?

- non, c'est pareil comme en francais, ELLE. (it's the same as in french)

- argh~ elle.

- M N O P.

- tres bien.

- KOO?

- non, kyu.

- HEY.

- god, where did that come from? HEY? non, c'est ARRRRRR.

- S, T, U.

- tres bien.

- LAY.

- my friggin god, seriously, LAY again? non, VIIIII.

- WAH.

- double V. oh, no, c'est double U. ( i got myself confused, thanks.)

- KSAI.

- great greek knowledge, but no, eks, hun, eks.

- euh, chepas maitresse. (um, i don't know miss.)

- Y.

- Z.

- very good. now let's do it all over again, A~B~C.

we did the above 5 times.

then we sang the song.

i asked one girl to do it on her own.

she started by HAH.

and 5 other kids fell asleep during the alphabet song.

very rewarding class indeed.

tout ce qui me fait sourire

1. kids think that i'm super cool. they would run to greet me during break, and say hello to me. no matter what they were doing with other kids, whenever they spotted me, they just ran to me and 'hello' me.

2. when they say 'yes!' and get so excited, at the moment when the teacher announces that 'on va faire anglais un peu plus tard aujourd'hui'. it makes me feel that i actually am important.

3. during lunch break, i walked out the teachers' room heading to another building, a kid saw me and ran to me to say hello. i thought that was it, but no. she gave me a hug and then was on her toes, just to give me a bisous on the cheek...

awwww, i love my 7-y-o's.

4. while i was walking back home, the traffic got really busy in town. at the traffic light, there was someone waving to me in the car. it was one of my kids, i don't remember her name. but she gave me a big smile.

jardin du luxembourg II

animal instincts

in my morning class with "les grands" (they call them the big ones, but actually they're only 10 or 11 years old...), we did animals.

we quickly went through the list of 10 animals.

and we played a game.

i asked one kid to come up, told him the name of an animal, he had to imitate for the class and then they would guess what this animal was.

first up, the girl just moved her arms a tiny bit.

then everyone was yelling out their own versions of the answer.

- butterfly.

- no.

- fish?

- no, fish don't have wings.

- penguin?

- no, penguins don't fly.

- euh, on sais pas, maîtresse (we don't know, miss).

- c'est quelque chose qui vole. (it's something that flies - and i finally failed half of my mission of being an english teacher cos i just speak french with them most of the time.)

- je sais, je sais, un oiseau!

- yes, but in english, that is?

- the bird!

- yes, and you say a bird, not the bird.

we then guessed tiger, lion, elephant, fox, monkey.

they all went well.

the story gets better when we got to snake.

when i pointed at the picture of a snake, he just lay down on his chest immediately and started moving like a snake...

well done! the cleaner lady loves you, kid!

and this is not all, it gets even better when we did dog.

a girl volunteered to come up.

as i was wondering how she would do it, she was already on her knees, hands on the floor too.

and all of the sudden, she raised her right leg, and did what you'll only see dogs do to a lamp post.

it was such a hilarious moment, the class just went out of control.

then 2 kids volunteered to do a cat and a dog, before i knew it, they started chasing each other on knees and hands, under the desks across classroom.

the class went officially crazy after that, they started doing all sorts of weird things that you'll probably only see on national geographic channel or at the zoo...

i think that they're still going through the period of not realising themselves as humans but as little animals.

i like that.

gender confusion

this is the first time i had this class.

i only sat in and observed before, their teacher is away today, so i was there to fill in for her.

we did revision on what they've done previously.

while we were covering the boy/girl topic, it created much gender confusion.

you'd wonder how and why...

- i am a girl, are you a boy or a girl?

silence.

- okay, let's try again. this is tim, he is a boy. (pointing at a muppet... and asked the same question again, directing at alex)

- my name is alex, i am a boy.

- very good, now this is kate, is she a boy or a girl?

- (alex pointed at kate) she is a girl.

- very very good.

- (kate pointing at peter) she is a boy.

- no, she's not a boy. (all the kids laughed)

- (oups) she his a boy?

- no, she is not a boy. he eez a boy.

- he eez a boy.

- very good.

- (peter pointing at lily) she is a girl.

- (lily poiting at tom) she is a boy.

- no, she's not a boy.

- she his a girl?

- no, she eez not a girl, tom eez not a girl.

she stared at me really confused.

- okay, try again, slowly, repeat after me, HE EEZ a boy.

- E HIS a boy.

- no, HE EEZ a boy.

- HE HEEZ a boy.

- no, he is a boy.

- ee his a boy.

oh boy.

the story about noodles

the story begins like this:

- okay, kids, how do we greet each other in the afternoon, in english? (in french)

- bonjour?

- yes, you're right, but that's in french?

- hello?

- correct, but in another way? (in french)

- salut?

- that's french? (in french)

- i know i know i know! (in french) a kid was so enthusiastic.

- okay, you!

- euh, what's your name?!

- (faint) c'est a dire comment tu t'appelles, donc, non.

silence...

okay, it's good afternoon, repeat after me.

sounds good when they did it together.

then i checked on each one of them for their pronunciations.

- goood ar-tar-nouille.

- non, c'est good, arf-tar-noooon. c'est pas nouille, nouille, c'est pour manger, mais noon, c'est midi, d'accord?

other kids laughed and mocked him, nouille.

- good afternoon, tom.

- gooo-a-far-nouille, tom.

- no, i just said nouille means noodles, now, slowly, again, good af-tar-noooonnnnn. and you don't say tom to me, i'm not tom. (in french)

- gooo-a-noooouille. (slightly shocked and more confused)

- no, noooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. i did a really long nasalised N and pointed at my nose.

- nooon.

- okay, tres bien, again, good afternoon.

- good afternoon.

phew~

after having checked on all the kids, we did it once again altogether, good afternoon.

seemed they finally got it.

then i taught them something else and went back to ask how to say bonjour during the afternoon.

nobody could answer me, and it was like, what, 2 minutes ago!

- okay, it's good afternoon, repeat after me.

- gut afternouille.

good lord!

le genou, c'est pas un animal.

during my french class with my ce1's, they were doing story book reading.

it was about pat, the elephant and there was some other beast named max, if i remember correctly.

then there was this word, gnou, which, luckily during lunch break yesterday, i encountered in an encyclopedia of animals at my school library.

don't get me started about why i was reading an encyclopedia of animals (with illustrates, bien sur).

anyways, kids took turns to read for everyone in the class, it was the naughty boy who always gets himself in trouble who stopped reading at this very word.

gn... gn... genou.

"c'est gnou, sylver, le genou, c'est pas un animal¹."

catherine, the teacher kept a poker face while telling him off.

i know it's mean to laugh out loud, but it was such a hilarious comment she gave without even being funny.

i just couldn't help myself.

gosh, that totally made my day.

1. it's gnou, sylver, le genou (meaning: knee), that's not an animal. (click on words to hear the pronunciation)

ca va venir...(j'espere)

i've been in france for more than a month now.

but my french hasn't improved very much, big sigh.

while i have this feeling that my english is deteriorating at the same rate too.

nothing is going anywhere... alas.

i still talk quite slow like a retardo, simply cos i need to conjugate verbs in my head and i think too much about being grammatically correct.

though i now could understand people better.

one thing that's shocking to me is that, i've picked up their "oh-la-la"s and am constantly using it to express my surprises/astonishment etc.

and instead of yes, i'm constantly saying ouais to the english speaking people too.

plz, let the day of me speaking fluent french come sooner!

plzzzzzzzzzz.

the little things that put a smile on my face

1. when i walk along with my class up to the classroom through the crowd of other kids, they all smiled at me and said bonjour and waved, and eagerly asked if they'll do anglais today.

2. kids telling on other kids for not behaving well so that i will put a cross next to their names on the board.

the rule is: 3 crosses, they're punished, no more classes. stand in the hallway till the class finishes. they make such a big fuss about this, i usually do this to threaten them to shut up. but i always find it amusing when someone tells me, "maîtresse, il y a __, il a fait __. comme ca." (literally, teacher, xxx has done abc. and this abc can be anything, e.g. eating gluestick or just hitting his own forehead using his own pencil case, minutiae like that. then they acted it out. really funny to watch.)

3. kids asking, whether they should use a pencil or a pen to write their names down on the piece of paper that were given. i was distributing them blank paper to make name tags - leading to a class of self-introduction, naturally. only that it failed. they answer "what's your name?" with "what's your name?" but yeah, thanks for asking, i don't give a toss, use whatever you have to write your name, may it be a crayon or a highlighter. the result was fantastic, they made really pretty little pictures with flowers and the sun and all sorts of stuff around their names. then you really can't read their names anymore. it was just too busy.

4. on the way to their music class, a 6-y-o came up to me and told me that he's in love. "oh, that's nice." i told him. he told me the girl's in ce1 (one year above him, but in the class right next door). then during the music class, he sat next to her and talked so much with her. after class, i went to ask if that's the girl he was talking about, he went all shy about it. so cute.

5. a 5-yea- old fell asleep right in front of me during class.

spiral

taken while climbing up to reach the top of arc de triomphe.

oh how i love these narrow and cold staircases.

the readers

on an autumn afternoon @ jardin du luxembourg

it was the most romantic scene i've seen, ever.

kids don't lie.

on my first day at school, the first question i got from my Q&A time while being introduced to the class was, "how old are you?"

oh well...

then i was socialising with the kids during lunch break today.

my cute ce1 kid asked me, "how old are you?"

well, i'm __.

"t'es jeune!(you're young)" she said.

the most flattering thing i've heard since, hmm, forever and from a 7-y-o!

then i was sitting on the bench, a kid walked up to me, smiling, "t'es tres belle. (you look so pretty)"

"awww, merci, toi aussi."

i didn't know how to say how flattered i was, but could only compliment her back.

kids don't lie.

so there you heard it here first.

i'm young and pretty.

ha!

totally made my day.

thanks my little monsters!

"W"

it's funny how the letter W is so different in english and french.

it's double U in english, and double V in french.

then there's the subtle difference of pronunciation.

(dub-li-u, or dub-u)

then it's only natural that the kids would get confused.

you try pointing at W on the blackboard and then ask randomly what this is.

they'll tell you, double V immediately!

cute!

hey! stop stereotyping!

some french people speak english with the plummiest accent.

for those who do not, that's exactly what we're here for.

hello! if they all speak with a perfect RP accent, we'll be out of jobs?

though it's still cute hearing them muting the "H" in inappropriate places.

they try hard though.

i liked how my maîtresse came to tell me it's time to "heat"...which isn't entirely wrong come to think about it.

we do bring our own lunch to work and then microwave it before eating.

i liked how amy becomes "hammy".

i liked how kids raised their "ands" up in classes.

and my favourite part has to be the "allo" song.

it went on and on and on and sounded like "allo, allo, allo, owl are you?"

which reminds me of this.

pic credit: tvshowsondvd.net

anyways, we received 3 groups of non-french speaking visitors at our school today.

they were here on an exchange programme for some serious pedagogical business.

being the only one (out of 6) who doesn't have anything better to do, i was appointed to help out.

the first group arrived when i was busy working with raising "ands" and ben is between scott "hand" "the" marion...

so i was only able to help out the other two.

the bell rang, and the english lady asked questions.

and then after a couple of questions answered, she walked up to me, "you speak very good english."

"but i work here as an english teacher."

it was such a hilarious moment, but also very flattering.

she thinks i can pass as a french after hearing me explain what is what to the inspector (who clearly is french, hence speaks franglais).

i don't want to be stereotyping, but i do like their accent.

at least they sound so cute when they sing the allo song.

okay, maybe a tiny bit discouraging after a whole week of repetition and correction of "hello, how are you".

life's short

drink more.

but not those cheap alcohols plz.

let's drink properly.

do some decent wine next time.

x.

les grèves nationales

well, this is yet to get better here.

before my inbound trip to france, workers at la sncf went on strike for a few days.

luckily, when i got here, everything returned to normal.

(touch wood)

now, it's been barely a month, everybody's striking again as the bill is going to be put forward (and highly like to be put through) at the legislature at the beginning of november.

usually i'm often with the strikers, whatever they're asking for, they should get it.

but this time, it's getting on my nerves as i'm planning for a trip to paris the following week.

not knowing how to get there by car (or in fact, it's just me not wanting to rent a car and drive in/on the famous 'parisian traffic' and/or french highways), i had to use public transportation - the friendly and effecient tgv and regional train services.

unfortunately, they are the boldest strikers amongst all.

at one of my schools, a teacher was filling in a form to inform the authority that she's going on strike this past tuesday last friday (that's a 48 hour notice?).

and i thought it was just a one-day thing.

hell NO.

it's been on for a week now and is still going strong...

fingers crossed that it'll come to an end before my departure.

from what i've learned, read and heard, the french simply do NOT do reforms.

i dunno anything about management skills or politics, but why can the french just be left alone and just do what they're good at (okay, maybe not strikes this time)?

i don't know how people who don't own a car or a bike or friends who want to do car-pooling and live far away from work get to work on days like this.

from the experience i had, it was just a pain in the A.

i had to take a cab to work and obviously it wasn't covered in the end.

i couldn't call in sick either cos i was up to my neck in work, too.

so i just had to drag myself to work on time by all means.

it's amazing how the government is still standing strong by its stance leaving its citizens in chaos like this.

but i guess they all grew up with this kind of sh*t.

so to them, it's just one of those days.

maybe you just go out, have a ciggie break, and take it easy.

i'm yet to master this just-calm-down-on-days-without-any-kind-of-transport-to-work skill.

though i am sure that this is a very fine example of the french culture and am proud that i'm having some authentic experience living like a french person.

random shots

taken while i was waiting for my bus.

the black dot isn't just the dirty spot on my lens (which you would've seen in many other pictures).

it's a fighter jet.

they flew by too quickly to be captured.

and you already know how sh*tty my photos are anyway.

just to clarify this time though.

here's another picture of another plane... you can see a dirty spot clearly in this picture.

another picture.

earworm

you have to listen to how a real french person sings it.
it's super cool.
hello sounds something like, HELL-LOW.

after a brief 1 minute of singing, this is the tune that stuck in my head for the rest of my day.

thanks mme _____.

pinwheel

made of fallen leaves & a twig.

perfect craftsmanship, hand made by one of my kids.

(in fact, i might just need to teach EVERYONE, at both schools, so 300+ in total.)

poker face

i was told not to smile at the kids during the first 3 classes to make the impression of being a strict teacher.

well, i didn't smile.

i was constantly bursting into laughters while i was observing.

gosh, these kids do the most random thing on the planet in classes!

so, there's a box of tissue paper sitting on the cabinet right in the front of the classroom.

there were always kids walking around, getting tissues for god knows what reasons.

maybe they just felt the urge of getting up and stretching, very OSH-conscious, bravo!

in one of the french classes, the teacher made them to organise their worksheets.

they were supposed to put their sheets in those transparent plastic pockets and just clip them together in a ring binder.

you think it's easy?

well, not for these 6 year olds!

it took them 45 minutes to get organised and the results weren't pretty.

they simply did NOT get it.

while the teacher was busy helping out, this one girl got really bored and started eating her glue stick.

a guy was ignored 3 times by the teacher and then after a couple of minutes, he just started crying.

in the other class that i sat in, while the teacher was teaching science and explaining about the experiment that they just did.

one little guy was totally spacing out picking his nose.

and the best part was - he was really enjoying it.

i haven't been with little kids since forever, so i don't know what else could happen.

all these seemed so hilarious and entertaining in a weird way.

but it gets better.

so i was observing in one of their music classes this afternoon.

they were all sitting on the floor with no shoes on.

while other kids were busy listening to the teacher.

this girl was doing something really really really random.

she was LICKING HER FOOT!

it wasn't amusing to see, but she was so serious about cleaning her foot up.

it's like someone who's washing his fancy new car, those type of attitude.

she actually licked and then examined the results and licked again.

and then rubbed her foot again with saliva.

i think she might have a cat as a pet at home, but rubbing your foot doesn't seem like what a cat will do...

so it's now quite mysterious.

i've been left with kids alone for 3 classes today already.

if i had to teach at elementary school for the rest of my life.

i'm going back to be a researcher immediately.

yes, they're so cute.

but no, sorry i can't handle little people who never shut up.

postcard

time for some serious studying guys.

here's a card to help you memorise the alphabets.

postcard

i was shocked @ the relay shop @ CDG, by the choices of postcards.

they were of pure class.

this one, i got from a local librairie papeterie.

quintessential frenchness, n'est-ce pas?

being well-organised

i'm not the most well-organised person on the planet, obviously.

i haven't met all the people on this planet, so i can't claim the above.

but the french are famous for being so "well-organised", as you've already heard so far through different channels.

lemme just elaborate on this in the following.

first of all, the whole application thing.

it was so well-organised that i was only contacted twice (okay, maybe 3 times) during the entire process.

the original cultural attache finished his appointment in sheepland half way through our application process.

the new one came in and got in touch with us just 2 weeks before i got my actual visa.

well, that wasn't particularly helpful of her, was it?

on the other hand, the french french side of things are just "pretty-looking".

on my assignment contract, there's no final destination.

meaning, i was only given a visa to come to work in france, but god knows where.

might as well be high up in the mountains doing random sh*t like counting sheep.

well, according to someone who's done this programme before, this is VERY normal.

all i wanted was a visa anyway, so i guess i can accept that.

then it just got prettier.

i was meant to start my assignment on 1 oct, so i figured that i shall arrive here a week earlier to get myself organised before my assignment starts.

but i had to know where i was going to begin with, hadn't i?

so at the end of august, i sent an email to the contact person.

no reply after 2 weeks.

well, it was the first 2 weeks into the new school year, i guess it is normal?

then the third week, still no response, even my dad was kinda worried for me.

i re-email the contact person by copy-pasting the exact same thing.

couple of days later, she told me where to go, but still no more specific information.

it was like they're sending me to do some highly confidential assignment or something.

cos why else you wanna be so mysterious?

isn't that just a fine example of how well-organised the french are?

anyways, i told her that i was gonna arrive in france and would text her to know what time i shall be arriving so that i would get collected from the train station.

guess what?

to keep the consistency of being well-organised, after i texted her on my day of arrival on the tgv, i got a reply saying, "sorry i don't have anyone to get you from the airport, take a cab."

if you think this sucks, then keep reading.

we were meant to be having an induction today in a different city.

so we took a bus early in the morning to go there, and we were told beforehand that we would be collected by a bus which would get us to the induction place.

guess what?

well, you're right.

the bus never came.

turned out the bus wasn't gonna come.

we had to catch another bus then walk all the way to that school from the train station.

so well-organised you guys!

i'm feeling like i'm experiencing the authentic french life.

and after all this, i'd like to say that even sheepland has a very efficient bureaucratic system.

well, at least they won't stand us up by not sending a friggin bus.

fyi

feiyue is so popular in france.

all the cool kids are wearing them.

now i regret not bringing mine.

@.@

listening comprehension

you always complain about how fast people talk when you're doing listening comprehension under an exam condition.

well, in real life, it gets even worse.

i just had a stressful man-to-machine fight on the phone, it's for setting up my voicemail.

i got a text message saying that i shall call this number cos i had a new voice message.

then only god knows what i got myself into...

bonjour, __________________, tapez 1 pour_______, tapez 2 pour_________.

that's exactly what the message sounded like.

okay, 1.

___________, _____.

oh! what the heck?

silence.

___________, _____.

okay, calm down, think about how it should sound like in english.

she'll just ask you to do something and press #.

so i pressed #.

si vous etes satisfie, tapez 1. si vous voulez _____, tapez 2, _________________.

bingo! i knew it was asking me to press #!

then i went back and recorded my greetings to ask people leave me a message so that i could call back.

now come to think about it, i might have just talked too fast while leaving that message.

meaning: i might've just given people the wrong idea of being super fluent in french.

mince!

oh, we shall see.

what's the worst? i shall just keep asking the machine to repeat until i got the phone number.

anyway, after finishing that, it went on to tell me that i have this secret code that i need to note down.

wtf? seriously, a secret code for what?

it was just like those 8000 phone numbers you'd heard on the cd while doing listening comprehension exercises before.

and you know the speed they tell you those super annoying numbers.

i didn't even catch the first 2 digits.

so i had to repeat the message, this time i got them, and correctly (youpi~).

how do i know it's correct?

well, after i hung up, i got a text which had my secret code written in it.

it then went on by telling me some other information i might not even need to know...

so after a stressful 5 minutes, i just hung up on it.

it was very stressful, and it's only just the beginning.

bring it on, i say.

bring it on!

le chat noir

this is the first time i've seen a cat so far.

s/he just was walking along the street in the middle of the day.

like s/he has the whole street to herself/himself.

super cool.

patisserie

does it get better than that?

i think not.

cuteness @ the city hall

worry not, i'm not insane.

well, not yet, not before i encounter the OFII and/or the CAF people.

that's some serious bureaucracy there.

if i haven't gone through those processes, i can't say that i've been living in france.

honestly, why are you laughing?

anyway, on our way to town today, we saw something on the noticeboard outside the town hall.

there was this one piece of paper hanging up there.

just being the usual nosy me, i walked up close, it read:

mr xxx, shop keeper, born xxx, in xxx,

and

miss yyy, hairdresser, born yyy, in xxx,

are getting married on ___.

this is to notify that they are tying the knot.

and will be living xxx after they get married.

according to the authority, this public notice will be up there for 10 days and one is not supposed to celebrate till the 11th day!

i don't really know the protocol (why should i anyway), but i thought this is really cute.

french supermarkets

being chinese has certain advantages - one of them being, you'll totally keep a straight face when you see what some people call "odd" at supermarkets.

my american colleagues have arrived in town.

to get myself some fresh air, i went to the supermarket with them.

to be precise, this is what they call an "intermarché ", i guess it's smaller than an hypermarché?

coming from sheepland, this intermarché is actually quite a decent size compared to the ones in our neighbourhood.

if you're (un)lucky enough to have seen the size of the new world on willis st in wellington, you'd think that this intermarché is what should be referred to as an hypermarché.

well, things are different on the other side of the world in america.

they aren't impressed by the lack of choices, for sure.

plus it's only 1/7th big as a wal-mart.

then they saw pig ears, trotters, things that they'll never see at supermarkets back home.

next, in the fridge, a WHOLE fridge filled with duck hearts!

they kinda freaked out a bit.

i didn't want to scare them, so instead of picking up a pack and put it in the trolley, i just stared and walked away.

i can't decide if it's me or people from the english-speaking world just don't eat certain things.

i still remember how in french classes, we'll always be talking about eating escargots and frogs.

and they'll just frown and say, "no i don't like escargots, they taste like rubber."

this actually brings me to another question, have ALL of them who claim this actually eaten their erasers in primary school during classes?

the good thing is that there're no frogs in sheepland, so most people who don't like the idea of eating frogs can't give nasty comments about the taste of these heavenly frogs.

little do they know that our french prof, catherine's favourite food is tête de veau.

you know what's funny.

you know how when you first picked up a foreign language, so much time was spent on "now let's pretend that you are in that country and you want to get a train ticket"?

and then you rolled eyes and thought to yourself, "like, i'm ever gonna use them... "

well, that day DID come.

it felt really funny and almost surreal (due to sleep deprivation) when i was queuing to get my tgv ticket down south.

i automatically switched to "dialogue/role-playing" mode, and searched for all the keywords.

okay, first, be polite, use "vous".

then, okay, one way ticket, which class, window or aisle seat, non-smoking...

well, at least i didn't have to use the "non-fumeur" cos it seems like all of them are non-smoking these days.

it's also funny how in real life, there are almost always extra questions that will come up.

"en bas ou en haut?" she stared me poker-faced.

what the heck does that mean?

since i've had some great experience with doing DELF oral exams, i answered the question with another question.

"ben, quelle est la difference?"

then i kind of picked up that it was some kind of double-deck thingy.

and she obviously gave more information by telling me that it's much calmer on the lower deck.

she then went on telling me the departure time of my train.

and told me 3 times that it would depart from platform 4.

"quatre" she raised her hand, making a "4".

yeah, madame, get it, quatre.

i guess in real life, there's no platform 9 & 3/4.

library for the young

i wanna gooooo & sit by the window.

riz au lait

here is something that i've never seen in supermarkets in sheepland.

pic credit: proxi-business

settling in

after a big day of travelling which consists much of heavy duty lifting, i passed out around 9pm (GMT+1).
(i really want to ask why they have to make the steps on their trains so up high? WHY?)
my luggage was simple (2 pieces only) yet quite heavy.

since i wanted to live in a relatively small town in order to experience the "authentic french life", i was expecting all the inconvenience of living in a small town.
but hey, i was fine living in a place like wellington, i should be fine living anywhere on the planet.

day 1 & 2. arrival & settling in

flying into CDG was all sweet and smooth.
then it all started to get really confusing after landing.
first, getting over the fact that there are well over 5 different ticket-selling counters, but 8 am seems to be a bit too early for them to start working.
even the long queueueue was already starting by the escalators then through the glass doors with several turns to the counters, nobody was doing anything about it.
10 mins later, the 1 of the 3 people left, leaving only 2 working to serve.
it's not too bad, after probably 30 mins i got my ticket and the lady kindly reminded me 3 times that i should go to platform 4.
i wouldn't complain, after all, i was lucky enough to see them not on strike.

i was led into my dorm room by a person who never slowed down speaking french even though i've asked twice, nicely, in french.
it's a half-furnished studio with a tiny kitchenette and an ensuite bathroom.
nothing else.
i guess this is good cos i won't be exposed to the radiation emitted by the microwave?

so i had to start from square one, you know, the very basic stuff, like getting a jug kettle, frying pan, sauce pan, cutleries etc.
lucky that i was determined to bring my own duvet sets...
all this just reminds me of getting started in sheepland while i was a teenager.
the only difference is that now everything seems to be a bit odd cos labels aren't written in english.
and milk aren't to be found in fridges along with yoghurt and cheeses.
the french are so french, even little things like black pepper, come in at least 5 different types.
then i stood in front of the oh-so-many-kinds of pastas and got shocked and ran away empty-handed.
btw, their courgettes are so HUGE, i think in sheepland, only turnips come in this size.
and you know sheepland is famous for having giant size veges.
then tomatoes, they come in at least 5 different types as well.
i was overwhelmed by the variety and don't forget i'm living in a small town.

other than that, i've been fine.
as i've already said, i can survive living in wellington, i'd be fine anywhere else.

everything's gonna be closed tomorrow and my 24-hour wifi (wee-fee) trial finishes tonight.
i will come up with more stuff next week.

until then, bon week-end tout le monde!

early morning TGV station, voie 4, CDG.

bonjour!

i made it.
it's not like i hate flying but i do a bit.
anyways, riding on the TGV was kinda fun.
and one thing for sure: french people really DO NOT WANT or BOTHER to speak english.
"excuse me do you speak english?" an old lady asked.
"no." the lady at the bookshop shook her head.
well, even though i speak so slow like a retardo, i'm giving it a go.
i guess it doesn't really matter how grammatically correct you are.
it's the effort of trying to speak their language that counts.
fingers crossed that i'll survive all this.

if you don't hear from me again.
that's probably because i'm queuing at the banque trying to pay for my rent and internet.
or i'm just trying to drag all the necessities (like kettles, mugs, dishwashing liquid, you name it) from the supermarket in one gigantic bag back home on foot.
it's only a 20-min walk, but when you're carrying stuff like milk, water, fruits and other stuff, it's a completely different story.

behave yourselves and don't blow anything up.
x

how it started

it was all because of my kind ex-employer who made me lose my passion completely (if there was any to start with) for economics.

then i decided to quit my frigging job as a researcher and do something that i loved but couldn't do while at university.

well, that's what you get if you get your tuition fees from your parents but not the state - you just do whatever they wanted you to do.

thank god i'm not a smart kid, they didn't make me go to med school.

after i quit, i went back to doing french.

having already earned 3 degrees at different levels doesn't stop me from going back to square one, picking up from where i left it - as a 2nd year student of a bachelor degree and this time, in french.

and it was then, i decided that i want to actually live in france and speak french.

going right on an exchange programme wasn't an option.

i don't have enough credits or number of courses completed to qualify, the usual bureaucratic sh*t.

so i discovered another way, to be a language assistant in france.