Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Same teacher different cultures?

Last Friday four of us got together for coffee and a chat at 9.30 so it was kind of a breakfast chat. I bought in some goodies and made some biscuits, but I ate most of them even though I later gave some away....oops

An enjoyable two hours, and we shall be meeting again a la Vera Lynn.

Just before the two French ladies left they spilled the beans and told me that the French lady who teaches them English (who is the same teacher who teaches us French) ran the class in a very rigid fixed way. I was surprised, since whilst our class isn't riotous it goes off at tangents, questions are asked often and we laugh a fair bit. Actually we laugh at one of the men who goes there because he is a bit of a case. No said the two French ladies we have so many minutes reading, dictation, and writing it is always the same.

I wonder if it is a cultural thing or are they more serious and grown up than we are?

So talking of breakfast this leads me to the picture I took last year, a lovely horse who lives up the hill outside our village.

Breakfast



The French word for enjoyable is agréable.

The French word for chat is bavarder.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder - is the teacher French or English? The different styles is probably cultural.. the French ladies ought to let the teacher know they want a bit more FUN!!

Love the horse!

Anonymous said...

Ah - when you said the French teacher who teaches them English... That's probably a give away about her nationality... ???

Carol said...

I agree with LadyFi...they should tell her that they want a slightly more relaxed way of learning!!

The photo is fab as usual :-)

C x

French Fancy... said...

I think the French way of teaching is far more disciplined and structured than the English way. I've spoken to a few our of neighbours' children about the way they are taught and there is a much stricter mindset here. I think it is a good thing myself - look at the educational standards dropping all the time in the UK.

If I had kids I would far rather they had gone to a French school than a UK one.

Blu said...

Yes our teacher is French, which is great because she teaches us peoems that French people read when they were young. She brings in music for us to listen to sometimes we even sing. So the other class seems so very different to me.

bindu said...

That's odd. Is she French too, and not that confident of her English that she needs to stay on a narrow path? The horse is lovely.

Blu said...

She is French and her English is very very good. The other class is much more disciplined, we are more liberated!

DAB said...

It's all down to humour methinks :) TFx

Blu said...

Some people think that the French sense of humour is childish, and on tv it can be.

~vagabond~ said...

Maybe you all are just a much more fun bunch to teach than the other class. Sometimes the students make all the difference to the teacher.

Lovely photo of the horse...I like how he's looking right at the camera. :)

French Fancy... said...

have you seen that funny short they seem to show all the time - Une fille et un gar? It really is very funny.

I've seen a few French films that have made me laugh. Le Placard is very funny but that film that is the biggest seller of all time in France ' Bienvenue Les Chtis (or something like that) didn't make me laugh at all. Having said that Mr FF and his ma both thought it was very funny. It must just be me then.

claire p said...

Love the picture of the horse. I think the French do tend to be more disaplined. We had a french woman who worked in the office where I used to work, we were all scared of her. But out of hours she was great fun.