Taken from a book I bought from Emmaus and gave to Richard one birthday, I think you will find this food for thought.

The book,  ”La classe en Anglais”, from The Green Series by E. Gourio, was written in 1918. It is a french text book for teaching english (written in english), split into different lessons.

This is lesson 57:-

Duties of Children

Treat your parents with respect.There are children who speak to their parents with rudeness, and grow sullen when their parents find fault with them. Beware of such disrespect. You are young, and you should therefore take the lowest place. You have much to learn, and you should therefore hear instead of seeking to be heard.

Be grateful to your parents. When you were sick, how tenderly did they hang over you! When you were in want of anything, how cheerfully did they toil to supply your need! Surely, there cannot be a greater monster than an unthankful child.

Obey your parents. Do not receive their commands with a sour, angry look, which says louder than words that you obey only because you must; but whatever they bid you do, do it cheerfully. Do not wait for them to repeat a command: obey at once. Even when only a look tells you what they want, fly to perform it.

Place confidence in your parents. You should have no secrets which you are unwilling to tell them. If you have done wrong, you should openly confess it, and ask their forgiveness. If you wish to undertake anything, ask their consent. A dissembling child cannot thrive, and is often very miserable.

Children! These are your duties. Love, obey your parents; trust in them. Be to them a comfort and an honour. So live, that they may ever look upon you with delight. So live, that the thought of your virtues may smooth their last hours.

I love this passage and have been known to read it to visiting children! Unfortunately they all know me far to well to take it too seriously.

Why don’t you try to read it to children you know. Let us know how you get on

The morning started much the same as any other. Rosie was sleeping off the school week, Molly was in her room tidying (!) and Joe was heading out to his guitar group. At that moment the phone rang. Richard answered and, after a quick and confused chat, the phone was handed to me with a quick “Someone for you, it’s about singing and she speaks a little english.”

Here is a quick translation of the very fast, completely french, conversation:-

Lady: “Hello, I hear you like singing, your friend said so. Would you like to join a choir? We meet every Monday night.”

Me: “Um, yes, um perhaps….um, which friend?”

There then followed a conversation full of names I have never heard of and I still didn’t know the name of the lady I was speaking to.

“Well,” said very nice french lady, “we are in concert tomorrow afternoon if you would like to see us”.

Me: “Sorry. Busy tomorrow but I am interested. What type of music? Where do you meet?”

Lady: “We sing classical. I will pick you up 8 on Monday night. I know where you live. What colour are your shutters? See you then. Bye!”

Then followed a stunned silence as I tried to take in what had happened. It appeared a “friend” had given the lady my number and I was going to a choir somewhere in Fontenay with someone I didn’t know.

After talking to my Mum, who came up with kidnap theories and declared “You can’t go, you don’t know her!”, followed by laughter, I decided to ring Lynn (my former friend!)

“Hi Lynn! You are not going to believe what just happened to me…!”

What followed can only be described as laughter of the highest degree, followed by shouts from Lynn to Alan, her husband, and then much laughing from him too.

It turned out this lady had rung Lynn first and suggested  she join the choir. Lynn told her she didn’t sing but had a friend who does and had given her my number. Lynn also had no idea who this lady was, or where she had got Lynn’s number from. It since turns out that another friend, Dee, had mentioned she likes singing to this lady’s husband, but hadn’t given her name. So this lady went to the Marie (mayor) to get the phone numbers of the english people in the village.

Of course, I am no stranger to singing in a choir and had been hoping to join one here at some point anyway.  When we lived back in Grimsby, I belonged to the Grimsby Philharmonic Choir under the direction of Sue Hollingworth. Sue is an inspiration to anyone who loves singing and for four years I was proud to sing in this great choir. The choir was made more special as I went with Val, Richard’s Mum, and my very good friend Annie. Along with other friends, Mondays were lovely nights spent singing great music with great people.

So, despite the unconventional introduction, I was actually looking forward to going to this new choir.

Monday at 8 saw Lynn and I (I wasn’t going to let her get away with dropping me in it!) awaiting the arrival of mystery woman.

What has followed since has been three very enjoyable Monday evenings singing with a great choir, Cantabile Opus 85 [pdf]. Lynn, sadly, has now stopped for the time being, due to various trips to UK while awaiting the arrival of her first grandchild. I hope she will come back as she is a great alto.

Fabrice Maurin, Conductor - Cantabile Opus 85

I have to say, this choir is great. The musical director Fabrice Maurin is really good. He knows how to have fun to get our voices all warmed up, but equally he is very particular about us singing correctly, precisely and with feeling. I am the only english person there, but I have been made to feel very welcome and anyone who has any english is very happy to share it with me.

As far as the singing goes, reading music is the same (though be aware, music-readers, in the UK I learnt A B C, over here it’s Do Re Mi) and apart from having to sing in french, it is all going well. The choir have sung in German and English in the past and of course Latin is a universal language for classical pieces, so there is hope.

So far, we have learnt two short pieces by Offenbach and a lovely Waltz by Faust. I have been told concerts are held in November but there is a chance of one in July.

So, from that Saturday when confusion reigned supreme, I have ended up being part of a very friendly and well-directed choir.

Happy Mondays are back on the song sheet!!

Of course family and friends are greatly missed, but I miss my job more than I thought I would. Having trained as a Nursery Nurse after leaving school, I spent the last four years in England working at our local Primary school as a Teaching Assistant. The last three of which were spent in the Foundation stage (ages 3-5).
This is a job I loved.

While there I toyed with the idea of fulfilling my ambition to become a teacher. The forms were sent for and terms agreed with the Head teacher. Just at the point of sending them back, Richard was offered his present job and with it our chance to move to France. My teaching plans were put on the back burner again. Instead I took my HLTA ( Higher Level Teaching Assistant) qualification which only took three months as opposed to three years of teacher training.

A year ago, having lived in France for about six months, I had been chatting with Nathalie, Joe’s teacher at that time, when she asked me to go in and read a story to her class in English. This has since developed into weekly visits and the planning of lessons and sourcing resources. Another chat with a parent of one of Molly’s friends has lead to another regular visit into a school to help with English.

After a year of this, I felt it was time to take it further, perhaps make it more official. The school in Foussais-Payré approached me about three months ago to see if I would like to sit for “l’Habilitation en Langue Vivante”, an official qualification that recognises the candidate’s ability to teach a foreign language in primary schools. This comprises of an interview and a class observation. It is hoped that anyone who wishes to teach English in any primary school in France will have passed this.

In March I went along with Nathalie to the meeting where we would find out what exactly would be involved. Nathalie isn’t ready to take the habilitation yet, but came along anyway. Moral support was definitely needed by me!

Expecting to find a room full of English and a few French I was shocked to find just one other person – a French teacher who, like Nathalie, wasn’t ready to take it, but just wanted to see what standard of English she would need to reach. So that left me!

On 20th May I went for my interview with much trepidation. The English side of the interview, of course, held few concerns. I had to be able to understand a short conversation after listening to it twice, and to be able to give a précis of the information given. The second part was to read a short story, with understanding and good accent! No problems. The third part was to know about the country and some of its history and cultures. All good so far.

Then came the fourth, and for me, the most worrying part. I had to be able to talk about the teaching of English and the curriculum, in French! I know my French has improved but I am still at the point where, if someone talks to me too fast or with a different accent, I tend to freeze and my eyes glaze over. I had a real fear that I would fail this part. I had been told it was important to have a good understanding of French or I could not pass.

Half an hour later it was all over, nerves still intact. Luckily Franck Graveleau and Françoise Aujard had been kind and allowed some chat in English amongst the French. I could not believe I had actually been to an interview in French!

A week later I received the excellent news I had passed this part and gained my Habilitation Provisoire. The next part will be my class observation which will take place during the next school year.

I’ll keep you posted!!

Lisa

So Molly and Jeanne spent the day slaving in the kitchen (with a bit of playing thrown in as well I imagine ) and the rest of us turned up in the evening. It was a wonderful evening – the girls had prepared a starter of goats cheese on toasted baguette, followed by baked fish with rice, all topped off with some delicious apple tarts.

Jeanne’s dad makes his own wine from the grapes at one of the Vendee vinyards, so the vins de la maison were flowing freely all night. Lisa kindly offered to drive home as it would have been way too rude for me to refuse the top-ups to my glass

All-in-all the meal was beautiful and the company thoroughly enjoyable. Jeanne’s family speak no english at all, so this was a night of us speaking 100% french all night. Quite a big challenge for us, but we rose to the occasion and the conversation never dried up.

I think we are all starting to realise just how far we have come over the last year in terms of the language. This time last year we could never have even considered having a dinner party with only french being spoken but now we are quite happy in that situation, and the kids even more so. They are all doing so well now that I think they have well and truly overtaken Lisa and I in their ability to communicate.

This is great news to us, as giving the kids a second language was one of the big reasons for coming here and we can already see how glad they are to have it. Now, if only they could start giving us lessons so we can keep up with them, that would be even better!

Lost languages

Today the BBC are featuring a story [here] which reveals that half of all UK adults have forgotten the languages they learned at school. Luckily for me this wasn’t the case as my schoolboy French had to get me through many tricky situations when we first arrived!

What is hopeful for our kids is the following:

more than two thirds (69%) said they were jealous of people who were able to speak another language fluently.

Of those who can speak another language, 61% said it had been of benefit to their career, with a third (34%) saying their language skills have given them opportunities to travel and work abroad.

This bodes well for the future of our 3, who will leave school being fluent in at least 2 languages, possibly even 3.

Happy Birthday Craig

Craig McGinty runs the superb ThisFrenchLife web site [here], which is on my daily read list. It’s a great read, always full of interesting articles and news about all things French.

Well today is Craig’s birthday (age not revealed!) so what better time to head on over to www.thisfrenchlife.com and wish Craig a joyeaux anniversaire!

Front-page news toady includes Nicolas Sarkozy and his extra leg (!), news about banned Chinese milk products in France and a pointer to some free travel guides.

A busy weekend coming up

I will fill you in on the details next week, but this wil be another busy weekend!

On Saturday we are heading next-door to the apple-pressing barn where we will hopefully see the whole process from picking to pressing to bottling. With a bit of luck we will walk away with a nice collection of freshly-squeezed apple juice, which should keep us going for a while.

Then on Sunday we will be testing our French again as we meet up with some families who have links with Lisa’s nephew through school exchanges. So a trip to Montaigu near Nantes, then over to the beach to La Tranche-sur-Mer.

On the road again

(Photo under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic by krejcirkmira)

Due to some changes at work, I’ll be hitting the road to England quite a bit this month. This is a real pain and not something I really wanted to happen, but the situation is rather unavoidable at the moment.

Hopefully it will only be a very temporary measure and I can return to my rural hideaway very soon

In the meantime, if you’re anywhere near La Rochelle, Stansted or Maidenhead, feel free to get in touch and we can have a coffee.

And finally…

Next Friday I will be the ripe old age of 37. I’m looking forward to a majorly-fun-time-friday, and an especially fun weekend with great friends.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with us. Keep a look out for updates. Or why not subscribe to my email newsletter [by clicking here]? Every time I add something new to La Vie en Foussais  you will receive it in your inbox -  what could be easier?

On Saturday we entertained Nathalie (Joe’s teacher and the one who Lisa goes in to help with the English lessons) and her family. What a lovely family they are, and we had a really good time. We were a little concerned at our first major “night in” where we would only speak french, but I think we managed it pretty well. The dictionary was out, but we only referred to it on a couple of occasions and made ourselves understood for the rest of the night. Lisa made us all a beautiful meal and we finished the evening playing guitars and singing – something we haven’t done for ages, and we never thought we’d get chance to do again.

The kids meanwhile were off entertaining themselves with playstations and DVDs, breaking down the language barriers in the way that only kids can do. We had a wonderful night and hope to have many more. We are so lucky to count them as our friends after such a short time in the country, and especially sharing a love of music – something that has been sadly missing from our lives since we moved here.

So then we barely had had time to wash up from one evening’s entertainment (oh, to have a dishwasher) and we were preparing for our next guests on Sunday. This time it was an ex-work-colleague of Lisa’s. Helen and her family come to France every year and this year they were coming to Les Sables d’Olonne. As this is only just over an hour from us, it was great that they could come over and see us.

Once again, we had a lovely day. They have two lovely daughters who got on really well with our three – amazing as this was the first time they had met. By the end of the day they were trading MSN addresses and promising to keep in touch. I had finally got some legs for the old door that we salvaged in order to construct a big rustic table, so we set this up on the field, under the gazebo, and ate another lovely meal our there. We ended up all playing cards and taught each other new games to play – great fun.  Sadly the €3 trestle legs the table was resting on started collapsing as the games got more vigorous, so it’s back to the drawing board on that one, but luckily we had another more substantial table to work with.

It was another fantastic day, just the kind of weekend we love, surrounded by great friends. Its funny how you really get to know people so much better when you see them out of their normal environment. We have noticed this with the friends and family that have visited us here previously, but it was especially evident yesterday. Helen had worked in the same school as Lisa, but they had never really socialised before. And the rest of us barely knew the rest of the family. But by the end of the day we felt like we were old friends and hoping to meet up again soon.

And of course, we ourselves have been entertained by our two new additions. Charlie and Lola have settled in well to their new home and are really starting to feel like part of the family. Charlie is clearly the biggest trouble-maker, finding the best places to explore and hide, then calling Lola over to join in. As I write this, they have managed to find the shelf under my desk and are both asleep there cuddled up together. I have the feeling that I may have this kind of company whenever I work from now on, which is really rather nice.

Now, it’s important for us to be able to understand what they are saying to us, and to one another. Partly so we can have meaningful conversations, but mainly so that we know when they are saying undesireable things!

Fellow blogger Jennie has recently compiled a great post on this subject [Learning French Slang by Jennie en France], linking to a whole array of French slang resources. I shall be studying these with great interest – I may even be able to teach the kids a word or two!

Les bandes engazonnées sont coupées

La place du village est en cours de jet-lavés

Dans la rue il ya des bannières de publicité pour notre marché

L’allée “Anglais” au supermarché se développe de plus en plus chaque semaine.

Il peut seulement signifier une chose – les touristes sont à venir!

Cette semaine toutefois, ma présence a été demandé à Bristol. Qui ne serait pas si mal, si le voyage a coïncidé avec la Bristol à La Rochelle vols, mais il ne l’est pas. Je dois retourner demain, lorsqu’il n’ya pas de vols à La Rochelle. Donc, mon voyage pour 2 jours aller quelque chose comme ça …

Conduire à Nantes, prendre le train pour Paris, prendre le métro à Charles de Gaule, prendre l’avion pour Londres Heathrow, prendre le train pour Londres Paddington, prendre le train à Maidenhead, prendre un taxi à mon hôtel. C’est la fin du jeudi, à environ 11pm, j’en suis sûr.

Ensuite, le vendredi-je obtenir ramassé de l’hôtel, conduire à Bristol, au travail pendant environ 4 heures, puis voler de Bristol à Paris, le métro de Paris à Montparnasse, prendre le train de Montparnasse à Nantes, puis passer à Foussais.

C’est un voyage de plus de 2000km!

Je pense que mon empreinte carbone sera assez grande de cette semaine et par Samedi je serai usé! Pas le temps de repos cependant, que Molly a un autre tournoi de handball le samedi …