September 18, 2014

I toured a French middle school and high school today, which was also La Sallian in its base. La Sallian education is rooted in the values and teachings of St. John Baptise de la Salle: to educate the heart and mind of every student. I appreciate the values of La Sallian education and when I told the director of the school I went to a La Sallian school, he was very happy and interested to hear about it.

It was awkward talking to a class of French high school students in English, because of the transition back to my first language. I was pausing a lot, blanking out on what to say about myself, and the majority of the students were too shy to speak in English. I basically just said, "Hello...this is really weird for me right now to be speaking in English and I am definitely out of my comfort zone. It's good to be here, etc. Any questions?" My mind just blanked out a lot trying to figure out what to say in English. And when some students did ask questions, I replied in my default, French. So weird!!

Later that afternoon/evening, I had part 2 of my Phonetics & Conversation course at the University of Nantes. It's a language lab, which is the coolest thing ever in my language learning experience. We use headphones to listen to Mme. Deschanel's pronunciation and repeat after her. She can hear all our different pronunciations and stops to correct one of us individually if need be. It's a cool system they've got set up. She stopped me to correct me at one point. We were both laughing at how funny my pronunciation was of the French "u" compared to the "ou." Plus I liked the partner headphone part where we pronounced phrases for each other. It reminded me of the scene in Slumdog Millionaire when Jamal Malik is trying to communicate internationally with headphones and a lady keeps on asking him, "Hello...hello..is somebody there?" The same happened with me. "Hallo?..hallo?" I could hear Hy on the other line. "Tu es prêt ?" (Are you ready?) "Oui." We were trying so hard not to laugh the whole time.

I love helping make dinner for my host family. I found a small store, like a co-op near our house, which is another go-to option for food. I think I've been spending the majority of my money when needed on food. France has brought out my meat eater side, which was not there at all this past summer. Oh, dear. Fortunately, I made a nice caprese salad this evening for our dinner. I look forward to taking part in making more meals.

Here is another interesting quote I found: "A language is a whole map of reality...A language should mirror the world the way a map does...Most of the distinctions we make about ourselves-what time it is, where we are-we learn, through the map of language." -Dreaming in Hindi, Katherine Russell Rich

 Seen at a local boulangerie-there's too many of them!

 I love this "freedom" sign at the University of Nantes

A delicious dinner with my host family