Today, I visited the school that I will be teaching at for the next month! I was nervous at first, but once I met the professor, I knew things were going to be great. She is such a nice lady and spoke English very well! I am pretty sure she is British, but I was confused because she told me she lived in Russia, London, Sydney and Paris throughout her life. The professor explained to me in English about her students and I was so confused! The French education system is very complicated. But, I think I might have figured it out now. The students that I will be teaching are between 20-23 and are all interested in engineers. After highschool, they went to "university" for two years and got some sort of degree. Now the are in "preparatory" school because they are preparing for a very hard test that they will take in the spring. If they pass this test, they will be able to go to very prestigious engineering schools to continue their education. It's a very interesting system, and they only have to pay 500 euro a year for these specialized schools! I cringed as I thought about all the money my family is paying for me to go to Fairfield. Goodness!
We are only allowed to talk to the students in English, which can be hard sometimes since I am so used to explain things in French now. There are two groups of these kids and only 2 girls out of 40 students! Typical of engineering though, I suppose. For both groups, my partner and I had to introduce ourselves and answer the simple questions the students asked us. Then, the students had to tell us about themselves. The first group of students was very shy and didn't have that high of a level of English. After the class ended, the only girl in the class came up to the teacher and said something in French about making mistakes and proceeded to tell us in English that she went to Canada. The last question we asked them was if they ever traveled to an English speaking country. She was too shy to talk in front of all the boys, so she came up to us after. It was pretty adorable.
When the second group came in, I was pleasantly surprised. They were laughing, joking, and seemed to understand clearly what we were talking about. Even when they introduced themselves they would expand on all of their thoughts. It was sad when they were telling us that they used to have hobbies, but now only have time for school. The program is very intense and they have very little time for themselves. But I do feel like this month is going to be a lot of fun! I am so excited to start.
Tonight was our Mardi Gras party at school. Yes, I know Mardi Gras was two weeks ago, but for some reason we had the party tonight...who knows CIEE, who knows. There were tons of crepes; sugar, jam, and chocolate. Delicious! One of the students played the guitar and sang for us and one of the assistants sang opera! It was super cool and a fun night with friends :)
J'espère que tout va bien pour vous! <3
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