School Is In Session

I have been working! As I am a product of my Teach For America training, I present to you some initial thoughts in the form of positive aspects, negative aspects and potential solutions. (Can't stop, won't stop, Overbrook!!!)

Good thing: I love having a classroom again. It fills my little teacher heart with joy. Even though I am teaching English, it's still a foreign language to my students and it's so cool to watch them learn new words, express themselves in ways that are unfamiliar but so rewarding, and decipher complicated texts. It makes me giddy!

Not-so-good thing: I don't really know that much about teaching English. I know it well, obviously, and I know the methods for teaching foreign languages but sometimes I feel like I don't explain a grammar point well because I don't really know the "why" behind it. I know even less about business. Seeing as I work at a business school, I sometimes feel like my students look at me like, "Why don't you know that? You're the teacher." That's a new feeling for me and I'm not sure I like it very much.

Solution: Bone up on the rules of English. Carry a grammar reference, just in case. Learn about business while learning about English. There are about a million books at the CEL for exactly that purpose! Remind students that you are not a business teacher but a language teacher and content specific questions can be directed to their content teachers.

Good thing: I share the work for all my planning and prep with a whole bunch of other teachers. It's great that I don't have to do every single thing myself. We meet to share some ideas and come up with the general goals of each session but then most of the content is developed by someone else. I don't even have to make my own copies; I just send them off to the printer and I pick them up later!

Not-so-good thing: Sometimes I don't feel as prepared as I would like to because I didn't do any of the leg work to put the lesson together. I am used to hand-crafting every piece of my lessons so I know them inside and out by them time I actually go to teach them. With someone else doing most of the prep, I don't feel as connected to the lesson. I am also used to having clear, measurable objectives to meet at the end of each lesson and a pre-determined final assessment to work toward. These things are non-existent (for now.)

Solution: Take the resources you're given but work the meat of the lesson in your own way. In meetings, push to set up objectives for each lesson, even if they are not quite as precise as you're used to. Write lesson plans including key questions to stay organized and push students' thinking.

Good thing: I am really stretching myself professionally by teaching some very high level groups. They are quick and motivated and it's super exciting. Even with my lower groups, they are able to do soooo much more than I could ever have dreamed with my Spanish students back in Baltimore. Some of my students are only 17 and I am still blown away by how much they know and can do.

Not-so-good thing: I don't know if I am doing a very good job of teaching my top students things they don't know and picking out things to work on for my lower students.

Solution: Don't be so hard on yourself. It's your first week! You've only seen the top classes once. As long as they are talking a lot, they are learning. For the first year kids, give them more opportunities to speak and write so that you know where their weaknesses are. They need the practice, too. Break them into small groups more often. Scaffold higher level thinking questions into the lesson. Cold call, wait time, basic stuff. You ain't no rookie, Stich.

Good thing: I get to teach a wide range of subjects, levels, and ages. I have tons of classes and it seems like I get assigned more everyday. It feels good to be trusted with so many different responsibilities.

Not-so-good thing: I am still getting used to this system and I don't even know what I'm supposed to be teaching for half of these courses. They all start on different days and there is no rhyme or reason for when they meet so I live in constant fear of missing a class.

Solution: Buy a planner. Ask questions early and often. Get with other people who are teaching the same courses and see what they are working on so you have an idea of what you need to teach. And remember that everyone is in the same boat. Not even the people in charge know exactly what's going on all the time because the merger got everything all messed up. Be patient.

Good thing: The school is easy to get to on tram/bus. The CEL is right up the street.

Not-so-good thing: The tram is PACKED both ways on my commute to Kedge. Everyone is touching everyone else for the whole 20 minute ride. No wonder I'm sick.

Solution: Seriously consider a bike. No, for real this time.

Good thing: I have a job again, which means I have an income and it means I have something to do with my life. I have a purpose. I matter. I will be getting a social security number, which means I will have health insurance, which means I can go to a doctor if I need to and it won't cost a bunch of money but even more importantly, it means I can participate in sports!

Not-so-good thing: I don't have my contract yet and I have no idea when we get paid. Does my contract need to be signed before I can get paid? Do I need a SSN in order to complete my contract?

Solution: Relax. Patience is a virtue. The Joanne is taking care of it. Everything that I needed to do, I have done and I will do anything they ask in a timely manner. They have a lot of people to process right now but it will get done.

In summation, this is pretty great. I am very fortunate to have found this gig and I am really excited to keep improving and helping some kids learn English. It's good to be home.

Work It

Finding a job is complicated for any young person but I don't think I fully appreciated the difficulty that I was about to experience here in Bordeaux. In the beginning, I was perhaps a bit too confident. I figured I would just buy myself some time (and entry into the country) by taking classes for a couple months, and then start doing some full-time work as soon as I was completely fluent in French. Because it had been so easy with Babylangues, I foolishly assumed I would be able to snatch up any job right away because I am smart, experienced, trilingual and, by God, I am special. Everyone has told me so since I was born!

There's only so much talent and experience can get you, though, and it's even less when you're an immigrant with no connections. I took it for granted that I was always part of systems up until now. I never really had to look for a job because I always knew someone who would just hire me. Baltimore City Public Schools? Teach For America got me that job! I am completely on my own here. No one knows me, I don't know anyone. On top of that, no one is in any hurry to sponsor me for a visa when they could snatch up an English-speaking EU member for way less trouble. I had been here for 10 months and all I had to show for it was a stack of letters  that all started with the word "Unfortunately." Maybe I'm not so special after all...

Then came some good news. The HR guy at Jason's lab was able to get me a conjoint de scientifique visa that would allow me to stay in the country as long as Jason is here and I would be allowed to work full-time! I will be much more marketable with a document that says I'm not leaving at the end of the semester and I am allowed to hold a normal job.

After the summer break, I got my new residency card and went back to looking for work. Progress was non-existent (or I didn't have any way to measure it) and without the distractions of babysitting or classes or trips to far off places, I was feeling a bit despondent. Beyond that, I felt guilty that I wasn't contributing financially to our household. I couldn't get a beer at the bar without feeling shitty about it because I had done nothing to earn it. Jason tried to be encouraging: "You keep our house from falling into ruin and disrepair! You take care of everything that involves talking to people in French!" But as someone coming from a decent-paying career, and paying my own bills and having my own income, it's hard not to feel a little bit worthless.

One night, we were at Guillaume's house for a gathering and I was talking to some folks about my issues finding work. Not to complain; I was hoping someone would know someone who knows someone who was looking to hire a language teacher. No luck in making any professional connections but I did get a kick in the ass from a new friend, Catherine. "You need to just go to these places and say 'I am capable, I am motivated and I am ready to work.' Don't worry about being annoying. If you're annoying, then they will know your name. You have nothing to lose."

It was exactly what I needed to hear. I can't say that I have ever tried guerrilla job hunting but I was ready to try anything to get myself out of my self-pity funk. I put on a nice outfit, got some copies of my CV and cover letter and hit the streets. I had some places I had applied to before and got no answer that I wanted to swing by and a new one I had just discovered in an ad online. The Wall Street Institute was not currently hiring but they would keep my CV for a year. Another "no" for the pile. This other place was right down the street, though, so they were next on my list. The ad for the Centre d'Études de Langues (CEL) said they were hiring "language teachers" so it seemed pretty promising. That's what I do! I teach languages!

I almost couldn't find the office because it's in the biggest building in town, but luckily they were doing work on the elevator and the door was open so I could see the sign for the center.

"Place de La Bourse" is not an address!

I grabbed the first person I saw, who happened to be in charge of the English department and new staff for the CEL. What are the chances??? "Oh yes," said Joanne, in her delightful British accent. "We are definitely looking for teachers. It's really wonderful that you came in, actually because we have some spots that need to get filled right away. Let me introduce you to Georgina, the head of the program."

I sat with Georgina for a few minutes while she read my resumé and asked me questions about my availability and then she said, "Your classes will start next week. Is that okay?"

Wait... WHAT??!?

Months of sending applications to everyone and their mother, countless forms and files painstakingly completed, diplomas dug out of storage bins in the US and shipped overseas and I'm just going to walk up in here with a smile on my face and you're going to give me a job?!?

I'm okay with it.

Here's some deets!

• Even though the CEL hired me, I currently only have classes with their partner, the Kedge Business School. Kedge was very recently known as the Bordeaux École de Management but there was a merger/takeover, a bunch of teachers weren't happy with the way things went down, and most of them left. I feel a bit like a scab for running in after all these people jumped ship but hey. I needed a job!
• In the scramble to replace all the people that left, everyone is teaching a lot of things all at once. I have 7 different courses. Luckily, I have a whole team of other English teachers to work with and we all share the responsibilities of planning and preparing the lessons. Teamwork is awesome. Having a department of people that teach what I teach is awesome. Not having to come up with all my own lessons and materials and assessments is awesome. Awesome.
• I can also work at the CEL, which operates more on a company need basis. Let's say you're Danny Wegman and you want 15 of your store managers to learn Spanish. You call the CEL and they provide you with a Spanish teacher for however/whenever you want. Classes are typically smaller with the CEL but they are also at random times because the people you're working with have day jobs. With my Kedge schedule, I'm pretty booked up for the moment but things may change for next semester. We shall see!

So that's all I have for now. More updates will come when I actually start classes later this week. Watch out, Bordeaux. You just got yourself a sassy new English teacher.

Four-year-olds and F-bombs

Today, a story about why pronunciation is important.

I am working for this company called Babylangues and they set me up with two different French families to teach their young children English through songs and play. I had meetings with both families today. Ema was still in school when I met with her parents but I caught up with Alexis (a boy, the s is silent) and his family in the evening. On the way back to their house from the school, Alexis was telling me about his day. He has a "class" in which the kids learn English through little puppet shows featuring various characters. He explained, in his tiny little French voice, how much he enjoyed the stories about Mister Wolf and proceded to tell us about the new character they met today: Mister Fuck.

I know this child did not just drop the F-bomb. Maybe he's just confused.  "Mister Phoque?" I asked, hoping for some clarification. "Les animaux qui habitent dans la mer?" In French, the word for seal sounds almost exactly like fuck. An easy mistake, right?

"Non non. C'est un animal mais il habite dans le forêt"Alexis corrected. Okay, seals definitely don't live in the forest. Even a 4-year-old knows that. So if he's not saying phoque, then he really is telling me that the name of this character is Mister Fuck. What are they teaching these children at this school??

Suddenly his mother, who I later find out speaks English quite well, suddenly realizes what he might be saying. "Ohhh! C'est un renard! Mais je ne sais pas comment dit-on en anglais."

Un renard? What the phoque is a renard? My brain is reeling, trying to dig this vocabulary word out of the depths of my memory. Not canard. That's a duck. Close in both English and French, but no cigar. Renault? That's a brand of cars, genius. No no no. This is a mess. Mom and Alexis try explaining to me what a renard is but I am drawing a blank, especially because I am so jarred by this child telling me about Mister Fuck.

"Maybe... Fucks?" Mom offers. FUCKS??? Are you kidding me? Yeah, I suppose sometimes there are fucks in the forest, but somehow I doubt they talking about my last camping trip.Why are these kids learning about Mister Fucks? What a terrible name for a character in a children's story! Mom plays with the word a little, hoping to land on something I'll recognize, but she just ends up sounding like a drunken sailor: "Fucks? Fuck? Facks? Fooks?"

And then, like a bolt of lightning, it dawns on me what we have been talking about for the last five minutes. "Peut-être Mister FOX?"

"Oui oui oui c'est ça!" Alexis shouts, thrilled to have conveyed his message to me. "Mister Fuck!"

"Attention, Alexis," his mother corrects. "Mister Fucks."

Watching Cat Videos on YouTube Doesn't Count as Research

Someone please tell me how it's already December. I don't understand how time can simultaneously crawl and fly but that's exactly what it feels like right now.  I have been here for a measly three weeks but November 8th feels like it was ages ago. Perhaps it's because each day here is chock-full of new excitement and adventure even when I do nothing but troll the internet. Yeah, I spent four hours looking at stuff online... FRENCH STUFF. You know, research.

The first major thing I need to find is an apartment that Jason and I can both live in. The Residence Hippocrate is fine for just me, but we tried to fit into one dorm room bed when I was at Temple for Institute and it just didn't work. I'm a grown ass woman! I should be sleeping in a grown as woman sized bed! The trouble with finding an apartment is tri-fold in our case:

1) We'd really prefer something furnished. Since we're only here for a year or two, it would be a lot of stuff to have to buy only to turn around and sell moments later. (There is an IKEA here but still. Furnishing a whole place all at once ain't cheap.)

2) We want to live somewhere near downtown but not spend a fortune on rent and also be close to work/school. This is physically impossible because his job and my school are both located in the west and downtown is all the way east. It takes at least 50 minutes to get from downtown to Pessac and that's if you're staying right on the tram line with no transfers. Holy commute, Batman.

3) We do not have a French guarantor to tell a future landlord that we're good for the rent every month. I think this is completely unnecessary if Jason can prove that he has a job and a contract for a given amount of time but this is not how it works in France. Ugh!

I have a few leads on some places, thanks to Jason's future colleague, Steve, so I guess I have some visits to make in January.

I have also spent a lot of time looking for ways to stay in the country once my classes are done. I like Esarc Evolution just fine but as Mylène said, it won't be enough for me if I am planning to stay here for a while. It's also way too expensive to try and take classes with them for two years. I have been investigating the University of Bordeaux 3, which holds the Department of French as a Foreign Language. Apparently, lots of people from Esarc transfer there once they get their language skills up and I am hoping to do the same. It's about 1/3 the cost of a private center like Esarc and they offer not just language courses, but literature and foreign language instruction pedagogy classes, too. That sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately the website is not exactly the easiest thing to understand and I think I need to just write an email to them and get some answers.

There is also this French teaching assistantship program offered by the French government that I think would be really cool. It's a paid position and is very much in the vein of my career aspirations, but I would have to spend half the summer back in the US getting a work visa. It's also not guaranteed that I would be placed in Bordeaux since it's a national program. Even if I did get placed in this area, I could be out somewhere in the sticks and without a car, that would be pretty tough to do.

Confession: I have been planning our wedding. But it's not pathetic anymore because I'm engaged for really real now! For the moment, it's all completely hypothetical since we have no idea where we'll be or what we'll be doing a year or two from now and it's really tough to try to plan an event in a place where neither of you will be living. Between theknot.com and Pinterest and weddingawker, I have a ton of ideas about things I think would  be really awesome and fun but I haven't really consulted my other half on any of it. When I did, he had no opinions, so I guess I'll keep living the fantasy for a while longer.

I suppose blogging takes up a bit of time, as does checking Facebook to see what's happening in the world back home. I found a site where I can stream movies with French dubbing for free and I watched Mulan the other night. Watching movies you've seen a million times is actually a really good way to learn new words. I have decided to better myself in other ways since I have the time now: I want to get more flexible so I am starting a stretching routine. Promises splits in 30 days! I don't know if that's possible but I'm going to try. I had a push-up routine I was doing a long time ago and I want to get back into because no matter how strong I look, I still can't do that many push-ups for some reason. And I am reading a lot. I wish a had a Kindle or a Nook so I could have endless books at my disposal without all the bulk and hassel of getting them here. You can't buy any new books overseas due to copyright laws but I could load up on 50 or so when I'm home and that would easily last until my next visit back to the States.

All this research might have to take a back seat, though, because I am starting work next week. I meet both of my families on Tuesday so hopefully that will go well and I'll be making some cash money. I am slightly concerned about my Wednesday commute since I am supposed to make a 45 minutes trip in half an hour but we'll see. Might need to wear some running shorts under my outfit...

What I need to be looking for is Christmas gifts. Why am I so terrible at gift giving??? Looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow! There's certainly nothing else to do around here on a Sunday except play on the internet.

Thankful

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and in the spirit of the holiday, I have several things that I am thankful for that I would like to share with all of you. I ask that you please forgive the sappiness.

I am thankful for this amazing opportunity to live in Bordeaux and experience another way of life.  It's fascinating the way living in another culture can teach you so much about your own. I think that you find your truest self in times of great challenge, and this will certainly be a challenge, but it's one I am excited to take on. I am thankful for Jason being the catalyst for this whole experience. I can't imagine anyone better with whom to share the adventure. He is my partner in crime, my teammate, my lover and my best friend, and I am grateful every single day to have him in my life.

I am thankful for Baltimore City Schools giving me a hefty raise last year so that I could save up enough money to make this trip possible. I am thankful for my former students for keeping in touch and reminding me why I got into teaching in the first place. I love every one of them and I am proud to have  played a small part on their paths to adulthood. I am thankful for my fellow teachers who continue to fight the good fight and inspire young minds all over the world.

I am thankful for Mylène, my French teacher, who sees my potential before I can see it myself. She has encouraged me to look into other schools because I am already at the highest level they offer and she thinks I will be well beyond it very soon. "It's not exactly a best practice to send people away from your school, but I think you could do better for yourself. If you want to become a really good French teacher, you're going to need more than we can offer you here. Let me know if I can help." I am thankful for her recommendation for a rugby team I might like to play with in the coming season. !!!

I am thankful for Hong Li for telling the rest of our French class about the story of Thanksgiving when I lacked the words. Even if it's a bit fictitious and we later went on to murder a bunch of Native Americans, it is still nice to think that this whole day is supposed to be about lending a hand to those in need and being grateful for the generosity of others.

I am thankful for Hunter, who has been absolutely invaluable in helping me get settled here. From being my tour guide, to being the liaison between me and the other Chinese people on campus, to being my favorite Aretha Franklin impersonator, he has made me feel so at home here.

I am thankful to Ashley and Guillem for inviting me into their home last night for the closest thing to a real American Thanksgiving meal as one can muster in France. Even if our turkey was breast slices rolled up like a Ho-Ho and our cranberry sauce was made from Craisins, we ate well and had a wonderful evening. I even managed to pull off my mother's apple crumb pie FROM SRATCH. Even made my own pie crust.

I am thankful for my years in college that taught me when enough was enough so that I didn't end up like the girl in the bar last night, who was too drunk to stand up, had peed on herself, and had ripped a giant hole in her very expensive-looking black stockings. I am thankful for my friends who, unlike her friends, would have immediately rushed me home if I were even approaching that level of intoxication, so that I would not completely embarrass myself. And I don't care if it's the school's mascot, putting a panda hat on her while she slumps in a semi-conscious state on the couch is just rubbing salt in the wound.

I am thankful for Google Hangout/Skype because they have allowed me to keep in touch with my friends and family back home. In addition to our Thanksgiving gathering here in Bordeaux, I got to spend time with the Bayer family in Waynesboro and my parents in Rochester, all in the same evening. Impossible in real life, totally doable with video chat. And yes, I know it's not quite the same as actually being there, but it's definitely the next best thing.

I am thankful for Babylangues, even though they kinda upset me on Tuesday, because today they offered me a job! No specifics yet, but they are coming soon... I am thankful for Skype interviews because I can wear pajama pants and still get a job. (Don't worry, I wore a blazer on top and even did my make-up.)

Finally, I am thankful for Thanksgiving because it reminds us all to take a moment out of our lives and think about all the things we have to be thankful for. Whether you can only come up with a handful of things or you have a list as long as your arm, we all have something or someone that deserves our gratitude. And by the way, you don't have to wait until November to give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

FAQs. About Me, Not France.

"You could study French in plenty of cities around the world, Nicole. How did you decide on Bordeaux?"

That's a great question, friend! Jason was offered a job here and since being a Spanish teacher is a little more flexible than being a specialist on digital cardiac modeling, we go where he goes, especially when that place is in Europe.

Jason is a gem of a human being. They say that when you meet the love of your life, you know it right away. Jason says that he knew. I, on the other hand, was 23 when we met I and was still trying to "find myself." I was finding myself, all right. I found myself in a lot of bars and in one mercurial relationship after another. Totally friend-zoned for the first year and a half that we knew each other, I did notice I always seemed to have a great time when Jason and I hung out, platonically, of course. We ended up spending a lot of quality time together during the Snowpocalypse of 2010 because that's what happens when you live four doors away from someone and there's nowhere else to go. Thanks to a lot of white russians and school being cancelled for the rest of the week, we spent some "real quality time" together (earmuffs, Mom) and the rest is history.

"I thought you lived alone right now. Where is Jason?"

A good point of clarification. Yes, we will both be here eventually, but Jason is still finishing his PhD. He's had a few obstacles to overcome, such as having his whole lab relocated from Tulane to Baltimore after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, but it looks like things will be wrapping up in January of this coming year.

"Got it. So are you guys, like, gonna get married, or what? Seems like a pretty big deal to move across an ocean to be with someone."

Indeed it is a big deal. We have been talking a lot about this lately and it has made for a pretty cute story. A week before I was scheduled to leave for Bordeaux, Hurricane Sandy was on a warpath up the east coast. Jason and I were enjoying a relatively quiet Monday inside but we had been following the storm's path on the news all day. At the peak of the storm, Jason got up from our game of backgammon, disappeared into the bedroom and reappeared with a small box and a smile. It was the perfect moment. In the middle of this terrible storm, it was so clear what needed to be done. And since natural disasters brought us together in the first place, it seemed only fitting.

I swear I tried to focus so I could remember his proposal but all I could hear in my head was "EEEEEEEE!!! THIS IS IT THIS IS IT THIS IS IT payattentionpayattentionomgomgomgomg I love this man." He said some nice things about me and how there's no one he'd rather spend his life with and then I'm crying and I think we both said "I love you" at least 20 times each and I couldn't get over how much I loved the ring he picked out for me oooooohhh...itisjustsoSHIIIIIIINY.

Once we both regained out senses, we went right back to our game. He didn't even let me win.

"That is a pretty cute story. So who do you hang out with since he's not around?"

Jason is a thoughtful man and he shot my email over to a guy who already works in the lab here in Bordeaux. This guy, Steve, contacted me when I got here and invited me to dinner at his house on my first Sunday in town. I felt like an ass not bringing a bottle of wine or something, but nothing is open on Sundays. (Note to self: Stock up on champagne before trying to make mimosas on a Sunday.) Steve came all the way out from his home in the 'burbs to pick up me and another one of his colleagues, Rick. Rick and I are practically neighbors and I look forward to seeing him more often.

There are few things that can turn your frown upside down like a home-cooked meal with friends. Well, friends-to-be, I guess. Saturday was a bit of an emotional roller coaster and this was just the thing I needed to re-ground myself. Steve's wife, Steffi, made a delicious carrot ginger soup, a pasta with spinach and roasted hazelnuts over ice cream for dessert. Triple yum. Steve and Rick are both from the UK and Steffi is from Germany and all three of them speak English. Beautiful, comfortable, music-to-my-French-filled-ears ENGLISH. And you won't meet a kinder and more welcoming bunch than these guys. They gave me lots of tips about how to get set up in France and we lamented about some of our shared difficulties in the process. They filled me in on a typical day at the lab and allayed some of my fears that Jason would be bombarded with French at work. (He doesn't speak it... yet.) And then we talked about things other than logistic and it was so nice to not be researching or planning or relocating for a change. We were just four English speakers, two dogs, two cats and a baby, enjoying a lovely meal together.

"And what are you planning to do with your time while he's working this new job?"

I enrolled in a French language program at Esarc Evoltuion, partly because it would get me a student visa, but mostly because my immediate career goal is to return to the US when we're done here and teach both Spanish and French. I figure I'll be more marketable with two languages. And who doesn't want to know French? C'est la langue de l'amour, n'est-ce pas? I am also interviewing with a company called Baby-langues next week so hopefully I will be able to earn a little money, too. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

"Will do. Best of luck to you in all these new endeavors. You must be pretty amped."

I went from having a lovely but fairly quiet life in Baltimore to having a really fresh and exciting life in France, so yeah. I would say I'm pretty amped. I get to live in Bordeaux with the love of my life for a couple years or so. We'll have opportunities to travel all over Europe, maybe go visit his friend in Sierra Leone... It's the opportunity of a lifetime and we couldn't be more excited. Even when this sucks, it's going to be great because we're in France we we have each other. Doesn't get much better than that.

Next time: Back to school