It is sometimes said, that we English don’t learn other languages, arrogantly assuming (rightly) that any country worth it’s salt will speak our language so we needn’t bother. I have another theory.
The Younger Teen, poor lad, has a dragon of a French teacher. She is really quite vile, ticking him off in the very first lesson of the term and continuing to do so in each subsequent one thereafter. But that really is neither here nor there to the point in question. The point is, my Teens have been learning French since they were dot; a dot of about three actually and I remember back then, them learning such things as counting, un, deux, trois and so on and various vocabulary, le Chat, le chien, la table. Fairly basic stuff of course. And the problem is, the French really hasn’t progressed a lot since then.
Ten years later and I am doing helping The Teen with his prep, the dragon is on the war path and threatening to put him in detention again, if his work is not handed in at the crack of dawn. I remind the Teen about the prep throughout the evening as I see no sign of him getting on with it. Finally, at ten o’clock he comes down in his p-jymmies waving a piece of paper at me. I sigh. It’s a bit late to ask me to help. Of course he has no intention of asking for help; he just wants me to do it for him.
I look at what he has to do. I look again. Can this really be GCSE French? There are three parts to the prep. The first are half a dozen jumbled up words with pictures next to each. Mjbano, putloet, gerfmoa. (It looks more compicated here than it does on the sheet with the pictures)! So that bit is easy. Next there is a short piece with gaps to fill in with the appropriate words which are along the top to choose from. All of this is in the present tense. Je prends–(petit dejeuner)——— dans la cuisine. Au college, je prends-(picnic)—-. Le soir, je mange avec ma famille.
The third part is to write what you eat and where in your own home.
I’m honestly taken aback at this. Only last week, The Teen had to write a small piece about himself and his family and where he lives etc, all of which he seems to have been doing since he was dot. Je m’appelle— J’habite a la campaigne avec mes parents et mon frere. J’ai un chat, et un chien. J’aime le sport. Je n’aime pas l’ecole!
I mean really, this is the stuff of fourth year. No wonder so few of us ever speak another language. You really can’t go around speaking in the present tense all the time having failed to learn any other and there’s only so much you can say about your cat and dog! Maybe I’m missing the point here. Maybe this is revision, but somehow I doubt it!
Occasional Scribbles 
Daughter speaks, reads and writes fluently faultless, perfectly accented Castliano, Andaluz, Catalan and LAS. She also has fluent Italian. And English. She will be 13 next year. This sounds smug but it’s not meant to be – it hasn’t happened by accident, but by travel, living abroad, personal input to her education and private lessons after school. I beamed at the news she was recently top of her class in Lengua and Inglese.
By: Brennig Jones on 04/10/2008
at 12:56 pm
Brennig you restore my faith, you really do!! Sadly, what with The Other being so ill and finances at an all time low, travel is postponed for the foreseeable future. I take you point entirely and would love to take the brats er children abroad. There’s nothing like being away to get the minds thinking in another language!!
The Elder Teen is speaking in Kiwi at the moment!!
By: scribbles08 on 04/10/2008
at 2:18 pm
Scribble,
I can sympathise. I learned French at school from the age of 12 and ended up taking it at ‘A’- Level. I had some great teachers though and none of them were French, thank goodness. You know they hate all ‘Les Anglais’ anyway. How can you take a them seriously anyway when everyone else in the world calls it a ‘computer’ and they insist on calling it an ‘ordinateur’.
My family owns a holiday home there and I end up having to do most of the negotiating with the locals as my French is by far the best amongst us. I find them rude, supremely arrogant and every single one of them has a huge chip on their shoulder, never easy to deal with.
Funny thing is if I’m driving a car with Dutch license plates their attitude is completely different, suddenly they can speak and understand English perfectly well and I receive respect, weird huh! I just think Waterloo was 200 years ago, get over it, for goodness sake. Lovely country, shame about the people.
With Dutch I just kind of dived in, never had a lesson and now after 10 years I speak with a reasonable fluency. I personally found that how I learned the most and quickest was when I was totally immersed in the culture and had to speak the language to make myself understood. When speaking English is not an option it’s incredible how fast your comprehension and expression in a foreign language improves.
I’ll admit, however, that I’ve always had a talent in that regard. One week in foreign lands and I’m already bartering like a good ‘un and saying pleasantries in my newly acquired tongue. I just seem to soak it up like a sponge. This it would seem is half the battle.
With regards to speaking Kiwi, that made me smile. Whatever happened to the vowel sounds when they traversed the planet? They seem to have become completely jumbled up. Someone in NZ would say to me “I’m going to bid now.” I’d think they’d have an auction going on E-bay or something, but they actually meant they were going off to sleep! If you really want to have a laugh, get one of them to say ’66’ ;?))
By: rudi somerlove on 04/10/2008
at 3:28 pm
Hi my French tacher was vile!! Therefore I hated French. Sounds like your teen needs a little more to keep him interested. I hate homework that is just ‘going through the motions’, it’s such a waste of everybodies time (sorry . starting to rant here!!)
Anyway , thanks for viviting me. Hope to see you again 🙂
By: Suburbia on 04/10/2008
at 7:28 pm
Hi Suburbia,
Nice to see you here! It’s such a shame that there are so few talented teachers these days. My Teen loathes school and especially French. He asked the deputy head to let him go into another class, which I don’t think he can arrange. Worse, the teacher has found out that he wanted to swap so she’s really going for him now. Think I’ll have to step in soon! URGH!!:(
By: scribbles08 on 06/10/2008
at 10:00 am
Hi Rudi,
You did make me laugh re the Kiwi’s! You are lucky to be able to soak up languages. I like French, though not very good at it, but my sister is like you, she’s very good at languages and also music. I think it’s the type of brain.
Music, maths, puzzles, instructions(!), languages are one sort. Or, you’re like me, can’t do any of the above, more on the arts side!
By: scribbles08 on 06/10/2008
at 10:03 am