So about a month ago, I had a French exam to move on to the next level. One major weekend cram session (where before I could start on things on the exam like the subjonctif I had to first review things like 2nd group present verb conjugation) and two breakdowns later (both involving trying to use the plus-que parfait correctly) I am happy to say I somehow managed to recieve a passing score.
Which brings us to today which was the first day of the new level. Felt a little like the first episoide of a new season - same familar characters from before but a couple of new, fresh faces - including the teacher. As she put on the chalkboard bullet points of what we would be learning I couldn't help but notice what a stark contrast she is to my previous teacher.
First of all it was a man. And he was old - one semester away from retiring. He never explained what we would learn, he would simple just start teaching and there was never really any cohesion to the lessons. We'd end a lesson reading dialog highlighting the future tense with promises to continue in the next lesson and apon arrival of the next lesson he would hand out worksheets on relative pronouns (We started the conditional three times).
He would give examples and then go on tangents that lasted 15 minutes (color adjective comes after the noun like in des yeux bleus... did I mention one time I met a Russian guy with blue eyes ande I swear he was a spy because he was trying to use my mailbox to recieve secret mail?). And sometimes he would make no sense at all (Addressing Japanese student - Don't all Japanese names begin with a vowel?).
The new teacher is young and well structured. Her goal is for us to learn and you can tell she doesn't lose sight of that. Everything that comes out of her mouth has the purpose and that is to teach us something (Can anybody tell me which tense I just used?). She also talks to us like we're in elementary school (Very good!) what one of those encouraging smiles that make you want to give the right answer so she would stop.
On the first day of class the previous teacher had us introduce oursevles and then went on to talk about all the "strange" nationalities he's had in the past. Then he let us go home early.
This teacher had us pair up and introduce the other person to the class... using words starting with the letters of our name. After 5 minutes of trying to think of words related to me for K.E.L.L.Y and coming up empty we changed tactics.
My partner: Do you like Khoalas?
Me: Um. I guess they're cute.
My partner: Do you like to wash things? (Laver in french is wash).
Me: Um. I wash myself...
So in the end I'm a Khoala loving girl from Etats Unis who speaks many languages (it's not true but at least I didn't tell the class I like to wash things or myself) and loves to lire (read) while eating yogurt (which is, coincidentally, something I have in common with many other students in the class who's name involved the letter Y).
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