Happy ‘Poisson d’Avril’

Read regular posts from Mihi. She’s a Kiwi from Wellington, New Zealand and each week she tells us about living in France and speaking French.

A few weeks ago it was the 1^st of April, or what the French call “Le Poisson d’Avril” (the April fish). Instead of playing April Fools’ jokes on one another, French kids at my schools made paper fish and ran around sticking them to each other’s backs. All the teachers walk around with paper fish stuck to their backs. All the kids ask you, “Il est beau?” (is it beautiful?) about their poisson.

The kids I work with are both inspiring and exhausting, as kids can be everywhere I guess! I work with ten different classes, which requires pretty excellent organisational skills to keep track of everything. Not to mention a good memory for names (and French names at that!) At least they get lots of practice answering the question “What’s your name?” in English.

I’m always surprised by what captures the interest of the students. I thought that conjugating the verb “To be” in English would be a total bore for them, but an older class that I did it with really got into it. But it changes for every class – some games work excellently with one class and go down like a lead balloon with others. As a rule, though, I am impressed by their confidence and enthusiasm. Most of them jump at the chance to stand up in front of the class and demonstrate their knowledge.

I am pretty sure they have taught me more French than I have managed to teach them English. It’s often hard to keep them all on track, and some days I’m grateful if they manage to name a few colours in English! But then they will make a little jump in progress that is motivating. I did a colouring exercise with one of the younger classes, and a boy who has never seemed particularly engaged came back and forth to me throughout the whole class to show me his work and check that he was putting the right colours in the right places.

I made myself a budget last week, to make sure I have enough money to do a bit more travelling. Then I went out and immediately found a book of French synonyms that I wanted to buy. I couldn’t resist! I think it was worth it.

Mihiata  – Saint Nazaire, France