I teach twelve classes over the course of twelve hours from Tuesday to Friday. The schedule changes every other week and all the courses are in different classrooms with different teachers and students. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of this immediately.
My kids are equivalent to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I have Remedial English, Contemporary American Issues, AP English, Honors English, and English for Conversation.
The first group of kids I met, I introduced myself and then they asked me questions that they had spent the previous week preparing. Apparently, they knew I was coming. Here are some of the questions they asked:
Is it true that everything is bigger in America?
Is it true that you have to drive everywhere?
Which do you prefer, French food or American food?
What do you think about the American dream?
What is the difference between Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Do you really have cheerleaders, or is that just in movies?
These kids were a mirror image of my US students. Nervous about speaking, reading slowly and directly off the page, shrinking into their seats when I go off script talking to them. It was incredible to discover that teenagers learning a second language face the same anxieties and have the same reactions no matter the country or context.
I did find a nerve to pluck, though. Laïcité is a legal and social standard in France that has to do with expression of religion. It’s a complicated topic, and I’m going to make a separate post going into more detail. In short, it’s the idea that religion is not meant to be publicly expressed, ever. When a student asked me if all Americans are very religious, I opened up a discussion about religion in America. This quickly led to laïcité since the kids wanted to draw comparisons to known quantities. Everyone became animated and invested, and some tried pushing through their broken English to get their points across — which is the whole point of me being here!
Afterwards, I checked with my mentor teachers that such topics and others are not forbidden to discuss with students. They said I can talk about anything with them as long as I am sensitive to a variety of possible experiences and backgrounds. So, this laïcité button is one I plan to push frequently.
Send along some ideas of what I should take about with the students. Everything is permitted! They want to understand America; what do you think I should share?
Cordialement,
Allison
Flan in France 