Cuisinez comme une grande chef...

I always cringe a little when I know I'm going to be teaching food units, mostly because the grammar is a little tricky and doesn't equate well to English. BUT one of the more fun aspects of discovering foods and cooking in French is the cultural aspects that go along with the grammar. A lot of students don't know that the food service industry in France is much more involved and, some might say, evolved, than in the United States. Waiting tables has quite a different connotation, and it is widely accepted that it makes a terrific career. I have attached the following video about the career of food server in France. The speakers communicate very clearly and while the vocabulary may be in large part foreign, the message is clear - the "metier" of a server in France is a very involved and intricate process.

Valérie Lemercier is a well-known French actress, and, as this clip shows, quite the cook too. Shot as a spoof on cooking shows, (yes, they have their own Rachel Rays and Bobby Flays) her "Cuisine Gourmand" recipe features a very recognizable main ingredient, in all its forms, much loved here in the States... l'huile:

Comment dit-on "flash mob" en français?

JUST FOR FUN...


I am sure that my students are familiar with the term "flash mob," but I was not until this morning, when my sister showed me several videos on YouTube. (the 24th anniversary of "Oprah" being the most well-known)

I found a great video I wanted to share from the Antwerp Grand Central Station in Belgium. Just as entertaining as the dancers are the reactions from the bystanders... how would you react if something like this was going on in front of you?...

Avez-vous déjà vu?

A couple years ago, a colleague at BU introduced me to the French films shorts "Avez-vous déjà vu" by Pierre-Alain Bloch. I have since used them constantly in my classes, and they are wildly popular with students. I have attached a few for their viewing pleasure, but, since they each have something to do with our current French chapters, they must answer the questions that go along with each...

FRENCH 1

What is each person saying in the first 4 lines of this telephone conversation that the poor "lutin" has to relay?
What is a "lutin"?

How many "moutons" are coming to the "pique-nique"? And why do they fall asleep at the end?

FRENCH 2

What are all the question words you hear in this telephone conversation?

Why can't the man "jouer du piano" at the end of the clip?
Why is the piano "chez le dentiste"?

FRENCH 3

What verb is being used in the title of this clip? What is particular about this type of verb?
What is "la mort"?

Identify the vocabulary words you recognize from Chapter 2 in this clip.

French 2 and "les passe-temps": Le Président aime faire du jogging – où est le problème ?

In French 2 Honors, we have been talking about recreational activities during the year - what we do and don't like to do for fun, and when. I stumbled across a funny news article about French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his favorite pastime - he likes to jog, or "il aime faire du jogging." In America, this is completely harmless, but he has made the French press a bit nervous...

President Sarkozy and the French Jogging Controversy

In France the jogging habit of President Sarkozy has become the subject of debate, analysis and yes ... even psychoanalysis. In the cafes favored by Paris intellectuals the talk is no longer about existentialism or post-modernism - but about Sarkozy's penchant for dressing in shorts and runners, then hitting the road in order to engage in an activity involving leg-propelled forward momentum and the generation of sweat.

Why ask his critics, does the President feel the need to jog? An activity after all that is viewed by many jaded Gaulois smokers as well ... American. Dangerously American. What has happened to France, when the president of the Republic starts running around in public, sweating and grimacing?

Moreover Sarkozy has other disconcerting athletic habits. He doesn't reliably mount the steps of the Elysee Palace with presidential dignity. No longer the haughty Chiracian aplomb of old. No, on occasion the suspiciously buffed newcomer bounds up the steps like a sort of right wing gazelle. A deeply disturbing sight to those who suspect that all of this has a threatening sub-text - kind of like being invaded by humanoid aliens who betray themselves by some peculiar trait or other.

The president's jogging has become linked in the minds of the paranoid with some muscular, testosterone-driven ideological agenda. Can you imagine how appalled Jean-Paul Sartre would have been by this spectacle? It would reliably have prompted long philosophical discussions and perhaps even lengthy essays.

One French philosopher, Alain Finkelkraut, has gone so far as to beg the president to give up his "undignified" hobby. Finkelkraut suggested on the TV channel, France 2, that instead of jogging, Sarkozy should take up walking ... like Socrates and the poet, Arthur Rimbaud.

The philosophical speculation also focuses on the nature of the activity itself and some critics are of the opinion that unlike walking, jogging is a projection of power and control. A walker takes in nature - there is a reciprocal exchange between the walker and surroundings during a promenade, inspiring thought and even dreams. Whereas jogging ... well it's virtually like giving the finger to nature. It declares "I am the master of my domain" in an unseemly fashion. It is almost imperial. Like invading the Champs Elysees without first going to the UN. Shocking!
But even more disconcerting than the jogging, is the outfit the president is sometimes seen wearing. You would think that if he insists on jogging he would at least try to help the planet by wearing a T'shirt that supports the environment or maybe even one with something recognizably French like a baguette. But no, he has the temerity to wear a shirt emblazoned with 'NYPD'. Mon Dieu! Can you imagine this? The president of the Republic running around Paris with a T'shirt touting New York cops? Unbelievable.

Le jogging or "le footing" as it is sometimes known has resulted in nicknames for the new president, such as "Speedy Sarko" and "Supersarko". This may seem light hearted, but the nicknames don't detract from the deeper concern that the president's jogging is nothing less than a crass display of individualism. Some even suspect creeping totalitarianism. After all the Nazis were fond of athletic pursuits and strutting their stuff for the camera. A media critic, Daniel Schneidermann, goes even further and has stated publicly that he believes Sarkozy's jogging is "a major weapon of media manipulation".

What next? Sarkozy jogging with Bush at the Crawford ranch? High fives with Schwarzenegger as the pair bounce along a beach framed by a Cali sunset? Or God forbid jogging around Brussels like a yank?

All of this attention on what is after all an exercise routine, confirms many in their view that the French are prone to hyperbole and love to create drama for the sake of it. Of course, the suspicions that Sarkozy is too pro-American and too right wing in general required a tangible symbol. So it's hardly surprising that some on the left are milking this for all it's worth.
So far the president has remained blithely unaffected by the fuss. When he starts chewing gum and wearing a Sony Walkman on his runs, then his critics can be assured that France is really in serious peril.

-Aidan Maconachy
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/president-sarkozy-and-the-french-jogging-controversy.html

French 1 and David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day"

I often think of David Sedaris in my French 1 classes, as I struggle to keep the morale of my students up while they struggle with the feeling of "limitedness" one so often encounters in language classrooms. The "fun" part of languages is relearning the basics, elementary things like the alphabet and counting, things that we take for granted now in English. HOWEVER, I gave a test in every single one of my classes this past week, and the previously "fun" alphabet suddenly became a scary obstacle for everyone when a grade came attached to it. So I think my French 1 students should read the following excerpts from Sedaris' essay "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and connect it to their own experiences over the past few weeks in my classroom to try and re-find the fun and humor in learning a new language.
Sedaris travels to France to learn the language with students of many different nationalities, and although I must say that I am nothing like his professeur, I think my students will find some humor in the events that unfold...

"The first day of class was nerve-racking because I knew I’d be expected to perform. That’s the way they do it here – it’s everybody into the language pool, sink or swim. The teacher marched in, deeply tanned from a recent vacation, and proceeded to rattle off a series of administrative announcements. I’ve spent quite a few summers in Normandy, and I took a month long French class before leaving New York. I’m not completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what this woman was saying. “If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow? Everyone? Good, we shall begin.” She spread out her lesson plan and sighed, saying, “All right, then, who knows the alphabet?” It was startling because (a) I hadn’t been asked that question in a while and (b) I realized, while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet. They’re the same letters, but in France they’re pronounced differently. I know the shape of the alphabet but had no idea what it actually sounded like.
“Ahh.” The teacher went to the board and sketched the letter a. “Do we have anyone in the room whose first name commences with an ahh?”
Two Polish Annas raised their hands, and the teachers instructed them to present themselves by stating their names, nationalities, occupations, and a brief list of things they liked and disliked in this world. The first Anna hailed from an industrial town outside of Warsaw and had front teeth the size of tombstones. She worked as a seamstress, enjoyed quiet times with friends, and hated the mosquito. “Oh, really,” the teacher said. “How very interesting. I thought that everyone loved the mosquito, but here, in front of all the world, you claim to detest him. How is it that we’ve been blessed with someone as unique and original as you? Tell us, please.”
The seamstress did not understand what was being said but knew that this was an occasion for shame. Her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared down at her lap as though the appropriate comeback were stitched somewhere alongside the zipper of her slacks.
When called upon, I delivered an effortless list of things that I detest: blood sausage, intestinal pates, brain pudding. I’d learned these words the hard way. Having given it some thought, I then declared my love for IBM typewriters, the French word for bruise, and my electric floor waxer. It was a short list, but still I managed to mispronounce IBM and assign the wrong gender to both the floor waxer and the typewriter. The teacher’s reaction led me to believe that these mistakes were capital crimes in the country of France. “Were you always this palicmkrexis?” she asked. “Even a fiuscrzsa ticiwelmun knows that a typewriter is feminine.”
I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking – but not saying – that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object.
After being singled out as a lazy kfdtinvfm, I took to spending four hours a night on my homework, putting in even more time whenever we were assigned an essay. I suppose I could have gotten by with less, but I was determined to create some sort of identity for myself: David, the hardworker, David the cut-up. We’d have one of those “complete this sentence” exercises, and I’d fool with the thing for hours, invariably settling on something like, “A quick run around the lake? I’d love to! Just give me a moment while I strap on my wooden leg.” The teacher, through word and action, conveyed the message that if this was my idea of an identity, she wanted nothing to do with it.
My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overhead in refugee camps.
“Sometimes me cry alone at night.”
“That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People start love you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay.”
Unlike the French class I had taken in New York, here there was no sense of competition. When the teacher poked a shy Korean in the eyelid with a freshly sharpened pencil, we took no comfort in the fact that, unlike Hyeyoon Cho, we all know the irregular past tense of the verb to defeat. In all fairness, the teacher hadn’t meant to stab the girl, but neither did she spend much time apologizing, saying only, “Well, you should have been vkkdyo more kdeynfulh.”
Understanding doesn’t mean that you can suddenly speak the language. Far from it. It’s a small step, nothing more, yet its rewards are intoxicating and deceptive. The teacher continued her diatribe and I settled back, bathing in the subtle beauty of each new curse and insult.
“You exhaust me with your foolishness and reward my efforts with nothing but pain, do you understand me?"
The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded, “I know the thing that you speak exact now. Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus.”

Trials and Tribulations of the Unsung Peer Tutors

This week, I put my poor peer tutors to work helping me decorate my classroom and incorporate a little "down" time into my lessons for my hardworking students. Everybody needs a break from worksheets and drills now and then, so I cooked up a coloring activity with birthday cakes and candles for all my classes. Unfortunately, as you will soon read, my peer tutors paid the price...

"This week in French 1 class, the students reviewed their greetings and numbers. In order to give them a little break for all of their hard work, Madame Tubbs decided to let the students color a candle for each of their birthdays. But, before she could hand out the candles, I had to cut them out. I can honestly not tell you how long it took me to cut them all out! When I was finished, the students colored and wrote on the candles. When this was done, I wrote everyone's birthdays on Mrs. Tubbs' calendar from all the classes and their candles. (not just French 1) It was very cool to see who shared the same birthday and how many birthdays were in the same month. All in all, it was a very productive week."

"This week in French has been busy and productive. The students have been working on their greetings and classroom objects vocabulary and from time to time they have been reviewing the numbers they learned. For every class, Madame had each student color and decorate a birthday candle with their birthday and first name on it, but someone had to cut the candles out. So I (along with the other peer tutor in the other class) cut out all the candles. I made paper cakes for each month of the year, decorated them, and put the candles for the birthdays for each month on top. it took a while, but I enjoyed doing it!"

Thou Shalt Read the Verb Game Rules and Abide by Them...

Today in French 3, we reviewed all present tense verbs with my infamous verb relay game. In a nutshell, teams of students in rows must work together and conjugate a verb one by one on the white board, achieving 1 point for speed and 2 points for accuracy (if all verb forms are correct). This game, while hilarious and useful in nature, (if you can produce a verb in a foreign language under stress with your adrenaline pumping, you remember it better on a test, I think) can quite often get out of hand if the class cannot control themselves, and so I have crafted this list of rules over time to ensure that the Verb Game is not only fair, but also (semi)calm and (semi)productive.

Thou shalt conjugate the verb in order.

Thou shalt not advance to the next team member before the preceding one has sat back down in
their chair.

Thou shalt cap the white board marker before sitting down after conjugating your verb.

Thou shalt have no more than one marker per group.

Thou shalt not discourage other group members.

Thou shalt not shout at other group members, even in encouragement.

Thou shalt not drum on the desks in anticipation of your turn.

Thou shalt not "talk smack" to other teams.

Thou shalt not sit sideways and trip other team members.

Thou shalt not disagree or argue with Madame when she deems your conjugation incorrect.

Thou shalt not run into the white board in your haste to race there.

And, my newly added rule after today:

Thou shalt write legibly.

Bon week-end, et amusez-vous bien! Soyez sage!

First Impressions

As all teachers and students know, the first day of school is a thrilling and daunting experience. For freshman, it can be and often is nothing but overwhelming - for first year teachers, too. It was for this reason that I looked to my French 1 classes for their first impressions and what they liked the most about French after spending a couple of weeks in my classroom. As we become more comfortable as teacher and student, they become more comfortable with each other as a class, and in their own skin as responsible students. The developing cameraderie is wonderful to watch! As a first year teacher at NHS, I find I identify with the position most of them are in, where learning new things in the classroom is complicated by the fact that one must also become familiar with a new way of life, a new code of conduct, a new sense of responsibility and, hopefully, empowerment, within the school walls. And so, without further ado, some French 1 student first impressions about NHS French so far:

“The funnest thing in this class was learning greetings and singing. The fly swatter game was fun too.”
“French class is easier thank I thought. I found the numbers to be the easiest.”
“My favorite thing about this class was the lotto game :) and Madame Tubbs is a pretty cool teacher.:)”
“My favorite thing in here was that it is not as boring as all my other classes. I liked the fly swatter game the most.:)”
“I enjoyed learning the phrases. The numbers were a little tricky. My favorite game was with the fly swatters.”
“I liked this class in general. The hardest thing to learn is pronouncing everything.”
“My favorite thing I enjoyed was learning the numbers because it was really easy.”
“I liked learning the numbers because they are fun to say.”
“I love the fly swatter game!”
“I like playing french bingo, and I like to learn the numbers.”
“Fly swatter was the best part and greetings are the hardest of this class.”
“My favorite thing was re-learning the alphabet, because it was easy.”
“I liked working with the whole class rather than just by ourselves or a partner, it was more fun,”
“I had fun when we worked around the room and greeted eachother in French.”
“The alphabet was my favorite part, I can't wait for the rest of this year!”
“My favorite thing we have done so far this year was when we chose our French names. When I walk down the hallways and see my French peers, you'll always hear me yell, “Salut!”, and their French names.”
“My favorite things were learning the numbers by passing the ball, the listening excersices, the greeting each other activity to find out how we are doing.”
“I liked when we all got up and walked around having conversations with each other.”
“My favorite activity was working with numbers and the class interaction with each other.”
“One of the things that I liked the most was doing partner work and activities.”
“My favorite part was learning conversations in French. I am worried about grammar.”

DEEP THOUGHTS WITH THE PEER TUTORS
I am fortunate enough to have 2 fantastic upperclassmen peer tutors in my French 1 classes. I asked them both for their thoughts on the first weeks of class as my assistants, and their input was very insightful and uplifting - their positive reaction to their role and to the students is refreshing to see and a true testament to the NHS community.

“On the second day of school, I made my way to my first block of the day, which just so happened to be the class I was peer-tutoring. My heart raced as I climed the stairs because of my nerves; but, soon those nerves rushed away one I saw Mrs. Tubbs and the class looking at me with smiles on their faces. I then knew that this would be a good experience; and it certainly has! Mrs. Tubbs is wonderful and makes sure that I peer-tutor to my full ability. She not only has had me hand out papers and do a little chores for her around the room, but she also allows me to help some of the students that need help catching up on their work. As for the students- they are honestly just as wonderful. Despite my nerves, they have welcomed me into the class as if I am just another student here to learn French. They seem to enjoy my company as I enjoy theirs. Most of all, I have found that they are a very intelligent group of French students that I really look forward to helping for the rest of the year!”

“When I first got my schedule for my junior year, I noticed I had an empty block, so I went to guidance to be put into a class. There weren't many options for courses to take, so I just chose one I thought I could pass easily. On the second day of school, I saw how much I loved my French 3 class with the new teacher, Madame Tubbs. I was hoping I could switch out of the other class I didn't like to see if I could peer tutor for one of her other classes. I went to guidance and got permission and I just had to ask Madame. The next class with her I asked her-a little nervous she'd say no, but luckily she said yes! On the third day of school I walked into my new period 2 -peer tutoring a French 1 class. Madame introduced me and the class welcomed me. So far, I've passed out papers, pens, corrected homework, and hung up some other students' work. I really like being a peer tutor because it's a new experience for me, and I like helping Madame and the other students. I try my best to be a great peer tutor and make everyone in the classroom happy. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!”