Don’t forget about transferable skills!

As promised, whenever possible, the French at Stirling blog will continue posting articles, by current and former students, as well as by members of the French at Stirling team, over the coming weeks and months. And so it’s great to have received a lovely update from Charlotte, who graduated a couple of years ago in French and Journalism Studies:

‘Since graduating back in 2017, I have gone back and forth in my mind, probably a million times, about what I wanted to do once university was over. I started out working as a Project Manager for a translation company in London. This was a great experience, especially as a fresh new graduate who didn’t have a true understanding of what a 9 – 5 desk job entailed. I feel as if this place gave me the best possible start to working life – I had responsibility and the job pushed me into making some really tough decisions quite early on in my career. The skills I picked up from my time there have been invaluable.

However, after a year and a half, I decided that the world of translation was not for me. Although, I really do recommend a job in translation Project Management, especially for languages students who may think that teaching is not for them. During my time in this role I was also given the opportunity to be a Quality Manager (proofreading and editing translations from French into English), further improving my French language skills. So, this is definitely a career worth looking into as a languages graduate. As a MFL student, it can be difficult to know where to turn once university is over. Leaving translation project management behind was a daunting prospect, but I knew that a career change was needed – I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next.

Having spoken to friends who also studied languages, it is easy to forget all the transferable skills which we acquire through our studies – other than being able to speak another language. However, I soon realised that the skills I had developed during my time studying French at University of Stirling had prepared me for a great variety of job roles and positions. I now work in a completely different sector – working as a Communications Executive for a PR agency whose clients are in the hospitality industry, working for some really cool brands, bars, pubs and stores. Like myself, many of my colleagues have not studied PR, however, their love for communication and words has somehow brought them to where they are.

I believe that it is important to realise that a degree in languages can take you anywhere. It can help you land a variety of different job roles, and in my case, it helped me change career. Good luck to all past, present and future students – I hope all you find happiness in your careers and that the skills you learn from studying languages helps you get there!’

Many thanks to Charlotte for sending through this article. We wish you all the very best in your new career and look forward to future updates. And to Charlotte, and all our blog readers and visitors, stay safe and stay well.

Some suggestions for reading (mainly in French)

As well as our usual articles and updates, we’re also trying to keep posting further suggestions for reading, blog articles, etc that might be of interest for a range of different reasons so here goes with today’s selection:

Those of you looking for something in French (and related to the current situation) might be interested in an article in Vanity Fair written by our own Brigitte Depret’s sister that examines the question of philanthropy in the French context (available open-access here).

Those looking for something in French but that’s more about movement and physical activity than reading, Fraser McQueen has tweeted a link to home workout routines that former French boxing world champion Sarah Ourahmoune has been posting  on a daily basis.

And for anybody who fancies some excellent French music, in honour of Nina Parish’s final Chanson française class of the semester (online, not face-to-face), there’s always Brigitte Fontaine and M!

And last but not least on the French/Francophone front, thanks to Emeline Morin for posting a link to the Culturethèque of the Institut Français, a digital library of French-language resources of all kinds that they’ve opened up subscriptions to until 30^th May (free via this link for GB-based readers).

And finally, for those who want something that is only tangentially related to French (insofar as the person concerned is our excellent colleague in Spanish and Latin American Studies, Inés Ordiz), there’s an interview (in English) with Inés via the Stir Women 2020 blog here.

Bonne lecture!

 

More French and Francophone online resources

With many thanks to our fantastic PhD student, Fraser McQueen, some more links to online French and Francophone resources that might be of use and interest to some of you (some more academic-oriented stuff among the following suggestions):

There’s a list here of some TV series/films, many of which are available with English subtitles via services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. To that list, you might want to add things like Les Revenants and Call My Agent (definitely on Netflix with English subtitles). The TV5Monde app is also worth checking out, with more info about it here. It has 3000 online exercises at a range of different levels for learning French.

For some more general suggestions about how to keep going with your French online from day to day, there’s a really useful list here. The University Council of Modern Languages is putting together a bank of online teaching/learning materials that can be accessed here. And Fraser himself has compiled a list of useful YouTube channels with French/Francophone-related content.

On a non-French-specific front, there’s also some really helpful advice here that’s aimed at helping students adapt to online learning.

As promised, more of this kind of information will follow over the weeks ahead but, in the first instance, many, many thanks to Fraser for all this!

Non-academic online resources

As is happening across many countries, a number of French cultural institutions, tv and radio channels, publishers, etc are starting to adapt their digital content (via websites, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) and/or making resources available (freely) to help keep people busy against the backdrop of Covid-19 measures. With this in mind, we thought that one thing the French at Stirling blog might helpfully do would be to post some links to these resources in the hope that they’ll prove helpful over the coming period.

So, for starters, and in no particular order:

A wide range of museums and art galleries are posting works from their collections or materials that relate to their collections via their various social media channels. There are hundreds and hundreds of these out there but, just as a starting point, for example, the Musée d’Orsay is making use of Instagram (@museeorsay) to post a new painting each day from their collections with brief explanations (in French and English), and with similar resources on their website [through the ‘Selection of Works’ section here. Lots of other museums are doing something similar like, for example, the Louvre (via the hashtag #LouvreChezVous) or the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris [#LeMAMchezVous]. The Centre Pompidou Metz is regularly posting poems and letters across its Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on its website and the Musée National de la Marine is also regularly updating its digital content and sharing photos of their collections with explanations of the content via its Facebook page and website.

The annual Rencontres d’Arles photography festival has a freely-available series of resources on its website entitled ‘Observer Voir’ with different activities, aimed at everyone from age 5 upwards, with a particular focus on children and young people.

The children’s book publisher Flammarion Jeunesse has started putting materials online that include all sorts of resources that might be helpful for home-schooling across a wide range of ages (in French, of course). Everything from games to stories. And should you happen to be looking for ways to keep younger children occupied and amused (in French), the publisher Ecole des Loisirs also has a range of resources online, including sample chapters and some audio-books/chapters. And those with (French-speaking or French-learning) children between the ages of 3 and 10 might be interested in some of the materials being posted by Bayard Presse via their @bayam_fr Twitter feed.

For those wanting something lengthier to read and pitched at adults, rather than children, Philosophie Magazine has created a newsletter entitled ‘Carnets de la drôle de guerre’ to which you can subscribe via their website here.

As we say, these are in no particular order but we’ll try to add any other resources as and when we come across them and hope these are of interest in the first instance!

Covid-19

It feels very odd to be blogging, or even thinking about blogging, in these strange and unsettling times but it also seems like a thing to do. Not necessarily an important thing but something, nevertheless.

If you are a University of Stirling student or staff member (of French or not) reading this, please do keep a careful eye, as far as you can, on the emails that are regularly being sent out by the University, as well as those that will be coming to you from your tutors and module coordinators. There will, inevitably, be some repetition across these emails, as we all try to make sure that the most important information is communicated, but do please keep reading them. The University’s Twitter feed (@StirUni) is also a good source of information, as is the University’s dedicated Covid-19 updates page which can be accessed here.

Please do also remember that your tutors and lecturers will be replying to emails and ensuring that you have a means of contacting them, but that they’ll be dealing with a higher volume of emails than usual, at the same time as trying to provide online resources, where possible, so do bear with us but rest assured that we’re here and that we’re very conscious that this is a difficult and unsettling time.

And, of course, for good, reliable medical advice, please do look at the information provided via the NHS webpages here. Those pages also provide links to the UK government’s advice on Covid-19.

For the moment, those are the key messages we wanted to convey. There’ll be more blog posts over the days and weeks ahead, including some posts with resources from various French and French-language institutions, publishers, etc that may be of use to those of you who are self-isolating or who have caring responsibilities or just to help deal with the extra time we’re all likely to be spending at home. In the meantime, though, look after yourselves and those around you. All good wishes from French at Stirling.

‘You might get knocked back a few times but your time will come!’

We’re on something of a roll at the moment with posts from former French at Stirling students, allowing us to paint a great picture of the variety of routes degrees involving languages can take you down, from financial crime analysis to tour-guiding and TEFL, from British Council Language Assistantships to the emergency services, via some thoughts on how to find ways to keep your language/s going after graduation… Today’s post takes in translation, postgraduate studies, proofreading, subtitling and teaching, courtesy of Stewart who graduated with a BA Hons in French and Spanish in 2015:

‘It’s been over 3 years since I graduated from Stirling now. A lot has changed in my life in that time. Some for the better, some for the worse. When I left Stirling, I had grand plans about what I could do with my degree and the places it could take me but life has a habit of getting in the way and putting unexpected obstacles in front of you.

When I last wrote for the French At Stirling blog, I had just got a Master’s in Translation from Heriot-Watt University. I was maybe naïve but I thought it would be relatively easy to get a job but for whatever reason it didn’t work out that way. It can be tough when you keep getting knocked back to stay positive especially in the age of social media when you can receive almost daily updates on how well friends and former classmates are doing for themselves. I was never the most optimistic guy at the best of times!

As time wore on, I eventually found success. Out of desperation I had applied for two translation jobs at the same time and got interviews for both. One based in Scotland, one based in Spain. I nailed both interviews too. The Spanish one was done over Skype and conducted in 3 languages. I was quite proud to come through that in one piece. I was eventually offered both jobs. Decision time! Guess which one I took…

Bute Palm Trees

Scotland won the day. If you read my last blog you probably understand why. Although I study languages and like to travel, I’m very much a fan of home comforts. I come from an island which a lot of people my age refer to as “The Rock”. It has a declining and ageing population. Most young people leave when they go to university or to find a job on the mainland and don’t return. There are still times when I can’t wait to leave yet when I am away, I can’t wait to come back. It must be an islander thing!

Anyway, I was now working as an in-house translator. I gained experience translating medical and legal documents and met some new people but after some time, I started to realise it just wasn’t for me. I found myself staring at a computer screen all day and was living on my own. Life’s too short to be stuck doing something you don’t enjoy.

After I left that job, I moved back home to mull over my next move. It was April 2018 and the FIFA World Cup was just around the corner. I’ve always been a massive football fan and I got the opportunity to combine two passions of mine in football and languages. I worked as a remote translator, proofreader and subtitler. I was able to watch all the games and then translate interviews with players and coaches all from the comfort of my own home. This was the dream but there are only so many World Cups! I liked the flexibility of being freelance and being back home, but I also found myself wanting to get out more and meet new people.

After a few months, I decided to apply for a PGDE in Secondary Education at the University of Glasgow. I was going to become a teacher. It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. My dad had been a Geography teacher years ago and I was struck by how many of his former pupils had got in touch when he passed away showing just how big an impact he’d had on their lives. I’ve also always felt at home when studying for some reason. It gave me a purpose knowing I had some test or exam to pass or a deadline to make. I feel in retrospect I missed that drive when I left university.

The course at Glasgow gave me a good grounding in what it takes to become a teacher. I did 3 placements throughout the year giving me a taster of what to expect when in front of the class but nothing can truly prepare you! Luckily my decision to choose Argyll & Bute paid off and I am now teaching French and Spanish in the same school where I first learned languages as a pupil all those years ago. It has been a steep learning curve and there is never a dull day, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Will I still be teaching in 5, 10, 30 years’ time? Who knows! Life has a habit of getting in the way, but I will give it my best shot while I am still doing it.

I know I wouldn’t be in this position were it not for my time at Stirling. I still keep in touch and meet up with some of my old classmates who are all doing different and exciting things with their own lives. I would advise any current students or recent graduates who are looking to make that next step and find a job to stay patient. You might get knocked back a few times but your time will come!’

Many thanks indeed to Stewart for sending through this great update! We’re really pleased to hear that things are going well with the language teaching and look forward to future blog posts.

From Stirling to Soissons: History, Travel and Bell Chimes

After Emily’s account of working as an Emergency Services Officer in the Australian desert, it’s back to Europe again with an update from Alex who graduated with a BA Hons in French and Maths last June:

‘Just even writing this, I cannot believe that it has already been eight months since I graduated from the University of Stirling. As much as I am missing seeing the Ochils and Wallace Monument every day, the last six months have been awesome. I am just over halfway through my British Council placement in France for the academic year 2019/20 and it has been fantastic. I was allocated to the Académie d’Amiens and more specifically, two high schools in the town of Soissons in the north-east of France.

Although Soissons has a small population of 30,000, about two-thirds of the size of Stirling, there is just as much history to be found in this part of France. Under the reign of King Clovis I in the late 4th and early 5th Centuries, Soissons was under the rule of the Franks, after the Battle of Soissons in 486 AD. And when Clovis died in 511, it became the capital of what we know today as north-east France. All of this history can be discovered in the Musée de Soissons, which is just 2€ entry (bar the first Sunday of every month when it is free!). There are two abbeys and a cathedral all within walking distance of the centre of town. I live a two-minute walk away from the cathedral, in fact I can see it from my kitchen window! You never get tired of hearing the bell chimes every 15 minutes (from 8am to 10pm) and looking at this amazing piece of architecture.

I feel incredibly lucky with the allocation of my schools. One school is a 15-minute walk from my accommodation, whilst the other is just a 20-minute bus ride from the centre of town, and the buses are less than 1€ per ride. I work with four different teachers and they are all fantastic. Personally, I think it’s beneficial to see different styles of teaching and approaches to assessments and language learning. Sometimes I work in groups of between 4 and 8 students outside of the main class, or I will stay with the main teacher and we’ll work on an activity together. I have even had the opportunity of teaching full classes myself, particularly with presentations on Anglophone culture or certain points of grammar.

In both of my schools with the 14-15 year-old students (3èmes), we have been doing débats citoyens every week, debating a wide range of topics such as:

• “Footballers deserve to earn the salary they receive”
• “Capital punishment should be reinstated for the most serious of crimes”
• “TV reality shows teach us about life”
• “Art is necessary for the development of man”
• “Teachers in the USA should be allowed to carry firearms in the event of a mass shooting”

This is a great way for the older students to become more confident and spontaneous at speaking in English. It also provides them additional cultural exposure to the Anglophone world that they might not see in class.

On top of my British Council contract, I managed to gain an hour a week through the Soissons Town Hall of doing English activities with primary school students in an after-school club. Although I prefer working with 11-16 year-olds, this has been a great opportunity for me to work with children between 8 and 11 years old, and discover the level of English children have before attending high school.

I have been very lucky in where I live too! I was offered accommodation by one of my teachers in a boarding school in the centre of Soissons. Turns out that I live with 6 other assistants, with all of us coming from different parts of the world; England, Northern Ireland, Spain, Mexico, the USA, and the Bahamas! We get on really well and they are a huge part of the reason why this experience has been so good. Having other people there with you every single day makes it so much easier, so I would suggest (if possible) new assistants try to live with other young people to make you feel more comfortable in your new surroundings.

And since I only work 13 hours a week (British Council – 12 hours, Soissons Town Hall – 1 hour), I have had a lot of time to travel. In fact, each académie in France will encourage you to “profitez de vos week-ends et voyagez!” Since October, I have so far been to (in France) Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Rennes, Amiens, Reims, Rouen and Saint Malo, and I will heading further south during the warmer months! I have also journeyed outside of France to both Belgium, to the cities of Brussels and Ghent, and the Netherlands, visiting Rotterdam. Therefore, I would advise the same to anyone thinking of doing an assistantship: take advantage of your weekends and 2-week half-term breaks and travel across France and the rest of Europe! I would recommend buying either a SNCF Carte Jeune or a Carte Régionale (for each Département in France), which gets you 30% and 50% off rail fares respectively. Flixbus is also an absolute gem if you’re looking to travel cheaply!

So, where does this leave me after this experience? I have decided after this experience that I would like to become a secondary school teacher and am in the process of applying for my teaching qualification. Whether I teach in England, Scotland or elsewhere, who knows! All I know is that I want to make a difference to students’ lives, and the British Council experience certainly does that.’

Many, many thanks to Alex for this great update and best of luck with the interviews for teacher training that are coming up! We look forward to hearing how the rest of your time in Soissons goes.

‘Studying French felt like unlocking a map’

What better way to end the week than with another update from one of our former students? This time, we’re particularly pleased to be able to post an article by Emily who graduated with a BA Hons in French almost three years ago now:

‘I always wanted to be a firefighter, and I knew I didn’t need a degree for that. I suppose I went to university because it was expected, and I hoped that if my career in emergency services fell flat it would give me some qualifications to land on. I chose French because it felt like code-breaking, or unlocking a huge chunk of the map that was otherwise inaccessible. I grew an awful lot because of the opportunities I had to travel, teach and immerse myself. I did not actively pursue French after I graduated, but I was extremely proud of becoming bilingual. It opened up ways of thinking and lines of communication and connection that could never have existed otherwise, even when I speak English now. My best friend and my partner are both French speakers too, and no matter where I go or what job I have, I’ve noticed francophones popping up everywhere, delighted to be able to have a conversation in their own language abroad.

I made it into emergency services in the end. I moved to Australia with my partner a year after graduation, and although I was not accepted into the government-endorsed firefighters or paramedics on the first application, I kept going. I acquired qualifications in drug testing, paramedic health care, and firefighting response and rescue. Anyone interested in emergency work can get those things, but the background of travel, language/communication skills and higher education was also very desirable to recruiters in that field. Almost immediately I was privately contracting my services in the desert as an Emergency Services Officer, responsible for leading my own response team in HAZMAT emergencies, road crash, bushfire, vertical and confined space rescues. I also tend to patients from the residential mining town in the medical centre, which can be intense as the nearest large hospitals are several hours away even by helicopter. It sounds like a lot, in reality most of the job is just admin, drug tests for miners, and keeping everything clean and ready to go. Because the location is so remote, my work is fly in/fly out, so I spend a lot of time away from home. But I am doing what I love, and on my off-swings I still shake cocktails and mud wrestle at the city’s best gay club, so the party never ends!’

Many, many thanks to Emily for finding the time to send us through this great blog post and we’re delighted to hear that things are working out so well for you!