Living and working abroad: ‘Be open to change!’

Another week, another chance to catch up with one of our students. Caitlin is about to start Year 3 of our BA Hons in French with Spanish and Professional Education (Secondary) and spent part of the past academic year on a British Council Language Assistantship in France:

‘Almost six months after returning from my placement in France, I reflect on how much can change in one year. This time last year, I was between placements and convincing myself for my upcoming trip – “okay, if I can spend six weeks abroad, I am sure that I can spend six months abroad”. Meanwhile, honestly, I was slightly in panic mode about what would happen in a month’s time. Where will I stay? Do I have enough money? Have I brought enough books to last me for my time away? Trivial matters, yes, but when you feel that you are moving so far away for longer than a typical week’s holiday, you do tend to overthink things.

Nonetheless, I set off at the end of September to begin my foreign placement in Montpellier, France. The first few weeks were vital to organising accommodation and paperwork (e.g. bank accounts). This was daunting initially as, having been living in Spain for almost 8 weeks, my mind, as I always say, was in ‘Spanish mode’, and even the basic French words and sentences were confusing at first. Whilst this sounds like a bad thing, this motivated me more to push myself to speaking and learning French in day to day interactions.

During my time in Montpellier, I would be working as an English Language Assistant with the British Council, based in two primary schools in a small town called Lunel, 31km east of the city. I worked every Tuesday and Thursday teaching English to children from aged six to twelve. This was a great experience, although different to my own previous experiences of teaching. Firstly, because I study French and Spanish with Professional Education, my experience so far has been in teaching in Secondary Schools. However, the tables had turned with my position here as I was teaching my own language to younger children.  I felt that this was a beneficial way for me to learn how to plan lessons and activities to keep the pupils engaged. It has also given me an insight into how second languages are taught at a ‘primary’ school level and this will be most help to my professional career as a Secondary School teacher.

Having been placed in Lunel, a smaller town, I decided that I would benefit from staying in the smaller town to immerse myself in the localities. After all, I could always get the train to Montpellier which only took 20 minutes. Having considered my options, I was lucky enough to find the perfect accommodation in living in a private studio which belonged a lovely French couple who always made me feel so welcome. This was a fantastic decision for me – I had the perfect balance between having my own private space but I was able to converse in French with my landlords whenever I wanted. This really did help to improve my French and made me feel at ease, knowing I had support. I enjoyed the perks of a small town also – the local cinema where I would go and watch the latest films (La Fille au Bracelet was a favourite of mine!),

Whilst living in a small town had its perks – the local supermarket was a five-minute walk, the train station was a straight fifteen-minute walk through the old cobbled, traditional centre ville, I found in certain times there were also challenges. In December 2019, the people of France organised one of the country’s largest and longest protests that it has seen in years. Due to the government’s pension reform, millions throughout the country participated in strikes from their daily job s- including teachers and SNCF train workers. During this time, I found myself stranded in Lunel for eight days just before Christmas. This was difficult at times. However, it made me discover other parts of the town, study and live life normally as I would in Scotland.

Working as an English Language Assistant is also a great way to make friends from different parts of the world – the friends I made were from different parts of America and the first friend I made was from Kenya. Although you learn about French culture, it is a great way to learn about other countries and to share your own. As you settle into a country on your own, if you really want to make the most of the experience, you really have to push yourself out there: make friends, learn and speak the language, try to live like a local but travel like the tourist that you are.

In addition, whilst I was in France, I participated in the Stevenson Exchange Scholarship, which meant I was able to travel and to learn more about aspects of French culture as part of my project. Due to this, I have so many unforgettable experiences from my time spent in France, including the many long weekends I made the most of by travelling (Toulouse, Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Sète…). In addition, the drastic weather on some occasions, learning about French culture by trying out new dishes such as fondue, raclette, pain au chocolat (or ‘chocolatine’ as they say in the Southern France) and enjoying a café gourmand sitting at Place de la Comédie in the centre of Montpellier, made my experience memorable. The English Language Assistantship is not only a fantastic way to gain professional experience but for me, I found it has made me become a more culturally aware, sociable and independent person. And of course, I feel that my French has improved!

Unfortunately, my time in France was cut short due to the Coronavirus pandemic. I was on the bus to the airport for a long weekend at home in Scotland when the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced that the schools would not open again and unbeknown to me, I would not return to Lunel- to see my friends, to pack all my belongings and to see the teachers and pupils I had spent the last six months with. I came back a month earlier than anticipated and did not get to travel to certain places. However, I see this as an excuse to return in the future! A quote I have read states that “experience is the teacher of all things” and this is the perfect way to sum up my Assistantship experience.

For future English Language Assistants, I have some advice:

-ensure that you are prepared before you go- do you have all your paperwork? Birth certificate, passport, statements, student card? This is all vital for you to settle in and arrange accommodation and opening your bank account. I would also recommend that these are copies- you don’t want to risk losing the original!

-Accept that you may have to travel more: the train/bus from the smaller town, and a regular journey for me- the night bus from Montpellier, via Toulouse to Barcelona- to catch an early morning flight back to Scotland due to the flight schedules. For me, it made the journey more of an adventure!

-Make the most of the days you are not working- travel, meet up with friends, visit tourist attractions, find a little coffee shop you can frequent to read and study. I found that keeping busy kept me motivated!

-Be open to change. You are in a different country- not everything will be as you expect but take that as an opportunity to learn!’

Many, many thanks to Caitlin for sending through this great post and pictures. We hope you’ll get the opportunity to return to Lunel very soon and wish you all the best for the new semester ahead.

In Memory of Helen Beale

French at Stirling are very sad to announce the passing of our friend and former colleague, Helen Beale, and are grateful to Alastair Duncan for the following tribute in Helen’s memory:

‘Helen Beale, who passed away on the 15th of August, was for over thirty years a treasured member of the University French Department.

Helen was appointed to the Department along with the second intake of students in 1968. At that time, fresh from her postgraduate studies at Hull, her main academic interest was in poetry and especially in Apollinaire. Over the years she came to specialise more and more in painting and sculpture. Successive curators of the University art collection benefitted from her help and advice. Long after her retirement Helen continued to write and publish. Her reputation grew. She became a leading authority on the French artist Eduard Pignon.

Helen’s lectures were a joy to attend: lively and spiced with her often self-deprecating humour. Quietly, self-effacingly, she set the tone for the whole Department. Her care for both students and staff was legendary. Whatever the circumstances, a note or a card from Helen would come to thank, console or just perk you up. Her wonderful spirit shone out in the last years of her life. Struck down by a grievous illness, she was given six months to live; to the astonishment of doctors, she lived on for four more years, still working, still caring and acquiring new friends and admirers, not least among the hospital staff who saw her regularly.

Helen will be missed by many. All those who knew her have had their lives enriched. A memorial service will be held when circumstances allow.’

Félicitations Phia!

Not specifically French-related at all but we wanted to pass on our félicitations to our colleague, Phia Steyn, Lecturer in History at Stirling, who has just successfully completed her ‘7 Lochs in 7 Days’ swimming challenge, raising over £1000 (and counting…) for Stirling’s Student Hardship Fund. Well done, Phia!

Donations can still be made to the fundraising campaign here.

Family life, Franco-Vietnamese authors and job hunt plans

The countdown to start of semester is well and truly underway for us, with students choosing their modules from today. As we look forward to welcoming new students and welcoming back our returning students, we’re also pleased to be able to continue our catch-ups with French at Stirling graduates. A great place to start this week is with this update from Julie, who graduated three years ago:

‘I graduated from the University of Stirling in 2017 with a Combined degree in English Studies and French. It is a place where I had some of the greatest experiences and met friends I know I’ll have for the rest of my life. I miss it a lot, and I have compared my current studies with my former ones countless of times; I had quite the culture shock when I had to get used to the Danish way of running things.

After a failed endeavour at Waseda University in Tokyo, where I was adamant to study my master’s degree, I ended up going back to Denmark and enrolling in Aarhus University to get a master’s degree in Intercultural Studies with French. I started in 2018, and as I’m currently on maternity leave (hello, brave new world) I’ll be writing my thesis in the spring semester of 2021. Once I had returned to Denmark, I very quickly realised that I wanted to continue with studies that had something to do with French language and culture. A lot of studies have been cut away from the Danish University system so the government can save money, and as such my options were quite limited. Luckily, Aarhus University offered the degree in Intercultural Studies, even though we are only 3 students on the French track. Humanities are sadly quite underfunded here in Denmark at the moment.

The degree is divided into an English part and a French part, with heavy focus on the French. I found this to be just my cup of tea, and I’m excited to begin my thesis. To give a very general description of what I will be writing about: I will be researching Franco-Vietnamese women writers, such as Kim Thuy, Bach Mai and Kim Doan, and the theme of trauma and identity in their works. My ‘parent-brain’ cannot wait to get started with something again!

As for after I finish my studies, I hope to teach. Here in Denmark you need a master’s degree to be able to teach at a High School level, and that is what I want to do. I am always hearing from professors and teachers alike that there will be a need for French teachers in the near future. So, I am crossing everything I can, and I will start my job hunt next spring and summer. I also have a keen interest in translation, so I might try to look at some job possibilities in that field as well.

This was my short update of where my life is at the moment. I had not imagined that this is where I would be; still not finished with my studies, but with a family and a future I hope is bright, despite the Global crisis we are all going through.

I want to thank French at Stirling for reaching out to me. I hope to visit Stirling again in the near future, and I hope the current students are enjoying it as much as I did.’

Many, many thanks to Julie for the great update. We wish you all the very best for the thesis and for the job hunt, and look forward to more updates down the line.

From French at Stirling to teaching English in Japan

It’s always great to follow the journeys our graduates embark on after they leave Stirling and, in some cases, those journeys take in an impressive range of destinations. For Susan, who graduated with a degree in French and Spanish in 2011, the travelling had started well before University, continued throughout her studies and, since graduating, has remained a key feature of her life. For us, this has meant updates recounting tales of everywhere from Kenya and Kazakhstan to Spain and the Czech Republic. With a new semester about a month away at Stirling, new cohorts of students about to join us and last year’s finalists starting life after graduation, it seemed like a good time to get in touch with Susan and to find out how things are going:

‘I returned to Japan in January 2019 and have been working for a private language school in Tokyo. My students are children from age 3 and adults up to 80 years old! I teach general English and Business English in three different schools, so plenty of variety. We have small classes of no more than six students and I teach many 1-2-1 classes, so it’s very relaxed and gives me the opportunity to really get to know my students and find out about their lives. Japanese people are very welcoming and I have had dinner/lunch invitations and have enjoyed days out with some of them.

Obviously, just like the world over, coronavirus has brought new challenges and although Japan hasn’t seen the high numbers of cases other countries have, we have had to adapt and cleaning and sanitising the tables and chairs after every class is our new normal. Mask wearing is a part of daily life here anyway so there hasn’t been any resistance.

At the moment (August) it is the Obon national holiday. It’s a Buddhist festival when the spirits of the ancestors come to visit and Japanese people visit the temple and the graves of their relatives. Unfortunately, no gatherings are allowed so this, and all the other summer festivals, have been cancelled this year.

Hopefully we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel soon!!’

 

Many, many thanks to Susan for sending through another great update and we hope things continue to go well for you in Japan. More updates from our graduates to come over the next few weeks so watch this space…

My Experience as a Language Assistant – Covid-19 Edition

As I’m sure we’ve mentioned before on the blog, it’s always fantastic to hear tales from current and former students about their experiences spending time abroad as part of their degree. This past year has been particularly challenging for our students on that front, with Semesters Abroad and British Council Language Assistantships coming to a premature end as lockdown kicked in, so it was especially uplifting to receive the following post from Sebastian who is about to go into his 3^rd year with us, studying French, Spanish and Professional Secondary Education:

‘As I prepare for my grand return to Stirling Uni to continue my French and Spanish studies, I can’t help but notice it has been a full year since I received my first email from my French school. Going back to April 2019, I vividly remember sitting in an education seminar with my fellow peers and tutor, discussing about what waits for us in France as English Language Assistants: “will people understand me, will my French improve”, so many thoughts and concerns went flying through our heads. We didn’t consider the possibility that our year abroad would be cut short due to a global pandemic…

Despite this hiccup, the time I had in France will always be memorable – the adventures, the friendships – it will be impossible to forget them. I wish I could say I was this ecstatic before going out to France, but it was quite the opposite. I was assigned to Lycée La Haie Griselle in Gérardmer. My nerves began after doing a Google search to realise this small town in the Grand Est region had no train station and to get to the nearest city, involved taking a 40-minute bus to the closest train station, then another hour to get to Nancy.

What I thought was a huge hindrance on my year abroad, turned out to be a perfect opportunity for my French. Of course, no one could speak English in this part of France (apart from the English teachers), so this forced me to speak French everywhere I went. Naturally, I was petrified to speak French. Making mistakes in front of locals, making a fool out of myself felt daunting. Very soon though, I overcame this fear and those thousand and one mistakes helped me improve my French drastically.

My time in the school was also a joy. Wanting to pursue a career in teaching languages, it was amazing to learn and improve my teaching skills whilst enhancing my French at the same time. I would work with seconde, première and terminale students for 30 or 60 minutes, 12 to 15 hours a week. It didn’t matter if I had to teach them about the Victorian Era, the Commonwealth, Interview skills – each lesson was great fun! I had a great rapport with students and teachers, and I truly felt I was part of superb teaching team.

Before moving to France, the British Council suggested, whilst in our host country, we should accept every invitation we receive, unless it would put us in danger. With this mindset, I accepted invites to many social events where I got the opportunity to experience French culture. “Want to join a Badminton Club and play every Monday”… of course, love to… “would you like to join us for a meal and go see a one man play”…sounds lovely… “we are having a retirement party for one of our teachers, care to join”…absolutely. To this day, I’m glad I accepted every invitation that came my way, even attending a town hall meeting on a Friday night…actually, still questioning that one.

Throughout the week, I was immersed in the language and the culture. So, having the weekend to spend time with the other language assistants was a great treat. We all met at our induction day in Nancy, and everyone instantly connected. We all had a laugh about our different ways of life as we had people coming from Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain, Australia and America. Our connections grew while travelling across France – visiting Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg, Metz – and touring Europe – Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy.

Everything was going so well! My level of French was improving as I ploughed through a couple of Harry Potter books in French (then moving onto recommendations from teachers such as Petit Pays by Gaël Faye), making a habit of going to the cinema once or twice a week (La Belle Époque, Un Vrai Bonhomme and Seules Les Bêtes are a must see) and making new friends at badminton. My desire to stay in Gérardmer was obvious as I was fortunate enough to extend my contract for another month…nothing could ruin my time abroad…right?

 

Fast-forward to the present, I’m back in Scotland after leaving France 4 months ago due to Coronavirus. I am still trying to get the rest of my belongings back such as my Kindle (yes, I’m aware that was a stupid mistake), some clothes and other souvenirs. At the beginning of the outbreak, everyone thought this lockdown would last just 2 weeks…oh how wrong we were. Ever since leaving, I have weekly 1-hour sessions with a French native, getting through the rest of the Harry Potter books and watching various films, shows on Netflix and YouTube in French. It can be a challenge to keep up with everything knowing that by simply pausing a video or ending a Zoom call, I leave the French-speaking world.

After having my year abroad cut in half, I’m left feeling nostalgic and yearning for other adventures in Europe. Although I remember a phrase from one of my favourite childhood authors: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened” – Dr. Seuss.’

Many, many thanks to Sebastian for this brilliantly honest and enthusiastic blog post. We hope you’ll get the chance to go back to Gérardmer in the not-too-distant future and wish you all the very best for your return to Stirling.

Children’s Fiction and French

As regular blog readers will know, staff, students and graduates of French at Stirling are involved in a very wide range of activities and we like to cover as much of the range as possible here on the blog. With that in mind, today’s post is about the French at Stirling Programme Director, Elizabeth Ezra, who moonlights as a children’s author.

Earlier this year, Elizabeth contributed a short work of fiction to an anthology of poems and stories for children coping with the current global pandemic. The collection, aimed at 8 to 11-year-olds, can be downloaded for free here or read online here. (For those wanting to read more of Elizabeth’s children’s fiction, we can highly recommend her Kelpie award-winning Ruby McCracken: Tragic without Magic!)

Elizabeth also researches children’s literature, and last year published an article in the academic journal Children’s Literature on witches and ethical models of alterity in Harry Potter and His Dark Materials (a pre-publication copy of the article can be accessed here). Elizabeth brings her experience working in and on children’s literature to her French honours option French Children’s Literature and Cinema, offered in alternate years to students in Years 3 and 4 of their degree. This particular module examines works ranging from the Fables of La Fontaine and Perrault’s fairy tales through Babar picture books and Le Petit Prince, to films such as Le Ballon rouge and Kirikou et la Sorcière.

Bonne lecture!

Women in Translation Month

August is Women in Translation month (#WITmonth) and, this year, we thought we’d like to mark the month somehow on the blog. First off, we’re delighted to be able to point you in the direction of an interview with our fantastic colleague, Nina Parish (and her colleague and collaborator, Emma Wagstaff), about their translation work with a particular focus on poetry in/and translation.

Obviously, we spend a lot of time encouraging our students to read more in French but we are also avid readers of work in translation across a wide range of languages and genres so this seemed the perfect opportunity to throw in some suggestions from French at Stirling for great reads to celebrate WIT Month. Elizabeth Ezra’s tip would be the short stories of Russian author Teffi, translated by Rose France, and available in such collections as Shadows of Days: Russian Emigre Short Stories from Bunin to Yankovsky (Penguin Press), 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution and Rasputin and other Ironies (both published by the brilliant Pushkin Press). Nina Parish has just finished The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff, translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel and published by And Other Stories who have lots of great literature in translation. Nina’s next read is also in-keeping with the theme: Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein.

Cristina Johnston has just started reading the Icelandic novel Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated by Brian Fitzgibbon, and, over the summer, has revisited Astrid Lindren’s Pippi Longstocking in bedtime reading to small children, translated from Swedish by Edna Hurup. Cristina also thoroughly enjoyed Roseanne Watt’s bilingual poetry collection Moder Dy which is in Shetlandic and English. And Aedín Ní Loingsigh‘s favourite lockdown read was the German author Anna Seghers’ 1942 novel The Seventh Cross which was retranslated in 2018 by Margot Bettauer Dembo. It’s a really tense read that follows a German Communist who escapes from a concentration camp in the early years of Nazi Germany and must determine who amongst his old acquaintances he can trust to help him. In-keeping with the translation and languages theme, Aedín has also just ordered Liam Carson’s 2012 novel Call Mother a Lonely Field. It’s a memoir of a bilingual childhood in Belfast and Aedín is hoping it will prompt me to return to a more academic book by Sherry Simon, Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of  Divided City where she speaks of the long-term influence on her own thinking of ‘setting up a house on the border between languages’.

And it wouldn’t be a proper French at Stirling post about Women in Translation Month without also highlighting the work of our own Siân Reynolds as translator of Fred Vargas’s crime fiction (including Sous les vents de Neptune which we’ll be teaching on again this coming semester in our French detective fiction option…) and of Georges Simenon and much else besides.

Plenty of tips for good reads here, with more to follow, and, if you’re interested in women writing in endangered languages, Hannah Grayson would particularly recommend this article by Alison Wellford.

Bonne lecture!