After French at Stirling: 50 years on…

It is definitely a sign of how busy things have been at Stirling since the start of the year that it’s already the end of March and this is our first blog post of 2024 but it’s a great one to get us started again!

We’re always happy to highlight the progress of our graduates but in this blog post we are delighted to share reflections that go back further than usual. Russ Walker is celebrating fifty years since his graduation from Stirling, and reflecting on what a degree in French led to…

“I graduated from the University of Stirling in the summer of 1974 – hard to believe that it will be fifty years this summer. A degree in French – what to do with it?

I had a chance to work as an ‘intelligence agent’ (spy? they never said) and an opportunity of a post on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Instead, I spent my working life based in Scotland in jobs where French was not a requirement. However, it proved surprisingly useful in many of my postings and in my other interests.

The first half of my working career was involved with General Register Office for Scotland which organised and ran the recording of all births, deaths and marriages in Scotland along with the population census. To my surprise, in my first month I found myself back in Paris at the Palais du Luxembourg translating for registration colleagues at the annual meeting of the CIEC – the International Commission on Civil Status.

In the following years we returned as observers at annual conferences in Madrid, Salzburg and Cesme (Turkey), even being invited to present a paper in French on the new Scottish Marriage Law.  I worked on the team that took the new law through Parliament.

As a graduate civil service recruit, I undertook a number of lengthy training courses in London. One of these involved a week studying at ENA Paris (Ecole Nationale d’Adminstration) where we twinned with the future top administrators of France. Emmanuel Macron was a later graduate but went on to close it down.

I was part of the team planning and preparing the 1981 population census and then took charge of overseeing the census in the Edinburgh and Lothians area. This involved around 2,000 temporary workers at a time when the census involved house to house visits.

For most of the 1980s I was a travelling inspector checking and visiting registrars across western Scotland covering the area from the Isle of Lewis down to Gretna. Scotland was covered by three of us with the grand title of “District Examiner” – one of the best jobs it was possible to have! I married and moved back to the Glasgow area. I was free to plan my own timetable and spent many pleasant summer weeks on Lewis, Harris, Barra, the Uists, Skye, Islay and the smaller islands – saving Glasgow and the larger offices for winter visits! It was a great way to learn about my native land and what was happening locally.

My travelling life stopped in 1992 and the second part of my career was a complete change. I started working for the Scottish Government initially on government assistance grants to companies creating new jobs. There were many interesting and ambitious local companies looking for assistance to expand including some of the computer games companies which were just beginning to emerge at that time.

I followed that with a lengthy secondment to Scottish Enterprise, our business development agency, working firstly in the Locate in Scotland (LIS) briefing team. LIS was charged with bringing in and supporting investment from outside the country and we were kept busy briefing government ministers announcing new investment and job creation in some of the new, emerging industries. There were usually lots of TV and newspaper coverage at these events.  Later I took on the German desk (!), supported by my very capable colleague Heike, a formidable Glaswegian German. I followed that with the renewable energy remit, a sector which was just emerging at that point. At that time too I participated in some EU-based courses in Brussels, conducted in French (of course).

The final part of my career was a return to the Scottish Government in various parts of its International relations interests. We ran an international network called ‘Friends of Scotland’ and developed web based material to promote Scotland internationally, with the aim of growing our trade, investment, influence and networks.

One memorable project involved a close connection to my time at Stirling. I had spent the second semester of my third year studies in Montpellier. One of our ‘Friends’ offered the opportunity to leave a permanent reminder there – the partial restoration of Sir Patrick Geddes garden in Montpellier and the installation of a copy of Geddes bust at the College des Écossais – now one of the main centres for courses for teachers in the Hérault. When I was there in 1973 I had no idea then about the college nor any knowledge of Sir Patrick Geddes!

Geddes has since reappeared as one of the great environmentalists and his phrase – Think Global Act Local – is used around the world so it was nostalgic to return to Montpellier for the unveiling of the bust and the project itself was well covered by an article in The Scotsman.

In my personal life I was able to use my French quite regularly for many years. My department was very supportive of assisting further learning so I took a number of courses at the French Institute in Edinburgh including its Diploma in Commercial French as well as enjoying some French Government sponsored courses in France (a week visiting Champagne producers around Reims, for example!)

I was quite involved in athletics for many years and as part of its European City of Culture in 1990, Glasgow hosted the European Indoor Championships. I helped to recruit most of the interpreter/liaison volunteers to work with the overseas teams and I acted in that capacity for the French team. An Italian/Ugandan friend from my Stirling days came up do the same with the Italian team.

Another interest is in philately – stamps, postal history, postcards etc – and that has called on my French from time to time. I attended the Salon Philatélique d’Automne for a few years helping some dealer friends sell material to French collectors. We also established very friendly links to the New Caledonia stamp club (Caledonia being the initial link!) and I gave a presentation to its members in the Maison de la Nouvelle Calédonie near the Paris Opera. I am now investigating whether my fairly large collection of French North Africa might be of interest to the university. Over the centenary years of the First World War my philatelic society worked with the French Institute and Goethe Institute in Glasgow to put on a number of displays there showing material from the war.

And Brel? Well we did organise a memorial dinner for more than 20 at Bar Brel in Glasgow to mark the 25^th anniversary of his death. Of course with ‘frites et moules’.

Il nous fallut bien du talent
Pour être vieux sans être adultes

Finally, another memory from Stirling in the summer of 1974. Monty Python came to film nearby at Doune. The University invited 175 students to take part in a Python battle scene in its May 20 1974 newsletter. The advert stated: “While pay for the day is rather humble at £2 a head, transport to and from the film set is free, as is the food, including elevenses, hot lunch and tea. An added attraction, of course, will be a bunch of crazy antics coupled with the fact that the film is a full feature length film – going out on international release. Transport, in the form of buses, will be leaving from the back of Pathfoot at 8am (on May 25) – yes, that early, so that the makeup and costume girls can do a good job on you. Who knows, this could be your chance for stardom!”

I volunteered along with our two French Assistantes – we have dined out on that story ever since!”

So many of our graduates have gone on to such a diverse range of careers, further studies and adventures after they’ve completed their studies at Stirling but this has to be one of the most diverse posts we’ve been able to add so many, many thanks to Russ for taking the time to send this through and we look forward to tales of further French-related adventures.

  

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.

Congratulations one and all!

Another very pleasant part of this whole blog catch-up thing is that it gives me a chance to pass on great news about successes for staff and students.

The University’s annual RATE teaching award ceremony took place at the end of last month so, firstly, congratulations to our Divisional colleague Bashir Saade who won this year’s prize for Excellence in Teaching in Arts and Humanities. It was fantastic to see a number of French at Stirling staff also being nominated for their hard work and commitment to teaching over this past academic year across a range of categories: Exceptional Student Support Award; Research Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year; Best Tutor; Fantastic Feedback and Excellence in Teaching in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities. And the feedback from the voters always makes us smile:

‘An inspirational teacher and one that I desire to be like myself’;

‘So passionate about her subject and creates an enjoyable atmosphere for learning. Where every student feels their opinion or interpretation is valid’;

‘Very constructive and friendly feedback that gave me the confidence to write essays with more ease’;

‘Most involved, best informed, best organised tutor and professor. Will always get back to you on time, will help with anything, always on time, always available for appointments.’

Thank you to all the students who voted for us – it really is very much appreciated by us all!

And congratulations, too, to Caitlin, Eszter and Eilidh, Stirling’s three successful applicants for this year’s Stevenson Exchange Scholarships, all of whom will be able to benefit from funding to undertake research projects while on Study Abroad or English Language Assistantships next year.

Eilidh – who is studying French with Spanish and Professional Education – will be working on a project exploring how a particular region balances its history and traditions against a desire to modernise and to exist within a changing world, with a particular focus on Lyon where she’ll be spending her year as a Language Assistant. Caitlin – who is on the same degree programme as Eilidh – is keen to explore the influence of Gothic art and architecture on the region around Montpellier where she’ll be working, also as a British Council Assistant. And Eszter – whose degree is in Spanish and Marketing – will be in Spain, on Semester Abroad, and examining feminism and the creative industries while studying at the University of Navarra-Pamplona. Congratulations to all three recipients of these competitive scholarships and we look forward to tales of your time abroad and the work you do with the Stevenson over the year ahead.

And thanks to Jean-Michel DesJacques and Jose-Maria Ferreira-Cayuela, Study Abroad Coordinators for French and Spanish respectively, for all their work in helping develop the applications.

Sunshine and Successes

It has been a fantastically sunny day in Stirling today, ideal weather for this year’s finalists who have just become this year’s French at Stirling graduates. Everybody looked great in their finery and, despite the heat in the Gannochy, it was a morning of smiles all round. Congratulations once again to all our graduates!

And it’s not only our finalists who are to be lauded today – as I got ready to don my gown for the ceremony this morning, I was very pleased to find a blog post from Jack, one of our students who is halfway through his degree, waiting in my inbox. As we mentioned recently on the blog, Jack was recently awarded a Stevenson Exchange Scholarship which he’ll use – as he explains here – to learn more about competition structures for tennis in France:

‘For language students, third year is a biggie. It’s the one we all look forward to – the one where we finally get to spend our semester abroad! We have all talked about it amongst ourselves endlessly, saying things like “I think I’ll go to Quebec’ or ‘Tours sounds nice!’, but this coming September myself and the rest of the French students at Stirling going into their third year of studies will have to make a final decision on which francophone university we would like to study at in January 2019. What seemed like a decision so far away is suddenly right around the corner!

For me, it has been a decision that I have had to put much thought into. Being a tennis scholar at Stirling, I wanted to find a French-speaking city that I would find exciting and where I would have ample opportunities to improve my ability in the language, but also have the tennis facilities and travel links that would allow me to continue with my rigorous training and competition schedule. Luckily for me, France is one of (if not the) best tennis nations in the world! Having spent some time in Montpellier during my teenage years, I knew that South of France is where I wanted to be due to its fantastic climate, the amiable hospitality of its inhabitants and, of course, the many tennis clubs and academies that are dotted around the region!

February last year, I was informed by the French department of the opportunity to apply for the Stevenson Exchange Scholarship. This scholarship was developed in order to provide some funding for students who wished to undertake specific research projects during their time abroad, alongside their Erasmus studies or an English Language Assistantship. Due to my passion for tennis, I leapt at the chance! After deliberating on which aspect of tennis in France that I wanted to explore, I decided that the most interesting would be to research the structures for competition in France, and how they compare to that of the United Kingdom. In more simple terms, I wanted to try to figure out how why the level of tennis in France is so high, and how we might be able to better organise tournaments in Britain from beginners all the way up to the professional level in order produce the next generation of future stars.

I decided that with the help of the grant I would travel to a few professional events around the country, including L’Open Sud de France in Montpellier that commences in February, and especially the French Open at the end of May. I would also visit a few of the popular tennis academies and clubs located in the south of France and interview some of their coaches about how they develop their players into champions. So, with the guidance of Cristina, I drafted my personal statement, which included my detailed proposal for my research alongside a bit about myself. I then sent this off, along with my application for the Scholarship and just hoped that I might be selected for an interview.

And as luck would have it, I was! Two months later, there I was on the train to Glasgow for my interview at the university. When I got there, I was greeted by a handful of other nervous language students. We all wished each other the best of luck as each of our turns came, not really knowing what to expect. Finally, my name was called. I found myself in a room with the heads of the French departments for five Scottish universities including Glasgow and St. Andrews. I had never really been good at interviews, but I took a deep breath and decided that I would simply try my best to answer their questions as honestly and thoughtfully as I could. Twenty minutes later I was out the door on my way back home, relieved that the toughest part was over, regardless of the outcome. Now the waiting game commenced!

Luckily, I did not need to wait too long. Just a couple of weeks later I received an email saying that I had been granted the Stevenson Exchange Scholarship for my semester abroad next January! I honestly can’t wait for my semester abroad in France and to embark upon some research into my passion during my time there. I would like to thank Cristina for helping me organise my application and proof reading it several times over (!). I honestly couldn’t have done it without her, as well as Jean-Michel for providing references for the application. I strongly encourage all Language students going into their second year at Stirling to apply for the Stevenson Exchange Scholarship for their semester abroad. It is more than worth the effort and will enrich your experience abroad whilst also allowing you to follow and develop your passion.’

Many thanks to Jack for a great blog post and congratulations on your success in being awarded a Stevenson Scholarship. We look forward to hearing more about the project while you’re in France in the Spring.

Experiences as an ELA (Part II)

The second of three accounts of a year spent in France under the British Council’s English Language Assistantship scheme, this time from Colm who spent his year near Montpellier:

‘Around this time last year I was on my way to the beach in the South of France. I was living over near Montpellier and working in a Lycée as an English Language Assistant. Truthfully, I chose to take a year out firstly to improve my French as it seemed like a great way to get immersed in the language and culture but mainly, who doesn’t want a yearlong holiday? However, professionally I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate and teaching has always been an option so spending a year – or 7 months – working in a school would be the perfect opportunity to try out working with kids.

When I first arrived a week or so before the classes started of course I was nervous but who wouldn’t be? Unfortunately the airport where I arrived wasn’t well connected to the village I was going to live in. Although I had been warned taxis in France are expensive, I thought they wouldn’t be much more than back home. I was wrong. About 90€ and 30 minutes later I arrived at my new home.

Fortunately, the school had helped me with accommodation and had given me the details of a woman who rented her spare rooms out to the assistants. So that’s how I came to live with Marianne – the most helpful French person I’ve ever met, and Maria – the Spanish assistant. This was great as straight away there was another person in the same position so we could complain about work, catch the wrong bus and travel. A lot.

This was probably my favourite part of the job; every 6 weeks we had 2 weeks holidays and even when we were “working” it was only for 12 hours a week. Basically, this means lots and lots of free time. Throughout the year I probably saw more of France than a lot of my new French friends – Paris, Nice, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse. French trains are a lot better and quicker than Scottish trains, I was only 3 hours from both Paris and Barcelona, and with a carte jeune (50€ to buy) the discount was amazing.

Lyon

 

At the school the strangest thing I noticed was that if the teacher wasn’t there for whatever reason neither were the pupils, that resulted in me turning up to school to find I actually had no class. Again another benefit of living in the village and only 2 minutes from the school. However, when I did actually have to teach the work was quite enjoyable – depending on the class – and very varied. With one teacher I had to do a practice speaking exam with her pupils one by one while another teacher told me “They’re studying Australia right now so plan something on that.” Quite vague but at least it gave me the freedom to do more what I wanted.

Night in the hospital

 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all a blast. Last November I got mugged while in Montpellier. In hindsight I was just in the wrong place and not being that careful. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining; I got to spend a whole night in the hospital with my friends and experience first hand French bureaucracy which is extremely complicated. There are 2 types of police depending on the crime, everything has to be copied at least 20 times, and if you’re foreign it just gets even worse. This is the same for CAF (housing benefits), sécurité sociale and anything else you can think of. Do you want to eat at the school canteen? Paperwork. Register at the gym? More paperwork.

Despite all this I had the best time. I even found some jobs and stayed for an extra 4 months (I only came back because I had to start 3^rd year again). Yes, the paperwork is tiring and soul crushingly tedious, and I got a black eye in the process but I wouldn’t change it for the world, as clichéd as that sounds.

Take me back!’