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.

  

Lilian Thuram’s Latest Book

Congratulations to our honorary graduate Lilian Thuram whose latest book (La Pensée blanche) has just been published in English (White Thinking: Behind the Mask of Racial Identity), translated by Cristina Johnston, Aedín ní Loingsigh and our former colleague, David Murphy. It’s been a great privilege to be involved in the translation and we’re looking forward to seeing the first hard copies of the book very soon!

In the meantime, you can read more about the issues it deals with in David’s article for The Conversation here and in a new interview with Lilian Thuram just published in The Guardian.

Unexpected local links

A few weeks back, we were following the adventures of our honorary graduate, film director Mark Cousins, whose most recent films were being screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. At some point while he was there, Mark tweeted a photo of a statue of Lord Brougham, an Edinburgh-born statesman who, it turns out, was involved in designing the town of Cannes and died there in 1868. This prompted us to start noticing the unexpected ‘local links’ between France and the various places we are from or where we currently live, and the ways in which they get us thinking about these connections. We’re hoping this might become a regular feature in the blog and to start the ball rolling, Aedín ní Loingsigh has sent us this article, following her recent trip to Ireland:

‘What has a statue of a Cork-born hurler got to do with French at Stirling? Putting it mildly, travel to France and the francophone world has been difficult this summer. As a result, I started to think more about French and France locally. I was lucky to see the Dubuffet exhibition in London and also generally get a sense of the significant impact of French-speaking immigrants on the capital just by encountering young French-speaking staff in restaurants, hearing parents speaking French to bilingual children on the tube, noticing the boulangeries and pâtisseries from the bus. It got me thinking about barely noticeable or unlikely local links in my own life, especially from earlier times growing up in East Cork.

Cue the hurler…

I had a vague recollection from childhood of people talking about the French sculptor who made it. Remembering our advice to students earlier in the summer to begin research with an idea and see where it takes you, I decided to look into it. And so I discovered a history I had known almost nothing about. The sculptor was a certain Yann Goulet and would almost certainly have described himself as an exiled Breton in Ireland rather than French. It turns out he was one of a number of number of Breton nationalists who fled from France at the end of World War II because they were accused of collaborating with the Nazis to further their political aim of separating Brittany from France. Goulet himself was condemned to death ‑ in absentia — in 1947. There are reasons why he and other Bretons found a home in Ireland, of course, and his subsequent activities as an artist show how he continued to express his political views in his new home, including through the statue in this image. In short, there’s a lot more for me to find out about.

Local links are often where we have our first encounter with other cultures and languages. Sometimes we are only vaguely aware of it. If you have any local links with the French-speaking world, try to find out more and let us know about it!’

Thanks to Aedín for the great post and here’s to a random selection of unexpected local links over the coming weeks and months! The more, the merrier.

Voilà l’été! Summer updates

As we move towards the summer months – hoping the current good weather in Scotland might continue for a while – the blog is likely to get a little quieter but we’re going to try to keep the articles coming as regularly as we can. If you’re reading this as a French at Stirling student or graduate or colleague, do feel free to get in touch at any stage with ideas for blog posts and we’ll be delighted to receive them.

In the meantime, we’re looking forward to publishing a few more articles by some of this year’s graduating cohort and by some of our students who are about to go into their final year, and work goes on for us all! Our colleague Aedín ní Loingsigh put together a fantastic resource for our continuing students with suggestions of topics they might want to explore over the summer months as a means of keeping in touch with French. There’s nothing ‘formal’ for them to do but Aedín put together a series of topics and themes with ideas for films, books, tv series, podcasts, articles, etc that our students might find helpful in learning more about those themes. Some of the topics overlap with materials on our modules, some students might find the ideas helpful in starting to think about dissertations and other research projects, but, as Aedín explains, it’s just about choosing a topic that’s of interest and seeing where it takes you.

In a similar vein, but this time thinking about future students of languages, Sheena Bell of SCILT (Scotland’s National Centre for Languages) invited Cristina Johnston to make a short video last week, aimed at secondary school pupils who are about to embark on University degrees involving languages. The idea was to give some tips and advice for future languages students about ways to prepare for University over the Summer months and about how to make the most out of their time at University when they get there. We hope the advice is helpful and look forward to welcoming our own incoming Year 1 students in August.

SCILT were also involved in the organisation of a Q&A session last week with our own honorary graduate, French footballer Lilian Thuram. The ‘Conversation with Lilian Thuram’ was jointly organised by SCILT and the University of Strathclyde and it focused primarily on a discussion of Thuram’s book Mes Étoiles noires (My Black Stars)which has just been published in its English translation by Liverpool University Press. The wide-ranging conversation was led by our former colleague, David Murphy, now Head of the School of Humanities at Strathclyde, and his colleague Cédric Moreau. You can read more about Thuram’s anti-racism campaigning and about My Black Stars in this Scotland on Sunday article. And watch this space for news of Stirling’s role in the translation of Thuram’s latest book La Pensée blanche…

More news and updates to follow over the coming weeks!

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.

10 Years On: ‘I know that my future holds many more adventures!’

There is something particularly pleasing about being able to start a new month on the blog with a post in praise of studying languages and spending time abroad. It’s pleasing at the best of times but, given the challenges posed in the context of the current global pandemic, there’s something especially good about it so, without further ado, an update from Louise, who graduated with a BA Hons in French a decade ago:

‘Studying French at the University of Stirling was more than the achievement of a degree. For me, going to university itself was a massive challenge, not only academically, but perhaps even more so, mentally and socially. Having moved to Stirling from Inverness, I had no option but to make a conscious effort to make friends in my new home environment. I gained a lot of confidence and enjoyment from my university experience and in particular, through my participation in team sports (field hockey and ultimate frisbee).

Not only is the University set within an attractive campus, with a host of great sports facilities and a top-of-the-range library, but the degree programmes are dynamic and inclusive. I found the University tutors and lecturers to be extremely creative and supportive, providing us with diverse and captivating course content throughout the degree programme.

As a languages student, I was extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to live in France twice during my degree – firstly as a British Council English Language Assistant in Valenciennes during a gap year between 2nd and 3rd year; and secondly on an Erasmus Programme semester abroad at a university in Tours in the second half of 3rd year.

Living abroad has played a huge part in my life – not only allowing me to develop my language and communication skills, learning about local customs and traditions, understanding the French administration systems, exploring the surrounding areas and travelling further afield, but it has also made me become more open-minded, forced me to adapt to and perform in different environments and cultures and overcome challenges which I faced (including one or two cultural faux pas). I also had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing people who helped me to feel more integrated and of whom I will forever have fond memories. My advice would be, if you have the chance to work or study abroad, take the plunge and try to gain as much as possible from the opportunity.

Having thoroughly enjoyed my time as an English Language Assistant, I continued on the educational and languages career path after graduation. I lived and taught English in a school in Germany on the British Council Comenius Programme for 10 months. On my return, I studied a PGDE in French Secondary Teaching at Glasgow University and following this, I took two TEFL courses (one online and one face-to-face). Following the completion of my studies, I decided to apply for a position within Macleod and MacCallum law firm, where I worked as a Property Assistant for 5 years.

My experiences at University and working and living abroad have provided me with the skills and experience that I can use in my day-to-day work and life in general. I have more confidence when speaking with clients and networking with other professionals, dealing with a wide range of clients with different cultural backgrounds and needs and using my languages where a language barrier exists between clients and colleagues.

In the most recent chapter of my life, I am living with my partner in Aberdeen, having only moved here at the end of February, just weeks before COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in the UK. I have started my new job with Peterkins law firm as a Property Sales Negotiator and am currently “working from home” due to lockdown restrictions. Thanks to my previous experience of working with people from a variety of different backgrounds and cultures, I feel that I have already managed to establish strong working relationships with my new team members after only a short time. I am really enjoying my new role.

I believe that my collective experiences of living and working in different cities, both in the UK and abroad, have provided me with the confidence, open-mindedness and adaptability required to be able to settle into my new home in the Granite City. It also goes without saying that the people closest to me, both in Aberdeen and in Inverness, have been incredibly supportive throughout this transition from Inverness to Aberdeen and I cannot thank them enough. I may have stopped living out of a suitcase, but I know that my future holds many more adventures – at home and away. There is still so much of the world to discover!

À la prochaine fois!’

Many, many thanks to Louise for this brilliant post and congratulations on the new job! We look forward to further updates over the years ahead and wish you all the best for your new life in Aberdeen, and for new adventures beyond.

2020 French Finalists and their plans

Following on from Mira’s reflections on life as a Public Service Interpreter, the second of today’s blog posts give us our traditional annual opportunity to get a sense of the hopes and plans of this year’s French at Stirling finalists. To say it has been a difficult few months for them would be a tremendous understatement but, first, like the French at Stirling teaching team, they made the rapid adjustment from classes on campus to online learning. And now, despite the extremely challenging backdrop, many of them have taken the time to reply to a request for reflections on their plans for life after graduation.

We’ve been putting a similar post together for a few years now (see 2019’s here, 2018’s here…) and we were all a little anxious about asking the same questions in the current circumstances but, having spent the past few days reading through the replies, looking at the photos of their travels, reading the good wishes that also came in their messages, I can honestly say this has been an unexpectedly uplifting experience. So, with no further ado, and in no particular order, here goes:

Mairi, who will be graduating with a BA Hons in French and Spanish, is planning to embark on postgraduate study next year, either with an MSc in Gender Studies at the University of Strathclyde or at the University of Stirling: ‘When I started 4th year I thought I would have been going into a graduate job after I finished my degree but due to the impact of Covid-19, it has been really difficult to find work. I have always wanted to do a postgrad in Gender Studies but I had thought it would be a few years down the line after some time in the working world. But things rarely happen in the order we expect them to. Here’s to the future and whatever it brings.’

Eilidh, who has just completed a BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society, attended a 2-day assessment centre in London back in February, following which: ‘I was successful in my application for the commercial, sales and management graduate programme for Bakkavor. The company is an international food manufacturer, supplying meals, desserts and snacks to all major retailers in the UK and overseas. The programme lasts for 2 years, where I will be promoted to a manager after the programme is completed. Despite the job not being directly related to French, I fully intend keeping up with the language, and encouraging the company to work with a French bakery company so I can get back to France!’

As for Martina, who has completed a BA Hons in French and Spanish, ‘as a final year student during the Coronavirus pandemic, I find myself ending my undergraduate studies in some of the most unexpected circumstances in Stirling University’s history. I started my Joint Honours in French and Spanish in 2015 and spent a gap year between the second and third year of my degree working as an English Language Assistant with the British Council in a small ski town called Briançon, in the French Alps. After this incredible experience I was also fortunate enough to spend a semester living in Seville, Spain. Both these experiences greatly helped me develop my proficiency in these languages as well as my confidence overall.

As I have been learning Spanish for almost 11 years, I have always felt very passionate about this language and, as such, I decided to apply for a place on the Masters by Research in Hispanic Studies course at the University of Edinburgh. After producing two pieces of research work at undergraduate level, I am now hoping to develop my skills and hope to be accepted on this course to work on the topic of Latin American and Caribbean feminisms. I have also applied to their prestigious Literatures, Languages and Cultures Masters Scholarship, awarded to 4 outstanding students undertaking a Masters Programme within this division. I also applied for a second scholarship, the Muriel Smith Scholarship. I am now waiting for an update on these applications, but I am very hopeful for what the future holds for me! While I may not have ended my undergraduate studies the same way previous students have, I still had an enjoyable, albeit stressful, year and I am very proud of everything I have accomplished.’

Stephanie, another soon-to-be BA Hons French and Spanish graduate, is also clear that Covid-19 is having an impact on her plans but in a different way: ‘As is the case for a lot of people, my plans are in a sort of limbo at the moment. I have accepted a position, though, with the JET Programme as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Japan. The scheduled departure date is in September, but obviously I’m not sure if it’ll actually go ahead as planned, and what will happen if it can’t go ahead as planned… Despite the uncertainty, I am excited about the prospect of living and working abroad for a while. The JET Programme allows me to have that break from studying that I want whilst also affording me the opportunity to discover a new country and learn a new language.  As far as longer term goals go, I am looking into getting into teaching. Right now, I’m leaning towards primary teaching but I’m not yet ruling out secondary. The ALT position will give me some valuable experience in a classroom which is something that I’m lacking at the moment.’

Like Stephanie, Laura, who has just finished her BA Hons in English Studies and French, also has travel plans for the coming year: ‘My plans for September are going to Finland for a Master’s degree. I have received three offers from three Finnish universities of Masters’ programmes in educational sciences based on teaching languages as a foreign language. I have not chosen yet which one I will specifically choose but I am sure I will spend my next two years in Finland.’

In some cases, the impact of the current situation is such that original plans are having to be rethought as is the case for Evelyn who is graduating with Single Honours French: ‘I don’t actually have any post-graduation plans as yet. Coronavirus has thrown a bit of a spanner in my job hunting as well as my hopes of getting some work experience this summer. I am hoping to go into publishing or copyediting but unfortunately, work experience opportunities are currently fairly thin on the ground at the moment. As such, I am using this time to brush up on skills that will come in handy when looking for a job in this sector. I have also set up a blog to review the books that I am reading during lockdown, so I’m throwing myself into that at the moment as well as keeping the job search active!’

Another of our Single Honours French finalists, Rhiannon, finds herself in a similar position: ‘My final year didn’t quite go as I had planned, and I feel like I’ve not really had the chance to say goodbye to my time at Stirling University. However, I have had some of the most amazing times there and met some of my best friends. I plan to go to university much closer to home in Glasgow to do a post-grad but I’m still a bit unsure what I want to do. I’m a bit undecided between doing translation (which is what I’ve always originally wanted to do) or doing something completely different. I’m currently interested in doing Gender Studies at Strathclyde but again I am still quite undecided. I’m also extremely interested in doing something related to history or museum-related as I love learning all about the past.  The future is so undecided and scary right now so I am using these months of lockdown to have a really hard think about where it is I would like to go.’

As for Caitlin: ‘After four years studying BA Hons in French and Spanish, I made the decision this year to apply for PGDE primary teaching in order to pursue a career as a primary teacher. I have just recently accepted my place at the University of Aberdeen on this course. This career is what I have always wanted to do, and so I am delighted and excited to have been offered a place. I am also looking forward to moving to and discovering both a new city and a new university. The experience I obtained working as an English Language Assistant in France between my 2nd and 3rd year at University helped me to realise that this was what I wanted to do.’

The teaching route takes many forms and, like Caitlin and Stephanie, other finalists are also planning a year (and possibly more) than involves language teaching in different forms and different places. For Lily, who completed her BA Hons in English Studies and French with us: ‘My plan for the coming year – if all returns to some semblance of normal – is to work in Spain as an English Language Assistant with the British Council so that I can get my Spanish up to a similar level of fluency as my French. Still figuring out what comes after that!’

Jack, who is graduating with a BA Hons in French with Spanish and Education, is also taking a teaching-related route in the first instance: ‘Everything changed very quickly as the countdown to graduation approached. Lockdown for me, like everyone else, changed all my plans and added to the uncertainty of what I would do once I finished my degree. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, it has been really nice spending time with my family, going on a daily bike run and having time to read for pleasure regularly. In the spirit of the times we live in, I begin work next week teaching Chinese children English online. I have already started my ESL training and it’s already evident that my degree is coming in handy.

I’m still looking for something more permanent starting later in the year, and I’ve applied for many different jobs so fingers crossed. It’s proving particularly challenging this year as the jobs market has suffered greatly. Living in Dumfries and Galloway where there are few job opportunities at the best of times I’m looking further afield, so who knows where I’ll end up.’

And Kirstie, a BA Hons French and Spanish finalist, is planning to move to Belgium and ‘Brussels specifically. I’m going to teach English, either as a language assistant with the British Council or with another language school, and I’ll also to continue to work on my travel blog. Brussels is a great hub in Europe and I plan to do a lot of travelling around the continent in the coming years!’

Last but not least for the moment, Jack, who has also completed a BA Hons in French and Spanish, reflects that: ‘Near-future planning has become more difficult amidst the current uncertainty in the world, but I am now looking to focus on my backpack business, Cancha, as well as advancing my tennis career. This does not come without challenges. Lockdown has hindered my tennis training routine for quite some time now, and the fact that national borders continue to close and flights are sparse paints a bleak picture for the professional sport scene. However, I am confident that the world will return to normal and, when it does, I want to make sure I am as prepared as possible to take full advantage of this. The same goes for Cancha: buying backpacks for travel and sports is almost certainly not on people’s minds at the moment, but I am using this ‘down-time’ to make more subtle changes in the company, such as refining our message, and the ways in which our company can both endure this episode whilst also giving back to the community and the environment.

Although many graduate students at Stirling are unsure of their next steps, especially during this world crisis (which has stopped almost everyone in their tracks), there are ways in which each one of us can improve and make progress in our ambitions, albeit in an untraditional way.’

We’re always grateful to our finalists for sharing their plans and hopes with us as they reach the end of their degrees but this year, it would be fair to say that we are particularly appreciative of the thoughtful, helpful and positive responses. Many, many thanks to you all, not to mention congratulations on having reached the end of your degrees! And, of course, we wish you all the very, very best for the months and years ahead and hope that you will keep in touch with us in the future.

(And, as ever, if you’re a French at Stirling finalist reading this and wanting to add your contribution, please do just send me an email (cristina.johnston@stir.ac.uk) and I will very happily update the post!)

Jumping in at the deep end: Speaking French in Québec

Following on from Brett’s tales of life in Japan, more travelling French at Stirling adventures, this time courtesy of this great post from Stuart who has spent the past academic year working as an English Language Assistant in Québec:

‘Salut tout le monde! It’s been a while now since my last post which, as you know, has been due to working as an English Language Assistant on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Québec, one of the last bastions of French in North America. With my nine months there over now, I’m excited to share a little bit about my experience with you.

First off, I want to address the elephant in the room here. Yes, les québecois do have a very different accent to the French we’re used to hearing in a European context. At the beginning this can be a major shock to the system and can leave you in situations like when, in the very first week, I had a 20-minute conversation with an elderly bus driver where I understood about 10% of what he was saying! However, by the end of the nine months, your ear starts to tune into it far better and you can feel yourself starting to accept the things they say and even repeat them without even thinking about it (those of you in my conversation classes next year will have this challenge to look forward to!).

When I was anxiously awaiting news of my placement in Québec last year, I had a few people tell me that it might be a detriment to my French dealing with the accent and all the slang (this ended up encouraging me more as I am rather stubborn!). I’ve since found out that this is what some French language assistants are told about coming to Scotland! I won’t lie: it is challenging, but challenging ourselves by stepping outside our comfort zone is a common occurrence when trying to learn a new language. Plus, at the end of the day, it is still French, albeit with many strange new phrases like fin de semaine (which they’re very proud of and like to ridicule their European cousins for saying le weekend ), c’est plate (that’s boring) and c’est correct (pronounced corr-eck and meaning the same as that’s good or that’s fine).

The other thing you might have heard about Québec is that it snows a lot there. Let me tell you, words cannot do that justice, so I’ve included some photos to give you a sense of it. The average temperature was around -25C (even reaching -50C one evening with the help of some polar winds. So, bloody cold safe to say (or il fait frette en tabernak, asti! as I would often hear). The beautiful thing about Québec is that even faced with these temperatures and snow levels that would totally shut down most other countries (*cough* the whole of Britain during the ‘snowstorm’ March 2018), life goes on and then some in Québec. I’d safely say the most fun I had was in winter – skiing, snowshoeing and watching live ice hockey matches became part of daily life.

If I was to write about my whole 9 months there, you’d be reading this till the end of next semester, so I’ll leave you with one little language learning victory. To make a long story short, the day in question had been extremely long and exhausting and I fancied a nice big poutine to make it all better (poutine is chips with gravy and cheese curds, and I’ll miss it dearly). I headed to a local fast food place with my heart set on the biggest format – Réguliere. In what I knew was good French. However, when the receipt came back it read: bébé… I knew that this just wasn’t going to cut it so I pointed it out to the cashier. He went into the kitchen (which was right in front of me so I could hear every word they were saying) and I could make out through the huffing and puffing the cashier saying in French : ‘Yeah I know man, it’s just that he speaks French so weirdly’. Normally, I would have brushed this off, but after the day I’d just had I couldn’t help myself. To the two guys and the entire queue forming behind me, I loudly announced ‘c’est parce que je suis écossais’ (it’s because I’m Scottish). I think they’d assumed I couldn’t understand what they were saying, because, after looking very taken aback, they changed the order to the big format at no extra charge! Learning a language pays!

While I wouldn’t quite say I’m fluent in French yet. I can definitely see an improvement from where I was last year and I’m excited to test it out back at Stirling this year. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings about Québec and maybe take some inspiration for where to go for your ELA year (which I highly recommend doing of course). Merci, et à la prochaine!’

Many, many thanks to Stuart for the fantastic blog post – we’re delighted to hear that things have gone so well and hope that you won’t miss the poutine too much when you’re back in Stirling…

A Year in Geneva: Translation, Football and Alpine Road Trips

As regular followers of the blog will know, most French at Stirling students will either spend a year working as an English Language Assistantship at some point over their degree (usually between Year 2 and 3, sometimes immediately after graduation) or a semester on Study Abroad at one of our range of partners across the French-speaking world. Every now and then, though, we have a student who manages to spend a full year on Study Abroad and that’s the situation Tom finds himself in at the moment, in the 3^rd year of his BA Hons in French and Spanish:

‘This year I have had the opportunity to study French and Spanish in the Translation and Interpretation Faculty at the University of Geneva. Having recently completed a year of teaching in Colombia with the British Council, I headed to Switzerland back in the hot seat as a student again.

Having never previously visited, my initial thoughts of Geneva were a pleasant surprise – everything worked, things ran on time and the locals were kind, welcoming and accepting of my rusty French. I had a week to settle in before university started, giving me time to explore the city and the surrounding areas, as well as to find a regular game of football. After a few meet ups with ESN I met some great people from all over and I went from there.

University life here has been great, learning translation in both Spanish and French has given me great opportunities to test out a potential career path and what’s more is that the other modules on offer at the university also help me further my other interests such as history and reading. The best part, however, are the people you meet at the university and around the city – be they other ERASMUS students or students from other walks of life.

Geneva can be difficult for immersive language learning, as individuals come from a variety of countries to study, live and work there, making English the de facto language at times. Nevertheless, I found a variety of local cafés and bars that provided me with opportunities to improve my French and after a couple of weeks it had improved to the point where I could hold conversations.

Geneva is famous for plenty of things but, after a year in a small Colombian town, the most notable for me is the high cost of living. It can be extortionate at times, but this has just encouraged me to explore a wider variety of places. My friends and I often get buses, cheap flights or rent a minibus to do weekend trips, ticking off places such as Milan, Lake Garda, Interlaken, Bern, Paris, and Berlin. That has been one of the best things about Geneva, its central location in Europe has given me the opportunity to get around everywhere. I can highly recommend taking road trips through the Swiss alpine countryside, you can see the whole landscape and get a real feel for the culture of each place.

Living in a different country has its positives and negatives, the comforts of home can be sorely missed, I’ve realised however that being proactive, doing activities and exploring your new home is the best antidote.

Overall, my experience has been a great one and my language skills have improved immeasurably (even if I sometimes forget how to speak English!). Although tough at times, these have been the situations where I’ve learned the most and I consider myself very lucky to have had this opportunity to meet new people, live in a new country and experience a different university.’

Many thanks to Tom for the great blog post and pictures – we’re delighted this year has worked out so well and look forward to welcoming you back to Stirling in the Autumn!

Final year: ‘A mix of hard work, excitement and nostalgia’

The countdown to graduation (on Thursday for most of our students…) has started so it’s something of a scramble to get life-after-graduation posts up on the blog in time but a fun scramble! This time, it’s one of this year’s finalists, Alex who is about to graduate in International Politics and Modern Languages and who has sent a post reflecting, as he puts it, on the ‘past-future questions’ that arise as you reach the end of your studies:

‘What will you do next? That’s the million-dollar question that you get from friends, family and university professors. But for me the question to ask a student who has just finished his four years of study is a different one. My question for me would be: how were these four years for you?

Most of them would start by saying that the first year is the most exciting one because you meet lots of people from all around the world. A new world of opportunity and knowledge opens up for you and you learn things you would have never thought you would. Most of them will remember about “international dinners” where they would have twelve or more different nationalities who got together and each cooked a typical dish from their country. Some will remember signing up for all these sports clubs and societies and unfortunately not having time to attend activities for all of them. They will remember how hard it was to choose one over another.

Then they will remember how university life became something normal and how Freshers’ week was a time when the campus was off limits. Too crowded, too many Freshers. They will remember the dozen CVs they handed in and their first job as a waiter, cleaner or other roles.

After the first two years they will tell you that from the third year onwards studies will take over your social life. No more clubbing, limited sport, junk food and long nights in the library. Those who go on Erasmus will tell you that going abroad was their best ever experience. Some will say the contrary.

About the fourth year they will tell you that it’s a mix of hard work, excitement and nostalgia. All happening at the same time. You will reflect back to your first year and you will realise how much you have achieved and how mature you have become in so little time.

When you ask them what will they do next many will not know the answer straight away. For me the answer is that during my four years of university I managed to learn many things that will help me with my future plans. It’s not necessarily about the new language that I learned nor how international organisations work, but how to treat people, talk to people and, most importantly, to respect people. That will help me in my mission to bring Neapolitan pizza to as many people as I can and to change the view of those who consider pizza unhealthy and greasy.

I am studying to become a professional pizza chef as I want to be able to have the knowledge to teach as many people as I can to make their own pizza at home. I want to learn more about the ingredients, nutrition and the food industry in general. I believe this will be a very interesting and important matter in the future as more and more people realise the importance of good alimentation. Food waste is also very interesting and something that needs more focus on.

After the Stirling opening, I’ve attracted lots of interest from investors and I am now opening a second location in Edinburgh. After this new opening I would like to open other two locations (still investor interest) but not more than that. I want to keep Napizza at four and not more locations. I don’t want to become a “monster business” like the big chains. I believe you should work for a standard of life where you can fully enjoy it. If you work too much you will get older and older and all you time will fade away. We live now, and we need to enjoy our life now, not in ten or fifteen years when who knows if we will still be able to enjoy it or not.

I am also building a three-wheel van with an oven on the back in order to attend events, shows or just parties. Moreover, I want Napizza to become socially responsible and I am always looking for charities to support and create events that will help the community that Napizza is in. I am also planning to create some urban gardens and grow vegetables either for Napizza or personal use. Finally, I hope I will be able to find the time and do some consulting for pizzerias as this is something that I like doing more and more every day.

My philosophy at the moment is to work 20% of my time and 80% to plan and enjoy life. I am all about making mistakes and learning from them but the mistake that I am afraid to make is to work for something that will never come. I live now, therefore I try to enjoy these moments NOW and not later.

For the future I hope to live by the 20/80% rule and enjoy more my moments of life.’

Many thanks to Alex for the great blog post and we wish you all the best for the future, both in terms of your business plans and the 20/80 rule!