Eric Besson, France’s Minister of Immigration, said in an interview yesterday that he wants French people to be proud of their country and their nationality. He wants young people to sing La Marseillaise at least once per year and he wants adults to take civic instruction classes. He’s going to conduct a two month national [...]
Full Story »Emphasizing Oral Skills in Language Education
For once I agree with Sarkozy on something. He recently announced an “emergency” plan for changing the way languages are taught in France. He recognizes that the French system currently emphasizes too much grammar and memorization when basic communication skills such as listening and speaking should be the focus of language education. Even though most [...]
Full Story »PACS is 10 years old
PACSing was created in France in late 1999, originally as an alternative to gay marriage, but straight couples are also allowed to get PACSed. In 2000, there were 22,108 PACS. In 2008, the number had risen to 144,716. However, less than 6% of the PACS in 2008 were gay couples. The majority of PACS are [...]
Full Story »Year Four Begins…
I completely missed my 3 year anniversary of living in France! In some ways, it seems longer than 3 years. In other ways, not so much. Year four brings a new apartment and city to discover, the same job but new students to teach, and another year closer to officially becoming French. I feel like [...]
Full Story »Zee French Appartement
Even though we moved into this apartment back in May, we are still not finished acquiring all the furniture we want/need. The last piece of the puzzle is a clic-clac for the living room. We do have a small couch, but it’s too uncomfortable and impossible to sleep on. We were supposed to receive the [...]
Full Story »Ready for my Rentrée
School starts in 11 days and I’m so excited! I love my job and being on vacation for nearly 5 months was getting a little old. I can’t wait to get back in the computer room and audio labs and play with the technology teach students English. Everything will be so much easier this year [...]
Full Story »New friend, French wedding and football match
I met up with the lovely Cynthia on Friday and chatted with her for a few hours about being an American expat in Chambéry. It’s always nice to talk to someone who is going through the exact same thing and has the same thoughts about our old and new countries. Check out her blog for [...]
Full Story »La Rentrée is coming! La Rentrée is coming!
It’s the last weekend of summer here in France. Kids go back to school this Wednesday and I couldn’t be happier. Hopefully there will be fewer loud scooters on the street after midnight. And I can go shopping without being surrounded by a bazillion annoying, bratty kids. La rentrée means more than just back to [...]
Full Story »Why do I live in France?
It’s no secret that I am often homesick for North American culture (and especially the food.) I could move back to the US and get a teaching job or apply to do my PhD in Canada, but I choose to stay in France. David is, of course, the major reason why, but there are are [...]
Full Story »Feux d’Artifices d’Annecy-le-Vieux et de Paris
A lot of the smaller towns in France have fireworks for Bastille Day the night of July 13th instead of on the 14th. Last night we went to Annecy-le-Vieux for their fireworks, and we were also treated to a rock concert for an hour beforehand. The band did covers of nearly everything – Beatles, Rolling [...]
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