Time is flying by. I am already into my second week of college. These first three weeks are preparatory classes for all the Erasamus students at les Ponts, afterwhich the term starts in earnest. I am being taught in a group of ten made up of two German students, one from Austria, one from Grand Canaria, two Portugese and then the three of us Brits from Imperial. So used to the Imperial timetable (teach 50 mins cappacinno for 10 teach 50 etc) am I that I found the two hour long classes a little hard going to start with. The trick really is to not look at the clock!

Not that the lessons are boring. No, the course is being taught well and as far as language classes go I think it is the most I have ever been engaged in this sort of lesson with a good mix of group work and class disscussion. The aim of the course is to help us to settle in and to bring our French out of retirement. Part of the settling-in is achieved by teaching us about “French culture”. The material is almost priceless in the way it conforms to a sterotype of what kids are spoon fed in French schools (France’s rivers, mountains and departments, as well as gastronomical maps and economic croissants – the term given to the younger and more productive cresecent from Brittany to the northern Alps). We’ve had gastronomical maps – my request for a map of cheeses is currently being processed. More alarmingly, the worksheet that gave the history of names that you are likely to hear in France failed to note that between 15 and 20% of France’s population are from families of immigrants one, two or three generations ago and so do not have names derived from Asterix or celtic invaders. There was also no mention of the foods that these groups might traditionally eat on the gastronomical map. No surprise there. But on the plus side, I have to say that I am sucker for learning things like maps of cheeses so give me a few weeks and you can test me.

Right, got to run for my first test…