So this morning a classmate and I had to give a 10-minute oral presentation (en francais, bien sur!) on the French newspaper, Le Monde. Needless to say, my French speaking skills were a little trippy, and I conjugated a few verbs incorrectly. Apparently, my grammar teacher thought it necessary to interrupt me every time this happened. It's hard enough for me to give a presentation in class in English, but add speaking in French, a newspaper I can barely read, and a teacher who is waiting for me to mess up, and it's a rough 10 minutes! Honestly, this woman is NUTS (I will probably complain about her throughout the semester, like when she assigns us a 5 page paper due after break). She did the same thing to my partner, correcting her throughout the entire presentation as opposed to respectfully waiting until the end.
Oh! And so I was talking about the sections of the newspaper, and I said something like "cette rubrique contient des choses comme les nouvelles sur le mode, le sport, etc." (this section contains 'things' like news related to fashion, sports, etc.). NEVER use the word "choses" which means "things" in French. Madame kindly told me "Ce n'est pas du tout Francais!" (that is NOT at all correct French). It prompted her into a 10-minute grammar lesson based on my unforgiveable mistake. So if you ever want to say "choses" say "ce qui/ce que." It was mortifying. During break, everyone in the class apologized for the teacher's bitchiness and told us our presentation was actually pretty good.
I know a lot of French are protective of their language and cringe when Americans pronounce words incorrectly or don't conjugate their verbs properly, but I mean come on lady, you're our grammar teacher, shouldn't your goal be to help us with this kind of stuff? She seems so annoyed when we try to speak and it's frustrating. And the class doesn't transfer for any useful PSU credits for me, but I'm still required to take it, so that adds to my resentment. Everyone in the class shares the same angst, so I don't feel like a total whiny student.
NOTE: This woman is an exception though. Most French are patient and willing to listen to me stumble through my words, and it usually amuses them, so that's a plus for them.
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2 comments:
ugg...I have to give a 30 minute oral presentation in my history of provence class at then end of the semester...it would probs end up happening just like this.
Also-we totally talked about how the French always correct you when you speak at this mandatory lecture on cultural adjustment yesterday.
Okay, seriously, my friend who did this program last semester has told me horror stories about his grammar teacher. After reading that post, I'm like 98% sure it's the same person. ( or maybe all grammar teachers are just evil, because seriously, what kind of person pursues that career?)You two should probably talk.
In my Russian grammar class today, I had no idea what the teacher was asking me, and she got so upset at my ( and everyone else's) general lack of skill that she just stopped class and told us to leave. Which made me feel both stupid and guilty. AWESOME.
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