English language students, IUT Toulouse

 

Here’s what my Swedish/French friend Marie wrote to me in an email last week (yes, of course she speaks English fluently):

Congratulations for your new tutoring job at University Paul Sabatier! What kind of students are they? You will notice that even if they study languages and they are supposed to be good in English, they will have a lot of trouble understanding you because they never really HEAR any English, apart from with their teacher. Never on TV or at the movies, so they are not used to hearing different accents. But they will understand you, and I’m sure that you will love it!

I am now a tutor of conversational English at IUT, part of University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. IUT is an Institut Universitaire de Technologie and is like a technical college or a polytech. For half an hour at a time, I sit with a group of up to six students at the language centre (called CRIL) who have a range of ability in English. They are there to practice speaking English. Actually, what I am finding is that their ability is generally great; it’s just their confidence that needs a good boost.

The time passes very quickly (and then I have another group for 30 minutes). We spend some time on introductions and then see where the conversation takes us. Thanks to the manager at IUT, Ann, and her gorgeous language centre employee, Julia from America, I have lots of tricks up my sleeve to help encourage the conversation to keep going. But so far, it has been enough to ask each of them to ask me a question about me. In that way, they can learn about me, a total stranger to them, and how to ask personal questions but in a polite manner. They learn bits and pieces about my family, why we are in France, and quite a lot about New Zealand. This is very interesting to them, but first I make them guess where I am from: an English-speaking country in the southern hemisphere … Hmmmm??

And what do they associate with New Zealand? Rugby, the All Blacks, the haka, a green country, and the kiwi (the bird not the fruit). That’s all so far.

In the first class there was a Frenchman (he said he was ‘old’at 24; older than the other students I guess, who are mostly late teens/early 20s) who had been in the French navy and who had come back to France to study. He had been to about 30 countries in the world, and reeled off places names from New Zealand that he had visited. He had even noticed the difference in the accents of the Dunedin (very Scottish-influenced) people. We talked a while about food and there wasn’t much he hadn’t eaten, including slugs, bugs and insects in Asia.

Another student from India was visibly uncomfortable when I spoke about the challenges our children faced starting school in France, not knowing any French. He was anxious to say something, I could tell, so I gave him the chance. He explained that he had come to France from India when he was in his early teens and had gone straight into the French school system. He said that it was very, very hard for him but now he is so happy that he is studying at University. With all of my heart, I congratulated him, at which point the other students joined in with their congratulations too. It was quite a moment.
Another student came up to me after the class and wanted to know which was the most beautiful city in New Zealand, because she wanted to go there – like, now. What to say? Auckland, I said, followed closely by everywhere else.

So, it’s fun and I’m glad to be helping others with English, apart from with my three retired ladies I meet once a week or so. With them, I speak French and they speak English and we help each other, and can make mistakes (and silently laugh at each other).
In a fortnight we have a crêpes party with the students, and then we have a make some foie gras together party a week or so later, with lunch included. Great fun!