At the Bus Stop

     Every morning before work, I am standing at the bus stop at 7am waiting for a bus that will arrive anywhere between 7am and 7:30am. This leaves me a possible 30 minutes for anything to happen, for any unexpected encounter. Let's take a look one day at a time...


October 28th, 2016:

     7:10am - A man with baggy, ripped jeans approached me and said something to me I couldn't make out. I assumed he was going to ask me for bus money, but when he repeated his mumbled, slurred phrase, I was able to grasp just a part of it: "...beautiful blue eyes." I said, "Thank you," and he smiled a large toothless smile and continued to mumble something else incomprehensible to my ears. After asking him to repeat three times, he said, "You don't speak French?" "No," I said shaking my head as my nose grew. After that, he instantly turned around and walked away. Needless to say, the next day I didn't forget my sunglasses.
     12:05pm - On any other Friday afternoon I would be waiting at the bus stop to take the bus home, but this Friday the bus stop was a meeting place where I was to meet a friend after work. When I saw the bus coming in the distance, I started to walk down the street away from the bus stop, so the driver wouldn't think he needed to stop for me. I was looking down at my phone when I noticed the bus had pulled up and stopped by me anyways. The doors opened and the bus driver said to me, "You're not going to Chanzy Street today?" I explained to him I was waiting for a friend, so he continued on his way. Surprised that he remembered me and where I get off, it was in that moment I remembered I was living on an island. Everyone knows everyone here it seems.

November 10th, 2016:

     7:05am - Waiting at the bus stop amongst a group of Guadeloupians, a man approached me and asked me something in creole. Seeing that I didn't understand his question, he repeated it while pointing to his eyes then to the ATM behind him. I inferred that he wanted me to watch his back while he withdrew money, so I nodded in agreement. He approached the ATM and I kept my distance, but watched him as he had asked me to do. He reached into his pocket searching for his wallet, but when his hand came out empty, he frantically emptied all his pockets. With a look of disbelief, he rechecked all his pockets three more times before he grumbled and walked away. Well, I guess my job was done.

November 11th, 2016:

     7:15am - Again at the bus stop among maybe 15 Guadeloupians, a woman in her 70's came up to me and asked me something in creole while pointing at the ATM. It was like déjà vu from the day before, so I assumed she was asking for the same thing. I said, "Yes, of course!" and kept my distance again, but was ready to watch her back.
    

As she walked up to the ATM, I looked around me, wondering why I'm always the one asked for help when I'm clearly the only one that doesn't speak creole in the crowd. Then I noticed the woman was at the ATM looking back at me and gesturing for me to come closer. Having no idea what she wanted from me, I walked up right beside her. I guess you could say I was quite surprised when she all of a sudden handed me her credit card. All I could understand from what she was saying while pointing at the ATM was, "a ticket." I quickly deduced that she wanted to print an account summary. So, I inserted her credit card and the next thing I knew, she opened her wallet and handed me a small crumpled piece of paper that had her 4-digit code written on it. I entered her code for her and chose the option to print an account summary. Once the ticket printed, I handed it to her along with her card, without looking because, well, that's private information!
     But just as I thought my job was done, she handed the ticket back to me, running her finger across it several times. I thought to myself, "Does she want me to read it to her?" Yes. I read it back to her: "Balance: 92 euros." She looked at me and asked in a mix of French and creole if 92 euros was a lot. I hesitated and quite honestly wasn't sure how to respond. Then she asked me something else, but all I made out was "20 euros." I said, "Yes, it's more than 20 euros." She then pointed at the ATM again, so I asked if she wanted me to withdraw 20 euros. She nodded and handed me back her card and code. Meanwhile, I kept checking down the street, hoping my bus wouldn't come.
     Once I gave her the money, she asked, "Now how much do I have left?" Doing the simple mental math, I responded, "72 euros." The follow-up question was then, "Is that a lot?"  Was I saying my numbers correctly? After briefly questioning myself on my ability to count in French, I quickly tried to think of a way to explain the quantity of 72. "You can withdraw 20 euros about three more times," I explained. Her face lit up and she nodded in comprehension. She continued to say some other things to me, but I just nodded and smiled, pretending I understood. Then she thanked me and walked away with her 20 euros. As for me, I walked away with a good feeling, and luckily, I didn't miss my bus.

     These stories are a reminder that two people don't always need to speak the same language to understand each other.

Under the sun and palm trees on the "Island of Beautiful Waters"

     After my second year abroad in France last year, I decided that even though I love living in Europe, it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone again and try something new. So in September, I packed up my sunglasses, bathing suit, summer clothes, and mosquito repellent and flew to the French overseas department, Guadeloupe - an island in the West Indies.

     October to May I'll be teaching English in two Junior High Schools in Pointe-à-Pitre, 6th grade through 9th grade. Not only will this year be a challenge because I will need to adapt to another culture and lifestyle, but also because it will be my first time teaching in a Junior High. To add to that challenge, the schools I've been assigned to are "REP schools," meaning that the students are typically more difficult. As one teacher described it, a lot of the students are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Haiti and come from poor families, or they were sent to the school after being expelled from their previous school for violence. But...challenge accepted.
     Guadeloupe is made up of five islands, and Grande Terre is the one on which I am living and teaching. There are around 470,500 habitants in Guadeloupe, and even though the official language is French, Guadeloupe people speak Guadeloupian creole, which dates back to the time of colonization and slavery.

     Ever since my plane was about to touch down and I thought, "We're landing in this jungle?!", all five of my senses have been adapting to this new environment - from feeling like I'm constantly walking through the rainforest exhibit at the zoo with sticky skin, to smelling the salt water, algae, and fresh caught fish in the morning, to tasting the local specialties and the spices of creole food, to seeing the sun every day and some of the most beautiful landscapes and beaches, to falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves, crickets, and frogs.

     To give you a better idea of the culture shock I experienced my first few weeks, here is a list of my first thoughts and observations:

1) "I'm living in the jungle!"
2) "How did these cockroaches get in my apartment?"
3) "I feel like a princess under this mosquito net."
4) "Oh hey lizard, what are you doing hiding in my towel?"
5) When night falls at 6pm, all the insects start singing and I can't help but feel like I'm camping.
6) When I passed a goat standing on a parked car and got cut off by chickens, I started to realize that almost everyone seems to have goats and/or chickens.
7) What time does the bus come? Nobody knows...
8) I discovered a new feeling of disappointment: When you can't find a certain food at the grocery store and realize you have to wait for a new shipment to come in from France.
9) People take their time for everything. If you want to take 10 minutes to pay and bag your groceries, nobody will have a problem.
10) People start saying "Good evening" anytime after Noon.
11) When children are punished in class, they are told to stand behind their chair or to stand in the corner of the classroom. I learned this one day when I was standing in front of the classroom ready to introduce myself to the class and the teacher told me, "Sit down, you look punished." It took me a while to get used to that, so I was told to sit down quite a lot. Apparently there is a saying in France that if you stand too much, it means you want to grow taller.
12) I discovered Gwo ka: their traditional dancing and drumming that one can often hear during the weekend. 
13) Never, EVER, forget your umbrella. And even if you remember to bring it, people will advise you not to walk in the rain. But, I'm a Seattleite and I can't help it.
   
To get a better visual of what Guadeloupe is like, I put together a video that you can see by clicking here :
Video : "Welcome to Guadeloupe"

Stay tuned for more stories and videos about this paradise that Christopher Columbus named "The Island of Beautiful Waters."

We Made the Paper!

As I mentioned in my last entry, a journalist in Le Mans interviewed me and another assistant about our jobs, our opinions on language learning and French culture, and our aspirations for the future. Below is the newspaper article I translated from the original one published in French.

Adam and Rachael teach English to Sarthe schoolchildren

Two Americans came to Le Mans in October and intervene in Pre-school through Fifth grade classes

One recognizes them from their accent, but their French is almost perfect. Rachael, 23, and Adam, 29, are Americans. In Le Mans since October, these assistants are discovering what it's like teaching foreign languages in France.

Monday through Thursday they teach English in the schools where they have been assigned. And Fridays, with seven other assistants, they roam the department to host English day in the schools (read below). "We teach them the culture of our country, while basing it on holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or essential aspects, such as the New York metro, and associate it with the vocabulary that goes along with it," explain the young Americans.

Learning in High School
"Here, foreign languages are taught early, even if it's only an introduction. In the United States, we learn French when entering High School," indicates Rachael. "Americans can be centered on themselves and not very open to the outside world," Adam analyses as he tells about when he announced to his mom that he was going to France, after having studied in Spain and taught in Columbia, and she responded to him: "But why do you travel so much when we have everything here?" "I started by learning Spanish. With the immigration, it's the second most spoken language in the United States. It was important for me to be able to understand it."

Rachael confirms: "When one knows other languages, they are more open-minded. It allows us to have another vision of the world and of life, to better understand other cultures."

In their professional life, Rachael and Adam don't see it any other way than being surrounded by people coming from all horizons. Rachael would like to return to the United States where she hopes to become an English professor at a University..."but for international students." Adam also wishes to teach his native language, but in Europe. He doesn't know exactly where yet. While waiting to find his Eden, he signed up at the University to take classes... of Japanese.

A Slower Culture than in the United States
What the young Americans particularly appreciate is the French rhythm of life. "It's a much slower culture than in the United States. Here, you always take the time to eat dinner with family, for example. And for lunch, the kids have a two hour break... It's a lot! Americans are always in a rush," recognizes Rachael.

In Adam's opinion, Le Mans has "the qualities of a large city - notably with the public transportation - even though it's a pretty small town after all." But what surprises this young assistant the most, is that "Sundays, Le Mans no longer exists! I like this idea, but the reality is a bit more difficult to live," he said with a burst of laughter.

English day: learning while having fun
"This day is so cool! All we do is play games!" Evidently, English Day proposed to schoolchildren from Suzanne-Bousson this Friday was a plebiscite.

Dressed in dark pants and a white top, resembling the English uniform, the students played along, some of them making a tie out of paper to complete their outfit.

After an assembly about the assistants' citizenship, the children left in groups of mixed ages to participate in workshops hosted by their teachers, parent volunteers, and the English assistants. Numbers, colors, ingredients, utensils... "We leave behind the textbooks and whiteboards and they don't realize that they're learning. They just have the impression that they're playing," observes Marie Gueusset, educational advisor of modern languages. "It's a break from their class routine," continues the director of the school, Gilles Papillon. "They are confronted by students that aren't the same age as them. The older ones are welcoming towards the younger ones, while helping them voluntarily."

And it's not the young Lina, in First grade, who will contradict it. One wouldn't even know what to say this young lady preferred that day: the making of jello - a colored and gelatin dessert "that we're going to eat at snack time" or the moment where she assisted in a workshop "in the big kids' class." This "privilege" seems to have been enough to embellish this young lady's day! 

When Work and Play Collide

My Students:
Are you married? Do you have kids? Are you going to have kids soon? Did you come here on a boat? Why do you have a different voice than us? Do you like bananas? My mom's name is Rachael.

Those were the first questions I was bombarded with when I presented myself to my students the first day of work. Even now, they are still curious about me, my country and my culture, and are eager to learn my language. This makes my job even more enjoyable. The first day I went out to recess, three children gave me bouquets of leaves and one gave me a Pokémon card to keep so I "wouldn't forget her." Already feeling a bond with the children, I knew I would love this job.

Some days at work, I walk past a window where the kids outside at morning recess are pounding on the glass yelling, "Rachelle!" Otherwise, I'm usually greeted with groups of children surrounding me and yelling "Hello!" at me repeatedly. It's definitely their favorite English word. Other days I can't help but feel like I'm in a zoo when the kids peer through the windows and play peek-a-boo with me while I'm in the break room. But I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, because it's not everyday that I will go to work feeling like a celebrity. 

It hardly feels like work when you're playing games, singing songs, doing crafts, and reading books all day. But my favorite part is "Question Time" after I talk to them about American culture and holidays. The kids always surprise me with questions I never expected. Why is the Indian not wearing very many clothes? He's going to get wet if it rains. Are Santa's elves black? Does Santa speak English too? Showing kids something foreign always provokes their curiosity and I love that. 


Comparison of school systems:
After having experienced working in schools in America and Mexico, it has been interesting to work in the French school system and be able to compare the three. Here are some differences I have noticed so far:
1) After being used to having 30 minutes for lunch in the US, I feel really spoiled having a 2 hour lunch break in France.
2) ... especially when the teachers serve you wine during this break.
3) Some of the formalities in the classroom still do not cease to amaze me. The obsession with rulers I find to be amusing. "Use your ruler to underline the title and date."  "Use your ruler to properly cross-off the words in the word bank on your test." My first mistake in the classroom was not using the giant ruler to underline the title on the chalkboard.
4) Students raise their finger, instead of their hand, to answer or ask a question.
5) Contrary to American kids, French kids are taught to write in cursive and write this way all the time. Pen and white-out are usually required for writing. Emphasis is often put on neat handwriting.
6) For teachers who stick to former rules of courtesy in French classrooms, students will stand when you enter the room and say, "Good morning, Rachael" and will only sit when you tell them to. It doesn't seem to be that common anymore, but I still see it occasionally.
7) Students or teachers must knock before entering the classroom and wait to be told to come in. Like I experienced in Mexico, students who are late must ask to enter the classroom.
8) There aren't any "recess teachers," but rather it's the school teachers who observe the kids at recess. The playgrounds at my schools don't have swings or big toys, but just a blacktop where the kids run around and play games.


English Day:
Most Fridays I go to a different school with four other English assistants where we have an English Day. Different workshops are run by either an assistant or teacher and the kids rotate through the stations every 30 minutes. The activities consist of playground games, story time, cooking, singing songs, crafts, card games, etc. - all in English, all day long. The kids are having fun while simultaneously learning English - whether it's from understanding a story from my gestures and the pictures, or attempting to sing along to a new song and do the motions. It's a fun day for everyone involved.

During my most recent English day, there was a journalist who visited the school, interested in writing an article about it. The following week, she invited me and another assistant to her office to be interviewed in French about our job, our life in France, our opinions on language learning, our future plans, etc. The article will soon be published in the region's newspaper, so stay tuned! It was a good experience and fun to talk about topics that interested me (e.g. culture, language, teaching) and a job that I enjoy.

It is very motivating for me to see the kids who refused to learn English at the beginning of the year eager to participate and excited for English lessons. My goal is to continue to spark their interest, ignite their potential, and not let their flame of enthusiasm diminish.