Back to school

            I visited several of my schools today and met some of the teachers. French schools look similar to American schools, but inside there are classrooms full of extraordinarily well behaved children. They already speak a minimum level of English – or maybe they’re just good fakers – and were very attentive when I barged into their classrooms. The teachers were welcoming and so excited for me to be there. They want me to focus on the oral comprehension and practice as none of them focus on grammar or even written English. They uniformly felt that an emphasis on written English diminishes the level of spoken English – writing the word “spider” on the board before the kids learn to pronounce it will engrain the word as “speeder” into their brains…thus, according to the teachers, France thinks Toby Maguire is “Speederman”. After I met my teachers and begged them all to correct my French at all times, which they happily did, Laura and I went to lunch and had our first friend citing in Bonneville. The woman from the mayor’s office who has been so helpful sat next to us… local social life is officially established. We noticed that the waitresses sat us in the corner at a table that was semi-crummy (literally) for a good ten minutes and did not seem happy to hear our whispered English, but as soon as we spoke French to them and I asked them all sorts of probably annoying and inappropriate questions about tipping, they warmed up and were super friendly. Almost everyone I’ve met here is incredibly kind, once the veneer of their seemingly natural reservedness wares off. As ungrammatically correct and oddly accented as my French is, I am certainly not afraid of using it that definitely makes a difference with les Bonnevillais. I’ve found, in the two whole days that I’ve been here, that once I start asking questions, people instantly warm up and chat with me, but they are often reserved until then. Laura told me that it’s good I’m here because I am, to paraphrase, overly outgoing and nosy, which is, franchement, true and also effective.