Je commence des cours en français!
The first few days of lessons were less daunting than I had expected. Apart from a minor administrative problem (one of my modules had been cancelled) which has now been resolved (I enrolled on another), things have gone reasonably smoothly. I actually find it easier to follow lectures than conversational French, for various reasons: firstly, lecturers tend to speak more slowly and clearly (I can think of a few exceptions from my Imperial days, the like of which I hope not to have to contend with here); secondly, conversations are not illustrated with helpful Powerpoint presentations or scribblings on a whiteboard; thirdly, lectures tend to follow a more predicable (if sometimes tedious) form, whilst conversation tend to be more spontaneous, and can be on any of an infinite number of subjects. I find concentrating for a full hour and a half on what someone is saying/writing/alluding to more difficult than understanding the actual language.Good things about the School:
- availability of cheap (~40p/cup) coffee in a café in the main entrance hall, dutifully staffed by a man called Eric, who is rather more patient with me now he knows I'm English.
- availability of even cheaper (~25p/cup) coffee in the students' union bar (known as the foyer des élèves), and cost-price beer.
- having a three-course meal at lunchtime for £2. With FREE olives!
- Once one has waded through the bureacracy (or perhaps treading water is a more accurate analogy), things are rather better organised than I had preconceived.
Bad things about the School:
- It's layout is very confusing
- People smoke everywhere
- It's a bit shabby
- There's no clocks in any of the rooms
- There is almost no vegetarian food - I have survived off a diet of chips, various salads, fruit, and more fruit. Once, they had Eggs Florentine as a main course, which was nice.
I have adjusted better to a full timetable of studying for the first time in over a year better than I thought. The first (and rather major) glitch came this morning, when there was a staying up too late/alarm clock/waking up problem which resulted in missing the first lecture of a new course. I gather I didn't miss much. I was most dreading the lecturer having said, "Listen carefully, as I'm only going to say this once, and it's really important," whilst I was in bed.
Well, I think I'm off to enjoy (or not) a rock concert at the foyer des élèves.
posted by Rorkey @ 12:29 PM
3 Comments:
I'm glad you've kept this up- it's cool.
More about the anonymous comments drama please.
you'll have to cook yourself lots of vege things (or start eating meat till you come back to the UK)
Sorry it's been a bit sporadic lately - partly due to technical problems, and partly due to being, well, busy. Thanks for reading! S. x
yes rorkey - tell us about the anonymous abuser with Turette's - we need some spice to keep us reading! - and do you have careworn tartan slippers to accompany your non-hallucinogenic enjoyment of Andy Williams???
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