Céline's video diary for June: transcript - translation from French into English
Hello, Céline here. Here is my very last video diary of the month of June. And it's nearly the end of my assistantship. And many things have changed since the beginning. The first thing may be that the older...pupils have gone now. And it was quite a stressful moment because the last things were to be prepared, and, um... I had texts to write, to give ideas for their exams, and... yeah, help them and try to tell them that they are good and... or what they have to change before the end. But it was quite interesting, because I knew them, so it was kind of friendships, which was nice.
And now, I have begun my new timetable with first and second year - second years. So I don't have any fourth years left. The fifth and sixth years are gone too. So it's a different approach with first and second years because they are younger, and they don't know as much French as the other ones. It's... Yeah, it's different because I try to interest them and, as I'm French, it's quite amazing, surprising for them. So they want to know a lot of things about me, and I think I don't really have to give them many things, I just have to be myself, and to be French, and to answer their questions. And the first period was kind of very easy, because I had to answer their questions. And they wanted to know really everything, and they were surprised of the answers, even if they knew what I was going to say. They wanted to hear me say that I eat snails and frogs' legs, but... They knew it, but they were, like, surprised of that, so it was kind of funny. And, yeah, we shared many things, and it was great. I think they learned many things about the French civilisation. It was good for that.
It's easier, so in a way, it's not really... It's basic things, like introducing yourself, and also it's maybe more the kind of civilisation facts, because we... It's not really grammar, or learning things about grammar. It's more easy things like sentences you have to know when you meet someone. And also many things about the civilisation, so... I don't know, it's just sharing things and kind of, activities. I think they need to be more directed to what they have to do. So you have to be more precise in what you want them to do. You need to write everything, and to... to give them, yeah, ideas, and then they are able to, for example, research on the internet. They are able to do that, but you have to... They want to know and to learn things, but you have to direct them.
I think that maybe I would have preferred having the second years earlier, but I think for the first year, it was useless to have them before, because they didn't know anything. Even now, they are just ready to... They will have their new timetable and be in second year soon, so they are nearly second years, but no, before, it would have been too early. They wouldn't have had enough... Maybe just for... Maybe at the beginning of the year, to introduce their new subject, their new French subject, maybe it would have been great to have a period just introducing myself, because when they saw me for the first time, they were surprised that they had not seen me before. And they thought, they really thought that I was just arriving in Scotland. And when I said, 'Oh, I've been here for months...' 'Really? Never seen you before!' So, yeah, maybe I should have a kind of period, just to make French more lively, with a French person. That would be great.
Um...I really wanted to be a French assistant - it's part of my studies in France. I've been studying English for a few years now, and learning the language was really important. And next year, I'd like to sit my exam so as to become a teacher, an English teacher. So this year was really great for me, for... It was my first experience with teaching. So, in a way, I improved my English. On the other side, I also learned basic things about teaching, and how to deal with pupils, and how to prepare even the work you have to do at home, what to prepare with them, how to deal with first-years and how to deal with sixth-years, which are really different.
It's also given me the possibility to realise that being a teacher was really what I wanted to do. I mean, it's not really obvious that you want to be a teacher, I think you can feel it if you want to become one or not. And I am really motivated now to go back to France and to finish that... to pass that exam in order to be a real teacher. And, yeah, I learned many things about teaching, and the assistantship is quite nice, because you have less work, but you have the possibility to experience and to see what things can work and what things cannot work. And you also have the experience of other, older teachers who already have the experience and can help you, preparing things and, yeah, simply help you in teaching.