The CBB :: View topic - Language instruction

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#1: Language instruction Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:04 pm
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It strikes me that after Mademoiselle Berne leaves, the school's language instructors are Madamoiselle Lachenais (who also oversees needlework) and Miss Denny (who also teaches piano and handicrafts) - the school has mandatory French, German and probably Latin - say 3 hours a week of instruction each for the first two and 1 for the second, times at least 12 forms, plus optional classes in Spanish, Italian, Russian and Medieval French (say, 8 hours a week, minimum for the lot) is a bare minimum of 92 hours of instruction a week, plus marking, preparing lessons, supervising prep, duty on walks and expeditions and the aforementioned needlework, piano and handicrafts.

My theory is that they were both clones. Wink

#2: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:52 pm
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As well as all the private coaching that Miss Annersley so blithely offers on Mdle's behalf to the hundreds of girls who can't speak French when they arrive!

#3: Author: Changnoi, Location: in transit, midwest USA

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:09 pm
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They are also form mistresses, at least sometimes, although I am not actually sure what a form mistress does.

Do they actually teach Russian? Who speaks Russian? I know at some point they say they teach Russian, but who teaches Russian? What pupil takes Russian?

And, Miss A equally blithely offers Miss D as a German coach to the new girls.

It seems strange that, although they've had a scattering of French mistresses over the years (mistress from France, not those who teach French, although they often do both), such as Mlles Lepattre, (de) Lachenais, Berne, and Lenoir, with the exception of the Austrian Frau Mieders and the various Austrian/Swiss Music And Art Guys, there has never been an actual native German speaker teaching German.

How does Miss Denny know German anyway?

Chang

#4: Author: Róisín,

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:44 pm
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I thought it was somewhat of a policy though, not to accept new girls over the age of 15. Under the age of 15, where a student needed coaching in languages, any of the staff could do it, because it was coaching at a basic level rather than an advanced. I *think* someone needed language coaching in Jane (possibly Jane!) and it was Kathie Ferrars who stepped up to do it.

#5: Author: champagnedrinker,

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:46 pm
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I reckon whoever designed those timetables, must have had some access to that spell that Hermione used to enable her to study extra subjects at Hogwarts. After all, however else could someone in, say VB, go to have Maths with IVA, and somehow not miss out on anything that VB were doing. In order to do that, clearly everyone had maths *at the same time* ... (and, thus, presumably for the rest of the day the maths teacher did nothing...)

#6: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:07 pm
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Ah, but you forget, they aren't actually taught languages - they just absord them through their pores.

#7: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:12 pm
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I'm going with a combination of clones and magic! Laughing

#8: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:41 pm
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I've always wondered what they did about French lessons on English/German days and German lessons on English/French days Rolling Eyes

!

I assume Miss Denny learnt German at school as well as French ... although I'm not sure how she managed to learn both Spanish and Italian as well! The language teachers at our school were all English, but it does seem weird that they never had a native German speaker to teach German during their time in Austria and a German-speaking part of Switzerland.

It also puzzles me how the Bettanys, who were supposed to be skint (unless their guardian lost all their money?), were such seasoned travellers that Jo spoke fluent French and German by the time she was 12. Even if they spent every summer abroad - Madge says in School At that they'd spent the summer at the Tiernsee 5 years previously - would she have remembered all the words she picked up? & how much trailing around Europe on trains would you've wanted to do with a "delicate" little kid Rolling Eyes

?!

& when did Jo learn bits of Romany?

& when did Jem learn Afrikaans?

Hmm!

I'm just jealous - I wish I could pick up languages so easily!

#9: Re: Language instruction Author: Rob, Location: Derbyshire, England

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 11:06 pm
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I think it is assumed (stated?) that Jo learnt what Romany she knew from Miss Maynard who used to know some Gypsies in the New Forest.

jennifer wrote:

It strikes me that after Mademoiselle Berne leaves, the school's language instructors are Madamoiselle Lachenais (who also oversees needlework) and Miss Denny (who also teaches piano and handicrafts) :

I think you are forgetting the wonderfully versitile junior mistresses who appear (like genies from a bottle) whenever EBD decided that she needed them! I think that Miss Bubb, Joey Maynard and Simone de Bersac also all teach languages at different times?

#10: Re: Language instruction Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:46 am
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Rob wrote:

I think it is assumed (stated?) that Jo learnt what Romany she knew from Miss Maynard who used to know some Gypsies in the New Forest.

jennifer wrote:

Simone subs for Miss Lachenais after she has her appendix out, Miss Bubb takes senior Latin (I think), and Joey takes junior Latin at the same time.

Miss Denny is mentioned as teaching Italian, senior German, Spanish and Russian at various points, and there are references to medieval French as well, and I think there is a mention of Greek at some point in the English books.

Three hours a week in language classes is a bare minimum - if they are expected to be fluent in a term I think they'd need more than that.

Actually, I've always found the whole trilingual through osmosis approach a bit dodgy - I can see a single language immersion working fairly quickly, but learning two or three new languages simultaneously with instant immersion seems very confusing.

Plus, imagine having to write up homework in French (as it was assigned on French day), using an English text book, and having to address all questions to the person taking prep in German, because the homework is being done on German day.

#11: Re: Language instruction Author: Liane, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 8:09 am
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jennifer wrote:

Plus, imagine having to write up homework in French (as it was assigned on French day), using an English text book, and having to address all questions to the person taking prep in German, because the homework is being done on German day.

OMG. Never thought of it like that!

#12: Author: RuthY, Location: Anyone's guess

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 9:59 am
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Quote:

Never thought of that! That would be awful! Sometimes I can barely manage to understand my homework in English!

#13: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 11:29 am
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I remember in the distant past that I commented that I wasn't totally sure if they actually had set lessons for German. They seem to have German coaching, but they never go to a German lesson.

#14: Author: Rowena, Location: NE England

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 12:27 pm
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Alison H wrote:

& when did Jem learn Afrikaans?

Jem must read Wilbur Smith novels - that's how I picked up several very useful Shocked

phrases of Afrikaans and Zulu Laughing

Afrikaans is also very similar to Flemish and Dutch so maybe he Chaletosmosed them all by hearing them around him ???

#15: Author: Róisín,

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 1:23 pm
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Alison H wrote:

I've always wondered what they did about French lessons on English/German days and German lessons on English/French days Rolling Eyes

I didn't go to school through English (Irish) and during French classes we spoke in French unless we didn't know the phrases etc, and then we spoke in Irish. In English, we spoke in English only. That's why I always think that Miss A. got off very easily taking English literature, as I always assumed that this class would never be subject to the trilingual system. Smile

#16: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 3:36 pm
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Alison H wrote:

I've always wondered what they did about French lessons on English/German days and German lessons on English/French days Rolling Eyes

I expect, don't you, that German lessons were always timetabled for German days (Tuesday and Friday, IIRC), and French lessons for French days. And presumably English lessons on English days.....

Edited to add: But what I've always wondered is what on earth they did about text books for subjects that weren't language-dependent, like history or maths - unless, of course, they magically changed language to go with the day?

Quote:

]& when did Jo learn bits of Romany?

& when did Jem learn Afrikaans?

I've no idea about Jem learning Afrikaans, unless he'd visited South Africa in his gap year (or some equivalent thereof), but I've always assumed Jo had picked up Romany from the Tziganer bands who came to the hotels each summer and they were allowed to go and listen to.

Quote:

Hmm!

I'm just jealous - I wish I could pick up languages so easily!

It's not that difficult - at least, not related languages. I thought I'd be horribly stuck in Poland a couple of years ago, but in the end was able to pick up a few words, if only reading them (never 100% certain of the pronunciation!).

#17: Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term)

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 4:42 pm
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Mrs Redboots wrote:

I expect, don't you, that German lessons were always timetabled for German days (Tuesday and Friday, IIRC), and French lessons for French days. And presumably English lessons on English days.....

Certainly that would seem logical. But then doesn't that take us back to the Hermione-time-turner state we started with, with only two teachers teaching, what, eight or so classes each in one day? (How many forms are there anyway?) - assuming each class has two lessons a week, one on each of these two days, and that the more junior forms are taught by anyone handy (after all, all the teachers are trilingual anyway), and not allowing for extra classes for sixth formers.

#18: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:10 pm
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I find it easiest to say, 'Yes, this language teaching takes place.' then running away from contemplating the details.

#19: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:15 pm
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The irony is that EBD was a Headteacher once upon a time and presumably devised a timetable (unless her mother did it). I'm glad I never taught in her school!

#20: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:02 pm
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But if languages are only taught on the days when it is spoken - what do those Mistresses do on the other days?

Still going with magic here.... Wink

#21: Author: catherine, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 8:13 pm
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I don't think it would have mattered what day it was as I think they would have spoken French/German/English from the moment the lesson began, to the moment it ended. I also imagine that with Latin, they'd have been required to know the meanings of words in any one of the three languages. I can see it would have been confusing trying to remember to speak the right language after the lesson ended though.

But knowing what we do of EBD, she probably didn't think things through in that much detail!

I wouldn't have a clue about textbooks but it wouldn't surprise me if the CS had developed their own versions of them!!

#22: Author: nikkie, Location: Cumbria

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 8:30 pm
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Lesley wrote:

Still going with magic here.... Wink

Me too, I like the clone idea as well (they would be able to get by with no sleep and do the marking all night!

#23: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 10:50 pm
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It is all truly mindboggling. Hermione's spell is the only answer! Very Happy

#24: Author: Rob, Location: Derbyshire, England

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:15 pm
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Even if you accept that you can absorb enough of a language (through your pores!!) to carry out a conversation, what happens when you have to write up the homework in that language? Words usually aren't spelt phonetically, and sentence structure, particularly in German, is very different to that in English. I remember an at least one occasion (or possibly two *curses the old grey matter*) in the books where a new girl is teased into an attempt to spell in German (can't remember who or when) and she fails completely; so how would the girls who don't know a word of German manage to write a essay comparitive to one they would write in English with this handicap?

Also, I think its in Island, Dickie says that she doesn't know any German and is therefore to take Latin instead. Presumably she still has to abide by the rules of German days - speaking, writing up homework etc - so how does she manage?

#25: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:19 pm
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I think it's Rosamund Lilley who gets teased (most unfairly I thought - how was she supposed to know?) As to Dickie - had the School returned to speaking German then - I thought it only happened just before they went back to Switzerland.

#26: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:21 pm
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It's just something EBD never bothered to think through properly. The speaking three languages bit was a handy plot device to get new girls completely over-awed by the superiority of the CS to other schools, as in 'Problem' and 'Richenda', and the subsequent letters home filled up a few more pages without having to do much actual thinking or real writing.

It does, of course, bring up the vexed question of how the mistresses coped. They were supposed to have conversational French and German as a requirement of being offered a job, but I don't hink that that covers the technical terms needed to teach the Sciences, Maths or Geography.

#27: Author: Rob, Location: Derbyshire, England

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:24 pm
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Quote:

As to Dickie - had the School returned to speaking German then - I thought it only happened just before they went back to Switzerland.

I think that they must have had some German days in the St Briavels days as it is set after Three Go during which German days are reintroduced so that Verity-Anne can object to them! Unless its another EBDism and she forgets about them again until Changes ... Laughing

#28: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:27 pm
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I thought Verity- Anne objected to singing in German?

#29: Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term)

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:05 pm
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Lesley wrote:

But if languages are only taught on the days when it is spoken - what do those Mistresses do on the other days?

Sleep? They probably need it after days like those!

#30: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:16 pm
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In their actual language lessons, they only appear to do dictation and sometimes literature, rather than working through a textbook of some kind.

#31: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:20 pm
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And when you come to think about it, very few of the girls ever seem to manage to speak three languages fluently, even if they've been there for years, so what good was the system?

#32: Author: Changnoi, Location: in transit, midwest USA

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 5:02 pm
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Jennie wrote:

And when you come to think about it, very few of the girls ever seem to manage to speak three languages fluently, even if they've been there for years, so what good was the system?

I think the idea is that you become fluent a) if you are a Maynard or b) when you leave the school. But up until that time, you are "speaking a weird polylgot mixture that would make a Frenchman tear his hair out" or whatever. The Chalet School gets very insular at times...

I seem to remember a paraphrase from Jo's Boys that states that Jo March Bhaer runs her school in such a way that "manners and morals are inculcated without the pupils being aware that it's being done". Perhaps we should agree that this is sort of how the CS language teaching works?

Chang

#33: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:55 pm
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Well I don't think they come out completely fluent, but they certainly have a jolly good headstart!

And if we work on the assumption that language lessons are just called Grammar, which they have, say, three times a week on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday that gives us one day of French, one of English and one of German. Sorted.

And also work on the assumption that girls who were advanced enough to work with a higher form in some subjects could miss certain other subjects with their own form then we're okay!

Besides, the mistresses would have just needed to swot up with a dictionary....I call my French and German conversational and I would NEVER have managed.

#34: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:56 pm
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The prefects always managed to be fluent. Perhaps they were given the gift of tongues along with their badges. They were always the envy of the younger girls.

#35: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:58 pm
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People in Gaelscoils in Ireland seem to come out the other end pretty fluent in Irish. I *almost* wish I'd gone to one. The only difference with them and the CS, though, is that they have one language to learn while the CS has two/three.

On the mistresses subject though, isn't there a Mlle Lenoir as well? I was reading Challenge recently and she was mentioned.

#36: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 9:38 pm
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You do get the occasional prefect who hopes that her own [insert appropriate language] will pass muster! Obviously they slipped through the net.

#37: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Leeds

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 10:25 pm
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I think Mlle Lenoir was a junior music mistress.

#38: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 10:45 pm
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I wonder how all the new mistresses - other than those who were Old Girls - came to be fluent in all 3 languages. Kathie Ferrars is only 22 when she starts at the School, and I think she says that the only times she's been abroad've been on (presumably shortish) holidays, and only to France rather than to any German-speaking countries. Her degree must've been in either maths (although she's a BA and I know that at my uni maths graduates got a BSc) or geography, rather than in languages, so how come she spoke fluent French and German?!

*Thinks that maybe I am being v silly and picky Laughing

!*

*Wonders why no-one seemed to manage to learn to speak Welsh when the School was in parts of Wales which we're told were bilingual/primarily Welsh-speaking.*

#39: Author: Rob, Location: Derbyshire, England

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:18 pm
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Quote:

I thought Verity- Anne objected to singing in German?

I think it says in Three Go that Verity-Anne refused to sing the German carol but that she would only speak on German days when she was spoken to by a mistress.

Quote:

I wonder how all the new mistresses - other than those who were Old Girls - came to be fluent in all 3 languages

I think most non-Chaletians found it very difficult. In one of the books where they re-introduce the trilingual aspect, either Three Go, or maybe Changes, Miss Slater, knowing what was going on, has decided to set a test for her class rather than struggle in teaching them in Geman and then when the school moves back to the Alps one of her reasons for not going is that she doesn't want to have to speak in a foreign language most of the time - anyone ever think that EDB didn't like old Pam? As for Herr Laubach, I seem to think that he refuses to speak French at all!

Quote:

*Wonders why no-one seemed to manage to learn to speak Welsh when the School was in parts of Wales which we're told were bilingual/primarily Welsh-speaking.*

Had never thought of this before ... even Joey doesn't learn to speak Welsh (other than a few expressions such as hanes). I wonder why she never asked Gwensi to teach her?

I guess that we should be thankful that EBD never got to write about Len the magnificent's aptitude for teaching languages Rolling Eyes

... I wouldn't have been suprised if the school became quin-lingual , I'm sure the staff would have loved teaching in Spanish and Italian Wink

- one language each day of the week! Oh! Someone should write a drabble about this Very Happy

...

#40: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:29 pm
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Rob wrote:

I wouldn't have been suprised if the school became quin-lingual , I'm sure the staff would have loved teaching in Spanish and Italian Wink

- one language each day of the week! Oh! Someone should write a drabble about this Very Happy

...

Ahem....

#41: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:02 am
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Alex wrote:

In their actual language lessons, they only appear to do dictation and sometimes literature

True enough, but there are some lovely bits. Can't remember which book it's in, but Mlle de Lachennais is tearing her hair over one girl doing an exercise on 'pouvoir' and forming the Future as 'je pouvoirai', with another leaving all the verbs out because she can't find 'can' in the dictionary, and it's not fair. I think it was Emerence who filled a translation with made-up words like 'mouton-chien' for sheepdog.

Love it! Laughing

#42: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 5:27 am
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Rob wrote:

Quote:

I thought Verity- Anne objected to singing in German?

I think it says in Three Go that Verity-Anne refused to sing the German carol but that she would only speak on German days when she was spoken to by a mistress.

So it does - sorry about that! Embarassed

- Makes her refusal all the stranger - what was the difference between speaking German to a Mistress and singing German to a Master? Confused

#43: Author: Rob, Location: Derbyshire, England

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 11:59 am
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Cryst wrote:

Rob wrote:

I wouldn't have been suprised if the school became quin-lingual , I'm sure the staff would have loved teaching in Spanish and Italian Wink

- one language each day of the week! Oh! Someone should write a drabble about this Very Happy

...

Ahem....

Sorry Cyrst, I'm very new and I hadn't read your drabble until today Embarassed

#44: Author: Tiffany, Location: madthesispanicargh

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:29 pm
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Alex wrote:

In their actual language lessons, they only appear to do dictation and sometimes literature

This is itself quite worrying... so from speaking the famous polyglot mixture when prefects or staff are listening (and presumably only gossiping in it) and having maths etc lessons through French and German, you learn enough grammar and vocab in one term to be able to read and discuss foreign novels?

#45: Author: Róisín,

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 3:53 pm
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I always read Mlle Lenoir as Mlle Lenor, y'know - the fabric conditioner... Embarassed

#46: Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term)

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 5:50 pm
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Quote:

Kathie Ferrars is only 22 when she starts at the School, and I think she says that the only times she's been abroad've been on (presumably shortish) holidays, and only to France rather than to any German-speaking countries. Her degree must've been in either maths (although she's a BA and I know that at my uni maths graduates got a BSc) or geography, rather than in languages, so how come she spoke fluent French and German?!

Could you do joint honours in the fifties? I have a couple of friends doing weird things like maths and fine art, and physics with German.

If Kathie had been to Oxford she would've got a BA no matter what she did (I have a BA in Chemistry!), in the same way (so I am told) that even if you do Fine Art at Cambridge you get a BSc. Bizzare.[/quote]

#47: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:09 am
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That's too early for Joint Honours, I think. When I did a combined honours degree in English and French in 1965 - 68, it was a very new concept (much disapproved of by my Head) and only five unis in the country did it. I think Oxbridge were slower on the uptake than other places anyway. It amazes me the conbinations you can now do - my favourite was Tourism and Criminology! Shocked

#48: Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire/Bangor

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 4:09 pm
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Tara wrote:

Alex wrote:

In their actual language lessons, they only appear to do dictation and sometimes literature

I'm with Emerence on this one. All the way.

#49: Author: Xanthe, Location: London/Cambridge

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 4:16 pm
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Catrin wrote:

If Kathie had been to Oxford she would've got a BA no matter what she did (I have a BA in Chemistry!), in the same way (so I am told) that even if you do Fine Art at Cambridge you get a BSc. Bizzare.

[/quote]

Mais non... for we get BA degrees here *nods*

#50: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 4:41 pm
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Also sympathising with Emerence. Would they have had English/French and English/German dictionaries? We had great fun with those! Someone with a Polish dad looked up the word for Polish when we had to write about our families in Spanish and ended up writing the Spanish for "My father is polish" (as in furniture polish).

I can quite understand Emerence coming up with "mouton-chien" Laughing

#51: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:38 pm
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Lolling in the tub, one of those places where brilliant ideas tend to strike (obviously not a tub of the early morning cold water type!), and I thought, "to be a truly CS Bulletin Board, we should write in whchever of the three languages the school weekly timetable dictates."

Which would reduce me to silence.

Or maybe we would all become trilingual Very Happy

#52: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 3:05 pm
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Yessss, so I'll be here Wednesdays and the weekend then? Confused

#53: Author: Katya, Location: Mostly Bradford

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 8:41 pm
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Just to add my two pennorth (as a linguist, you understand) I have to say that the medium - ie the language, in this case - through which you learn a language makes no difference, or else how would foreign people ever learn English? I had Russian lessons in Spain at one point and it worked fine. And the technical vocabulary (for the science subjects and so on) is actually far easier than the 'airy-fairy' stuff, because there is much less variation: a valve in French is 'the French for valve' all the time, if you see what I mean. Having a textbook in one language and having to write your homework in another would actually help you to learn, because you'd end up knowing both (or all three) words for something, rather than only being able to talk about science in French, geography in English, etc...

As for the timetabling though - all I can say is I'm glad I didn't have to do it!

#54: Author: DramaPrefect,

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 8:50 pm
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Maeve wrote:

Lolling in the tub, one of those places where brilliant ideas tend to strike (obviously not a tub of the early morning cold water type!), and I thought, "to be a truly CS Bulletin Board, we should write in whchever of the three languages the school weekly timetable dictates."

Which would reduce me to silence.

Or maybe we would all become trilingual Very Happy

I can blame the CS for my first forays into the world of languages. Probably for my mum's too - CS books as a child, now teaches French and German! So we've probably all picked up little bits here and there from the books!

#55: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 2:54 pm
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Maeve wrote:

"to be a truly CS Bulletin Board, we should write in whchever of the three languages the school weekly timetable dictates."

Once upon a time, in the dim and distant past, we did have one thread where we spoke in the language of the day! It was years ago, when I first came across the board (4 years, maybe five?). I think it lasted a week!! I could only contribute "hello how are you?" on French days, I doubt I could do that now. Embarassed

#56: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 5:23 pm
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Not surprised to hear that some other brilliant person already thought of it. Wink

Maybe if one of the moderators gave us five new vocab words in French and German for every day... Very Happy

#57: Author: Cryst,

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 5:28 pm
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Ah, but have you noticed, when people are speaking in French or German EBD still writes the dialogue in English, but with little giveaways to remind you they are speaking French or German. Like "my Joey" for speaking French and "thee/thou" for german. So -- if we first shared our knowledge of these, we could all do likewise.

#58: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 5:41 pm
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One of the things I've wondered about is that it is all very well for them to do their homework in "the language of the day" when they are younger and are probably expected to do their homework on the day it is set. But what about when they are old enough to be given 2-3 days to do a particular piece of work?

Do they do it in the language of the day on which it was set, or the language of the day on which they actually did it?

#59: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 5:57 pm
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Mrs Redboots wrote:

But what about when they are old enough to be given 2-3 days to do a particular piece of work?
Do they do it in the language of the day on which it was set, or the language of the day on which they actually did it?

My head hurts. I've just got an image of pupils in the fifth and sixth handing in an essay written in three languages! Mind boggles over marking it!

It would be one way of knowing who did their prep straight away and who left it until the last minute Wink

Strange how I accepted it as a child that it was natural to continue working in the language of the day without ever really taking in what it meant in practice as we have discussed here.

#60: Author: Ally, Location: John Bettany's Cabin!

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 6:15 pm
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It would also show when they did it and who left the work until the last minute! *g* I would have said perhaps the day it was set.

I wonder how many lessons of each subject they had a week, as you could quite easily imagine that some sujects could only be taught in one language, or maybe two for a whole year, but probably not all three.

#61: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 6:53 pm
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Ally wrote:

I wonder how many lessons of each subject they had a week, as you could quite easily imagine that some sujects could only be taught in one language, or maybe two for a whole year, but probably not all three.

I'm just imagining them all having 3 copies of something like a history textbook, one in each language Laughing

! & having to keep the timetables the same year on year Rolling Eyes

#62: Author: Róisín,

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 6:56 pm
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The type of homework that would last over a few days would probably only be something like composition (for a language class ie English/ French/ whatever), so that would naturally be done in that language. For everything else I would say it hadn't much of an impact ie art and maths, where pictures and numbers are the language. The only place I see it as a problem is with something like history -> in that case I would say that the essay had to be done in the language of the title they were given ie if it was a Tuesday and they were all speaking French, the title of the essay would be French, and the content of the essay would naturally follow that. Very Happy

#63: Author: Helen P, Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 8:44 pm
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The thought of homework in different languages over several days is breaking my brain most thoroughly!

This is a fascinating discussion; I've never thought about the practicalities of lessons and homework before.

I'm giggling at the idea of a thread in which we speak the language of the day only, and learn 5 words of vocab a day - that could be fun! Very Happy

#64: Author: Tiffany, Location: madthesispanicargh

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:10 pm
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Helen P wrote:

I'm giggling at the idea of a thread in which we speak the language of the day only, and learn 5 words of vocab a day - that could be fun! Very Happy

Would we have to pay fines if we forgot? We could raise loads of money for the board... Laughing

I'd never thought about the longer pieces of prep being done in several languages at once - it's a very scary thought. Also, if it was a French essay but you were doing it on German day, and you were stuck and asked the prefect taking prep for help, you'd have to discuss the French in German, wouldn't you? My mind is boggling just to think of it!

Going back to Cryst's point, I always found it odd that EBD bothered to add "they were speaking German" in the middle of conversations. I don't know why but it jars on me; showing what they were speaking by doctoring the English, or by putting in odd words of the langauge in question, seems a much better way to do it.

The CBB -> Anything Else

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