#languageassistant

[auxiliarmadridblog]

Hello!

Hi everyone! My name is Faith, I'm 22 years old and Fall 2020 has been my first year as a Language Assistant in Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain! I grew up in New Jersey, USA where I also went to University and studied Journalism and Visual Arts. I work at IES Joaquin Araujo in Fuenlabrada with 1ESO, 2ESO and Bachillerato in Art in English and English classes. 

I hope my posts will help you with your teaching journey here in Spain. I will be posting some of my favorite resources, lesson plans I’ve made, general tips and my final project which I’m super excited about! 

I also plan on posting my thoughts about moving abroad and teaching during a global pandemic and my experiences around that!

[celesteinfrance]

Coucou! As I write this, I’m sitting in my new home for the next seven months: a lovely, many-windowed apartment at the heart of La Réole, France, where I arrived last Wednesday night. La Réole is a tiny town of less than 5000 people situated about 45 minutes southeast of Bordeaux by train. It’s nestled along the beautiful Garonne river, which flows by peacefully within view of my bedroom window. 

The apartment where my roommate and I live is on the second floor of the town’s high school. We’re both here to work as language assistants in our respective tongues, mine English, hers Spanish and Italian. For twelve hours a week, I’ll be conducting conversations and activities with high school and middle school students to help them improve their English skills. In return, I have the privilege of living in La Réole among its very kind people, drinking wine, and eating a lot of bread (oh, so much bread).

The schools will be on vacation for two weeks (quelle chance pour moi), but before the break started, I had two days of in-class observation during which the students asked me questions about myself and where I came from. Some of my favorites:

“Do you really make the bacon and eggs for breakfast?”

“Are American high schools really like they are in the movies?”

“What is a… a fy-dle? Feedle? Fiddle?”

And, from a young student who wanted to ask if I had a boyfriend, “Do you men?”

Many students also asked me what I thought about La Réole. “How do you feel about living in the middle of nowhere in La Réole?” one demanded. 

“I love it,” I said earnestly, and the whole classroom erupted into laughter. To many of them, it seems there’s not much to see in La Réole. But for me, everything is thrilling. Just walking down the cobblestone streets feels like a treat, let alone the fact that each day I get to marvel at incredible architecture, delicious food, the intricacies of the language, beautiful natural surroundings, and warm, friendly people. I can’t think what could be better.

Highlights from the past few days have included my first meal in France, which was cooked and shared in the home of the family of the assistant principal who lives above us; a four-hour promenade with my roommate to a beautiful, still stream lined by yellow-red trees; a stroll through the bustling Saturday morning market on the strip by the Garonne; a morning spent enjoying a chocolate éclair and reading beneath a tree in the local park; and an evening spent over glasses of bordelaise wine and conversation with my roommate. I feel so grateful and so excited for everything to come. For now, I’m practicing slowing down enough to appreciate all my incredible surroundings moment by moment.

À bientôt!

[cutecutebibaforever]

My first day at school for this year! 😅 #nofilter Back to reality! Hahaha #cutebiba #blessed #grateful #thankful #teacher #languageassistant #english #spanish (en Celanova) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVffnhEMfREfTZRNcUfaxYnRvRFIfwx4eRbcbg0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[halifaxnoise]

@olp.plo_novascotia IS HIRING — #NOWHIRING - PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS? Êtes-vous un étudiant à la recherche d’un emploi à temps partiel? Venez travailler en tant que moniteur de français de la Nouvelle-Écosse et partager des activités en français au niveau élémentaire ou secondaire! 20 $/heure, 8 heures par semaine (contrat de six mois). Vous avez jusqu’au 17 mars (ce vendredi) pour postuler! Visitez http://ift.tt/2n7iJgM . . #linkinbio #Halifaxjobs #studentjob #jobposting #applynow #nowhiring #bilingual #French #parlezvousfrancais #francophone #classroom #travel #work #experience #bursary #scholarships #goodjob #Canada #Canada150 #teacher #student #languageassistant #opportunity http://ift.tt/2mGsBvh

[jana-hayao]

Life as an Auxiliar

Hi everyone! I just moved in here in Spain exactly a month ago! It is sad tho that I have to leave my family and loved ones in the Philippines... but what I am doing here is for my and our future, too!

I meet my family in Spain (well, not blood related) My aunt (aforementioned) is actually a friend of my real aunt in my country. They adopted me for a week until I finally found a house near my school.💕

The house I currently live in is in Mostoles, 15 minutes away from my school--great! Not just that, the landlady and her daughters are very kind to me! Like I do not have to buy house stuff anymore because they let me use their pots and everything! 😉

I am assigned in Mostoles, Madrid (not Madrid, Madrid. Don’t be confused!) And I must say, this town has a lot of parks! I am assigned in a high school, IES Antonio de Nebrija.

The school is somewhat big and a lot of students! The teachers are very kind (yes, they really are!) and the students are very sweet! HEHE They always call me “teacher” (although I’m not really a teacher), “Jana-banana”, and sometimes say “hi” to me! ❤❤😍

[cutecutebibaforever]

We are meant to be excited. Aren't we? #Europe #blessed #grateful #structures #happiness #reallove #dreamsturningtoreality #cutebiba #culturalexchange #languageassistant #overflowingwithlove #plazadelasventas #nofilter #Madrid #spain🇪🇸 (at Plaza de toros Las Ventas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3pmRw1I2D6fTtgvddzxOy_fnbsQm50beEv6cI0/?igshid=y9shfc8vomwa

[lechapitresuivant-blog]

À Nice

I've now been living in Saint Étienne for over 8 weeks and I can't quite believe it. I've never been away from home for more than three so to think I'm still alive and well without my parents to look after me, I'm quite impressed with myself! I'm now well and truly into the swing of my job as an English Assistant. Unfortunately I work everyday but two of which are only for an hour as I run a lunch club at one of my schools. I mainly work with the 3éme's (14-16) and 6éme's (11-12) in both schools, helping the teachers with their lesson that week or working with my own material. So far all is well, with the occasional student who refuses to speak any english and only french, but teenagers are the same in every country I guess!! 

As France is constantly on holiday, during the October school break me and two other language assistants decided to spend one of the weeks in Nice. We had such a good time soaking up the surprisingly hot weather at the beach and drinking plenty of cocktails and wine. I've spent time in Nice before with my friends from school so I recommended that we visit Monte Carlo for the day so I could show the girls how surreal the place is. If you've never been then I'd suggest you visit but be warned, it will most certainly make you feel dirt poor! Oh and one more thing, take a picnic as I'm sure your wise enough not to spend 40€ on a pasta dish. I'm so happy we arranged to go to Nice as it was fun learning more about the girls and becoming closer through our shared love of good food and company. 

Ellie, Me and Jamie

The Delhi Belly, Nice (such amazing food)

Rainy day spent at the Museums of Nice

Ready for beaucoup d'alcool 

Yummy moules

Beautiful Nice

[abbi-yearabroad]

Primary school assistants with our responsable a few days before we left Pau!

[knics91-blog]

"C'est au revoir, pas adieu"

So I have to admit that I have been rubbish when it comes to posting over the last couple of weeks. Everything has been so hectic in my final few weeks as a language assistant and I am becoming too sentimental to write anything on here without crying like a baby!

But I’m going to give it a go anyway! Edda, the German assistant, left recently so we had to make sure we celebrated her final few days in style. We began on a Friday night with a traditional Moroccan couscous cooked by our friend Mohammed followed by a fair few bevvies in the ever classic Bar du Vin. We decided to continue the theme of over-indulging by going to our favourite pizza restaurant, Dugesclin, on the Saturday night. We watched Edda get beyond smashed and then watched as she stumbled home (ever responsible friends...). Sunday was a bit too much for Edda but we made sure we fully profited from the Easter Sunday on her behalf by thoroughly enjoying roast lamb cooked by Anahat’s new French butcher boyfriend (such a great catch of a man – he even has a car we can use!). Afterwards we made the obligatory stop-off at a Soirée Givrée where many cocktails were drunk and much house music was played. It turns out that enough cocktails were drunk to encourage us to go to QG, which, much to my surprise, was rammed. Unfortunately for me, it was rammed full of my students who now insist that we are friends and they can be as laid back as they like with me, leading to no work being done and no English being spoken...

And so now, the 8-man team of assistants is down to 7 and the end is drawing ever closer. When I reached the half-way stage at Christmas I felt like we still had plenty of time left so I just cannot believe how quickly the last 3 and a half months have gone. I am going to find saying goodbye to Aubenas so difficult but I’m just going to forget about that for now and concentrate on the time that is left.

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[knics91-blog]

Les films et les folies

This week saw the highlight of the Aubenas calendar with the arrival of the film festival. For just 4€ a ticket you could enjoy a variety of international films, ranging from Scandinavia to South America to a good old-fashioned British satire. I only ended up going to 2 films, Royal Affair, which was only understood by the ticket man when I made the classic back-of-the-throat coughing sound so typical of France, and les fruits défendus, a Finnish film preaching all the negative sides of religion, something which will never be questioned in the liberal Ardèche where I am frowned upon for having never smoked weed!

Lessons this week couldn’t have gone better. I finally feel like I am respected by the pupils and, hopefully, they genuinely like me. It’s even got to the awkward stage where I’m starting to have undeniable favourit

[knics91-blog]

La sentimentalité d’une assistante

So I’ve achieved 2 months out of 7 with this whole year abroad malarkey and I thought I’d take the moment to allow myself to wallow in sentimentality. Thinking back to the nervous wait in the ferry port as I said my goodbyes to Britain I honestly didn’t believe that I would make it this far. I had no idea what lay in store for me; I had no home to move into, I had heard virtually nothing from the teachers in my schools and I had only just managed to locate the tiny pinpoint that is Aubenas on a map of France. However, 2 months later I couldn’t be more proud of myself and I’m not ashamed to say it. I had zero confidence when it came to my spoken French and had no idea how I was going to cope with everyday life, but I have somehow miraculously rented myself a flat and made firm friends with my landlady, set up a phone and internet contract, negotiated myself through almost 60 hours of lessons and made friends that I am sure I will keep with me for the rest of my life.

The real turning point came for me last night when I went out in Aubenas for the first time in about 3 weeks. I found myself accosted by the locals that I have made friends with as they enquired where I’d been and why they hadn’t seen me for so long. It felt so good knowing that I fitted in in this town which has become so familiar to me now and that my French evidently isn’t a lost cause! And what’s more, as I looked around and saw my fellow assistants chatting fluently in French to people we didn’t even know a month ago, I felt that sense of pride well up again as I realised how far we’d all come as a group. Not only do we all get on like a house on fire, but I genuinely cannot imagine not knowing them anymore; we have formed a tight knit family of 8 who are together facing all the big and little challenges that a year abroad throws at you, and, god, is it reassuring to know that I’m not alone in this. Without them this experience would be nothing.

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[abbi-yearabroad]

toussaint travels

as i recently had two weeks off work (the french love their holidays), i decided i wanted to make it a good couple of weeks so split my time between pau, peterborough, leamington and paris. had a great two weeks off!! premier arrêt: dax

on the tuesday in pau, after the standard night out at the weekend, a few of us decided to visit dax, which is a town close to pau- takes about an hour and a half on the train. it’s a ‘spa town’ apparently, so i imagined it to be a lot like leam (bit skanky, a few old buildings, maybe a dodgy takeaway or two) but it was very much a modern town, with a few shops including a galleries lafayette, as well as huge looming hotels which are the ‘spas’. they did have this pool thing where boiling hot water came out of the taps though, and it was quite pretty. after we’d had lunch we decided to go to one of these spas. it was basically just a shallow swimming pool with a jacuzzi on one side, an outdoor area (which was FUCKING FREEZING) and a couple of saunas. so of course we tried the saunas. everyone seemed to be really relaxed and enjoying themselves but i was sitting there thinking OH MY GOD I CANNOT BREATHE and my contact lenses were sticking to my eyes!!! it was like being back on the beach in kos under 45° sun. except there was no sun. and it was dark. overall the whole experience cost 14€. wot…

[boiling hot water in the middle of the street!]

[the spa]  

hallowe'en on wednesday it was halloween. halloween is one of my favourite times of year; i love dressing up, decorating the house etc. i quickly learned that the french don’t celebrate halloween as we do in england. before the holidays i asked a few of the teachers if halloween is a big thing, and the general consensus was 'no'. hardly any of the children had been trick or treating, they didn't understand why we make jack-o'-lanterns and they had never heard of candy apples! even without my teachers' warnings i soon found that hallowe'en isn't nearly as popular in pau as it is in england; firstly, there were no fancy dress costumes in the shops, so i spent most of the day traipsing round in vain, until i got to a 'tout à 1€' shop and managed to find a pair of devil horns and pitchfork (but still stupidly asked how much they cost.) my next task was to buy a pumpkin. they were green. needless to say i was slightly disappointed! we went to predrink at anna’s and to the australian bar then decided to queue for durangos except it was stupidly busy so left… definitely didn’t live up to last years halloween, or the year before, or the year before that… but it was still good to see how the french celebrate differently. in fact, it's the day after halloween (all saint's day) which is more well known; it's a bank holiday in france wherein they mourn the deceased.

[anna & me on hallowe'en] deuxième arrêt: home!  i flew back to london on friday, somehow managing to get a bus, a train, another train, a taxi, and a plane all by myself. congratulation letters welcome; anyone who knows me knows how dreadful i am with public transport! once back in peterborough mum had cooked the BEST MEAL EVAR (steak pie with mash and veg) and it hit home how much ive missed them. even though i’m only a 2 hour flight away, or a skype or a phone call, living abroad really isn’t as easy as i though it would be. don’t get me wrong i absolutely love it; im so proud of myself for being here and i love pau and teaching. had i been at a normal term in uni i would probably have only seen my family & friends at this point anyway, but the fact of the matter is that living in leamington i don’t get homesick and living in pau i do. went out with my sister and a few of the girlies, and over the next few days it was lovely to see various friends for meals and coffees etc. even got to see skyfall with my sister (fab film!) i also went to leam to see fellow third years which was good fun – kind of jealous i’m missing out on so much (gossip, nights out, ski tour etc)! realised i really don’t want to do lectures and boring work in final year!! can i just stay in pau forever please…

[p'town girlies & leam girlies] 

troisième arrêt: paris! i flew (again, by myself!) to paris on thursday and was greeted by a very happy tom and ali peering at me through the glass in the baggage collection area! it was lovely to see everyone; people on their year abroads in france/ germany (& england) met up and stayed with friends in paris until sunday. over the weekend, we went to the galleries lafayette and saw the amazing christmas tree, saw the bears at the eiffel tower (no idea what they were for but they were pretty colours), and ate in this amazing restaurant called chartier which i would highly recommend – although it took 45mins to be seated the food was amazing and the customer service was, er, top notch… we also had a silent predrinks which was SUCH fun, and went out to this really cool club that played house music and me & ali got tequila shots without the salt and lemon (bleugh). on saturday evening we had a lovely christmas roast and played funny games and drank lots of wine and it was a fab fab fab weekend. apart from the fact me and tom got 60€ fines for not buying tickets on the metro… shit happens...  

[the christmas tree in lafayette; my amazing duck at chartier; tom & a bear]

then i had the fun task of getting myself and my huge suitcase from ali’s house to my flat. which meant lots of lugging it up metro stairs (french people don’t offer to help), and sitting in the wrong seat on the train, and not being able to lift my case above my head to put it on the racks, and sitting on a train for SIX HOURS, and then having to get a 12€ taxi because the bus left 2 minutes before my train pulled in. it was a fun fun day. now i’m settled back in pau, will post again soon! ♥ gros bizzzzz

[knics91-blog]

Les factures et 'fuck' en français

This week has taught me more than any other week, surprising considering it is the first week, rather than the third week, which is the most vital and which contains the most life-changing aspects of the year abroad. But every person about to undertake a year abroad is warned in advance about the potential nightmares which can pop up when trying to find accommodation and open a bank account. However no one ever tells you that :

1.       Bills are a nightmare to pay ! It took all of 2 minutes of me staring desperately at an automatic stamp machine and 3 different post-boxes for an employee to rush over and guide me through the process, even letting me choose my own pretty stamp !

2.       English isn’t actually a universal language ! One lesson with 16 year old students who weren’t even sure how to say their name in French, let alone English, taught me this.

3.       Teachers are the most absent-minded people you will ever meet. Out of the three teachers I’m working with one failed to tell me my timetable had changed, one went on a school trip without telling me, and the other one has taken a whole week off and didn’t say a word…

4.       Wine is acceptable at any time, especially halfway through the day at lunchtime in the staffroom. I just hope the class after lunch didn’t notice me slurring !

I cannot go any further without mentioning the real source of all the school philandering ; my responsable and NFBF (New French Best Friend…), Xavier. The main woes in his life are his child, alcohol and the fact that he is turning 35 in a month and is yet to try cocaine. Needless to say he is exactly the sort of person you want onside when in a foreign country for the first time. Upon discovering that I was having serious customer service problems with Orange, his initial reaction was ‘fuck me sideways’, quickly followed by an angry phone call to ‘some wanker in Cairo’ whereby he proceeded to get me out of my contract with them. Massive legend !

For now I must go, lunchtime/winetime is over and there are 17 year olds waiting to be taught their alphabet…

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[knics91-blog]

Hangovers and half-marathons

“I don’t want to go to school today.” Words that I haven’t said since I was 16 resurfaced on Friday morning when I was sat on my bed, tired and hungover. The reason? A salsa night at Bar du Vin (I knew as soon as I heard the name of that bar that it would be the source of all my problems!) and wayyyy too many Ti’punches, or ‘create your own death’ as Wikipedia kindly informed me the next day when I decided to google what was in these little cups of hell.

School itself could have been worse; I only had one lesson and only had to play the part of an English speaking customer checking herself into a hotel for the night, hardly taxing. What was taxing however was waiting for the bus afterwards. All I wanted was the comfort of my bed, but instead I got given a lot of grief by some pupils who aren’t exactly enthralled by the prospect of learning English when their main aim is to achieve a qualification in l’Hôtellerie. Luckily I managed to get them on side by teaching them how to say “fuck off”, but so much so that they felt comfortable enough to light up a spliff by the side of me, making no effort to hide their weed from many a disgruntled over-50, thus putting me in the first of my assistante moral dilemmas; whose side do I want to be on, the teachers’ or the pupils’?

Thankfully I was soon saved by the bus and made it home without further harassment to the safety of my bed with just enough time for a power nap before hitting the town once more for some ice cream cocktails, an endless supply of free waffles and a DJ playing the house music which I’ve missed since being here. Cue hangover #2…

And now it’s Sunday and the usual boredom is kicking in. I’ve managed to make the morning pass quickly in a flurry of half-marathon training, Skype chatting and a quick dash to the boulangerie to get myself a baguette and a cookie chataigne (that’s a conker cookie for those of you not in the know – a lot nicer than it sounds, trust me), but now it’s going on 2 o’clock and all I have left to do is publish this blog post and wait for bedtime! This particular Sunday I don’t mind as much, having drunk far much alcohol and had far too little sleep throughout this week, but this can only last so long. Coming from the British way of life where we want everything and we want everything now I find it hard to accept that everything shuts on a Sunday. No supermarkets remain open for me to buy emergency milk, I cannot rely on retail therapy to pass the time as every clothes shop in town is closed, and I can’t even visit the office de tourisme to see if things are open elsewhere as this is also closed. I’m fortunate in that this week I have internet, however there is only so much facebook stalking a girl can do in one day. Time for a sieste I think!

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