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Speicher

Vice Admiral
Moderator
Good for you. And yes they'll remember it at exam time. They're probably telling their parents about it right now in fact.

I also have a lot of respect for anyone who can teach anything for two lessons straight on an hours notice; I need a good half hour just for a quick presentation.

As for the head of department, I generally take the attitude that if you're annoying someone in authority you're probably on the right track.

I have had to teach French to a class on several occasions at less than an hour's notice. I worked in the Foreign Language department at a Technical College. The usual teacher had sustained a head injury at work. She gradually recovered but some days she would ring me at the college and ask me to take the lesson in her place.

My strategy was to only speak French throughout the lesson, and think up questions that they should be able to answer based on the last chapter they used in the class.
 
I have had to teach French to a class on several occasions at less than an hour's notice. I worked in the Foreign Language department at a Technical College. The usual teacher had sustained a head injury at work. She gradually recovered but some days she would ring me at the college and ask me to take the lesson in her place.

My strategy was to only speak French throughout the lesson, and think up questions that they should be able to answer based on the last chapter they used in the class.

I've had to teach German to refugees here. This was great fun because German was the only language I could be sure any of them spoke, and translations often went from Arabic or Syrian to Turkish to Kurdish or vice versa; occasionally we'd then have to translate to a Kurdish dialect. Mostly I'd take things with me into the lessons, including on one occasion my touring bike which sat on a desk while we translated the names of the parts.

Ironically I'm absolutely awful at learning languages; I just scraped a "C" in GCSE German and failed German at AS level.

I'm not going to tell you about my French grades.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
I have had to teach French to a class on several occasions at less than an hour's notice. I worked in the Foreign Language department at a Technical College. The usual teacher had sustained a head injury at work. She gradually recovered but some days she would ring me at the college and ask me to take the lesson in her place.

My strategy was to only speak French throughout the lesson, and think up questions that they should be able to answer based on the last chapter they used in the class.

From my school days of Tricolore pierre and co either asked a policeman the way to bakers , butchers ect. Got lost and asked policeman for directions. Or we had to name things via odd looking drawn set of official flash cards of roast chicken, baskets of veg or other assorted food and drink with odd animal thrown in. One year we had our head as our teacher which was handy as he was chief examiner in french for the exam board.
 

Speicher

Vice Admiral
Moderator
The classes I "taught" were for Engineering Students who were going to France for a month. The emphasis was on them learning basic conversation skills. No amount of learning intricacies of a language will compensate if you cannot string a spoken sentence together.

My converational French improved immensely while spending two weeks in France on a Walking holiday. It was about half and half English/French speakers. One lady worked as a guide at Chartres Cathedral. She was very happy to have someone to talk to in French, and she spoke slowly and clearly. One on occasion we discussed, in French, the use of the subjunctive. :scratch:

One evening everyone wanted to play Trivial Pursuits. Guessed who was told to be the translator of the questions from English to French?
 
Time to feed the cats and settle down to England v Wales (and peek in on USA v Iran occasionally)
 

Gwylan

Veteran
Location
All at sea⛵
I've had to teach German to refugees here. This was great fun because German was the only language I could be sure any of them spoke, and translations often went from Arabic or Syrian to Turkish to Kurdish or vice versa; occasionally we'd then have to translate to a Kurdish dialect. Mostly I'd take things with me into the lessons, including on one occasion my touring bike which sat on a desk while we translated the names of the parts.

Ironically I'm absolutely awful at learning languages; I just scraped a "C" in GCSE German and failed German at AS level.

I'm not going to tell you about my French grades.

My German teacher was Herr Ings. He had form, a small moustache and drove a Beetle. He had been interred in Germany during the war and still taught german.
His name was a great place to start. The fishy jokes were banal and multiple.
At some point I missed a fundamental point and struggled for the whole duration of my course. My father spoke good German and it was important that I respected that.

Hr Ings encouragement just before the exam was to tell me that if I passed German O level he would give up teaching.
My oral examiner was a mate's dad. I walked it. A discussion about fashion and men wearing earrings
The written I got 52%. But a pass is a pass.

For the duration of the 6th form I would greet him with "Guten Morgen Herr Ings immer noch hier" Always with a Cardiff lilt

The final irony is that I ended up running a German division and dealing with the company's most valuable customer, in German.

Before I took over this job I was sent for weeks at a time to learn, improve the business German I had picked up along the way.
Occasionally I would use what was judged to be an inappropriate word, phrase or expletive. My instructors who all seemed to of a particular class and style would exclaim " who ever taught you that word"
I often thought of Hr Doktor Ings. I would so love being able to tell Hr Ings that it was his foundations that a large part of my life were based on.
 
The classes I "taught" were for Engineering Students who were going to France for a month. The emphasis was on them learning basic conversation skills. No amount of learning intricacies of a language will compensate if you cannot string a spoken sentence together.

My converational French improved immensely while spending two weeks in France on a Walking holiday. It was about half and half English/French speakers. One lady worked as a guide at Chartres Cathedral. She was very happy to have someone to talk to in French, and she spoke slowly and clearly. One on occasion we discussed, in French, the use of the subjunctive. :scratch:

One evening everyone wanted to play Trivial Pursuits. Guessed who was told to be the translator of the questions from English to French?

until Wifey departs for Italy, next summer, I'll be over-hearing her Duolingo practices, with her computer ... ^_^
 
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