Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

It’s been six years since I started off on what subsequently became a modern languages degree and from the original 25 of us there are only two left in the “race” at this point.

It’s not so much that people have failed but rather that they’ve reached the point where they have achieved their intended objectives and therefore dropped out of the running towards the degree. The first three years saw a surprising number of us making it to the finishing post of a Diploma in French which, of course, was enough for quite a lot of people. In fact, I was the only one who continued on with languages at that point although one of the original cast has subsequently started down the path of a Diploma in Spanish and another has continued on in step with me but towards a different a different degree.

So, some six years on, two of us will be starting the final course of our respective degrees next February and, hopefully, will both be graduating in Versailles in September 2009.

If you’re learning Spanish one of the worries that you’ll have is with the wide variety of accents that you’ll come across whilst you’re learning the language. Yet, native speakers can cope with them all so you should aim to do so as well.Fortunately you’ve an equally large range of Spanish schools around the world. For example, Spanish immersion Costa Rica offers a range of courses starting from one week up to six months which will naturally give you a chance to hear the Costa Rican accent.Won’t it be impossible to follow? Well, as it happens I ended up having a south American teacher for the intensive course that I did last year and settled into his accent in under a day so you don’t need to worry about it.

The other big plus point is that you get to pick up some of the local culture too. That’s an important part of learning any language and Spanish is very much an amalgam of cultures from everywhere.

As part of my “thinking about an English literature course” thinking, I’m currently plugging away with reading Father and Son which is an autobiography written around the early 1900s.

To be honest, I thought that I’d hate it from start to finish but I find that I’m getting on for 1/3rd of the way through it now and it’s easy going as far as reading it is concerned. I’ll grant you, that it wouldn’t have been a book that I’d have bought if it weren’t for the course but it isn’t the chore that some of the other books have been to read.  Actually, given the era in which it was written, it’s a surprisingly easy book to read on the whole.

If you’re wanting an easy way into late 19th century English literature, this wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

A long time ago, I was brave enough to ask the question which many are afraid to ask: do you need to speak French if you want to live in France?

It’s not such a simple question to answer as it might appear. For one thing, there are many expat enclaves throughout France where, by and large, English is the only language used. Within these enclaves, the shopkeepers and so on can be expected to speak English and indeed even if you speak French to them, they’ll reply in English. So, yes, you could live in France without speaking French.

However, in many other areas (most of France in fact) you couldn’t do that. The locals either cannot or will not speak English. After all, why should they be expected to? It is France after all. Except that everywhere else in the world the locals DO speak English: that’s why people expect to be able to move to France without speaking French.

Funnily enough, just a few miles south in Spain the locals won’t speak Spanish and actually insist on using English. Well, to be fair that’s Catalonia and few people outside it ever have the opportunity to learn Catalán which tends to dictate the use of English with foreigners.

As part of my pre-course preparation for the English Literature course, I’ve just finished A Doll’s House which was a whole lot easier going than I had expected it to be.

Next up on the list is The Color Purple which I’ve just started today and, so far, is quite an easy read.

The strange thing about these “English” literature books is that most of them aren’t actually written by English (or even British) people which does seem a little odd for an english literature course I think. Still, I suppose it reflects the fact that english is an international language so I guess you’d expect there to be a number of non-english writers in amongst any collection of english literature.