School (continued)

So it''s been two weeks and two days since I arrived here, and I have to say my French is much improved.  I'm actually starting to understand a little bit in philosophy class, and that is all arbitrary ideas and confusing words.  It's one of the hardest classes for everyone here.  My SVT (biology) class is the second easiest next to English, because it is all stuff I've already done in Canada.  Physique et Chimie is very difficult, it is a combination of Physics and Chemistry, and since I've done Physics but not Chemistry, it rotates from being mildly confusing to EXTREMELY confusing in turns.  Homework takes three times as long to do in French because I not only have to translate the words from French, I have to figure out what the question is asking for.  Anyone who has done math or physics related questions in a textbook knows that they always word the question in the least understandable way while still being specific enough to point it out when you get the answer wrong.  Math is also very difficult, although wonderful host father Olivier has been helping me out with it.  He's an engineer and works in an usine, which is French for plant of a manufacturing nature.  Today I was able to answer a question in physics, although it was a pretty easy question.  We had to come up with a contemporary example of a progressive wave that travels on two planes.  My answer was "La Ola" which is a Spanish term commonly used in French.  You should look it up.  In Phys. ed the other students choose 4 sports to do this year.  I got to choose 2 sports because I only stay for a third of the school year.   I chose swimming and gymnastics.  I spoke to my art teacher and he says I can do anything I want in his class since I'm not preparing for the bac.

The bac is so important it needs it's own paragraph.  The French baccalauréat is the end of the year exams for the terminal class here.  It's huge, and very difficult.  The way teachers talk about it now is similar to the way people talk about exams a month ahead of time in Canada, and it's in June.  I guess it's like SATs in the US.  Because I'm not preparing for the bac, nothing I do here means anything, and because I'm an anglophone, anything I do right is applauded and anything I do wrong is perfectly understandable.  Being an exchange student is awesome, because I'm literally only there because I want to learn something, and I only do homework because I want to improve my french and keep up with the class.  Marks and tests don't matter, I'm here to learn.  How often in a lifetime does anyone ever get to say that I wonder?

In this school, there are two English teachers, and they both speak English with a British accent mixed in with the French accent.  The way they put things is slightly different, and I keep thinking it's wrong how they put things in class in comparison to the way I'm used to speaking English, but I've realized that it's just that they're learning British English instead of Canadian English.  An example is they say "he has got a prosthetic leg" rather than "he has a prosthetic leg" it's not wrong, I'd just never use it in that context.  On the topic of accents, I've had a lot of confusion trying to pronounce my name in French so that they can understand it here.  Brennan especially, here it would be pronounced "Breynnon" with a french accent, and even though I've heard my first name with a French accent all my life from the french half of my family, it is apparently with a Quebecois accent because I get blank looks every time I pronounce it.

In school, there are two general differences that are apparent right away:  One, there is no such thing as a three hole punch.  Students cut and glue handouts directly into their notes.  It's a good thing I brought glue with me, because since I got here I haven't seen any hole punchers, not even in the library.  The concept is foreign to them.  Two, the standard paper size is about one inch longer then standard note paper in Canada, it is lined normally with an added grid slightly lighter and four more horizontal lines between the standard lines in a different color, also light.  It is slightly thicker and the paper it's self is super white, there are six holes on the side.  I'm not sure what the other three are for, but it's probably fancy.    It makes my paper look medevil.  Maybe you can get paper like that in Canada.  Maybe my family just always gets medevil paper.  I don't know.  What I do know is it makes notes look so much more important.  I'll keep you posted on other differences as they become apparent.

That's all for now, If you have any thoughts in response to this post you should very quickly turn them into comments before they run away   :)