I hope it makes you feel like going there next summer. I have been a fervent spectator for 16 years and have never been disappointed.

I like

I don't like

The fake fires in  your living-rooms.

I'm not fond of having carpet all over the place in the house even in the bathroom.

I don't like some rules in schools, and the way religion is so mixed with education.

I don't like marmite.

So what is better in France than in England ? Try to find aspects that are not mentioned every time the question is asked ! Once you've answered, I'll tell you why I like England and would even like to move and live there once I have retired. Which means 15 years from now, and only if another Margaret Thatcher has not come to power. (She was the Prime Minister when I lived in England.)

I advise you to read this article : http://fr.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080701/tsc-suisse-societe-prev-c2ff8aa.html and please, then, give me your opinion !

My method consists in correcting each exercise 79 times rather than correcting a whole paper. Today wasn't a bad day as I was marking the written expression exercises. This is the part I find the least boring. It can sometimes be depressing though. When you come across sentences like those :

"It's money wich to interesse them and they don't think to idealism but lonely at money." "I have very happy because I make my love job." "I work in a librabry." "The food isn't disturbed in the same proportion." "There is a sun who shoots." Well I must admit it sometimes makes me smile too. 

And there are also sentences like this one: "No sooner had I arrived than I was adopted by them." Grammar exists, I've met it !

In France the lowest mark is 0 and the highest 20. I've given marks from 2 to 19.

Doing this is usually an interesting experience for me. But this time I didn't enjoy it so much. Was it because the weather was so hot and sticky ? Or because the majority of the students seemed to be very reluctant to speak English at all, or to say anything slightly original about the documents ? (Some of them should have read this book, and maybe would have remembered the basic vocabulary !) Or was it simply because I was particularly tired and traveling for five hours on Sunday had not done anything to help, that I found so hard not to fall asleep ? Some rare but precious moments enlightened my stay though. A nice stroll on the quayside on Sunday evening. A nice meal at a Pakistanese restaurant with my friends. An iced coke drunk at a terrasse on a beautiful square outside the Beaux-Arts Museum.

Do you remember that series ?

Writing or telling something in a foreign language is not just another exercise. It means letting oneself seen from another point of view, revealing another facet of one's character. Believe it or not, I feel different emotions, reactions, when I speak or think in English.  If you happen to be a reader of both blogs, please tell me when you notice such a difference.

For those who don't know me yet, I've been teaching English for 25 years, including the last 13 years in a high school. I'm a woman and will be reaching 50 next July, which is, as you will soon realize, a real trauma to me. I share my life with someone I will refer to as ADMV (as it means something in French, you may even guess what !), she is a woman too. Ed is not my real name, but things being what they are, I'd rather remain anonymous, as some members of our National Education have already got into troubles when their identity was known, even though they hadn't actually criticised anyone namely, or told any lies. Moreover I may mention some details of my private life which are none of my pupils or colleagues' business.

Forgive me if what I write happens to be boring, I feel shy you see, and your comments will help me improve my writing.