Have you noticed? This blog is alive !!!

I have never received as many articles as over the last few weeks. Thanks to everyone and, please, keep writing!

Recently I had published an article about Sabrina, our new English language assistant. Here are some more! 

They were written by some 1 Euro students. The meeting was lively and it seems they remembered quite a lot from the conversation.

On Thursday, October 9th, we met Sabrina. She is an Indian girl. She's finished her studies and she's come to France because she wants to become an English teacher and she chose our country because she has studied French. She has been selected among other candidates and she told us that if we want to, we can go to India to teach French after we finish our studies as it's a really interesting thing to do and it's well paid.

She and her family live in Chennai, in the south of India. Chennai is a huge city, densely populated and bigger than Paris. It's a good place to study. There are a lot of universities (for example the University Of Madras). In the universities there are hostels for men and for women and there are even private hostels. In Chennai you can find a lot of foreigners especially French people. Sabrina told us some things about her country and her city. She said they have an exam at the end of the 12th grade, and it's like the "bac". In their country the dates of holidays change every year. [...] The shops are always open, even on Sundays. They have no Starbucks cafés because she said they have better coffee. They eat three times a day and they have dinner really late. They eat especially spicy and steamed food. There are a lot of choices in Indian food. There are McDonald's and KFC's restaurants in India.

Manon

This year our English language assistant comes from Madras (now called Chennai) in India. Her city is huge (like four times our capital city). The best place to study there is UNOM. In Chennai there  are a lot of foreign students and a lot of French ones, because there are a lot of embassies.

Our new assistant's name is Sabrina. She studied a little bit of French but over all she studied English literature. She would like to become a teacher in that subject or a writer.

In her city students and pupils have the same vacations as us (Christmas, April,...) but they also have five days of holidays that are decided according to the moon for the Hindu festivals.

In India they eat three times a day like us in France : breakfast, lunch and dinner. But in India they always eat spicy or steamed food, EVEN FOR BREAKFAST !

But the main question for us was: why is she here with us in France? Sabrina answered she was here because she had been selected by the embassy to teach us English for seven months. We're all excited I think because we will discover her culture, and in English !

Perrine

Last Tuesday we met our new English language assistant, Sabrina. She's 23 years old and comes from a city called Chennai, which is the capital city of a state in South India. Sabrina studied English literature and wants to become a teacher in the future. She was selected by the embassy to go to France for 7 months to teach communication. I think it's great that she's got this opportunity to come to Reims because she can get a glimpse at what teaching really is.

Chennai is a huge and growing city with a big population. Indeed, Sabrina compared it to Paris and said that Chennai is probably 4 times bigger than Paris. It's a good city for students because there are a lot of colleges. UNOM (University Of Madras) is one of them and that's also where Sabrina studied. You can find a lot of foreigners in Chennai because thanks to the embassies students from all around the world can go and study in other countries. Many French students go and teach in Chennai after they've passed their degree because you can live a very comfortable life since teaching there is a really well-paid job. The universities have separate hostels for men and for women that are facing the beach, and if you don't want to stay in the university's hostels, there are private hostels where you can stay too.

Amélie

On October 9th our European English class met someone. Her name is Farrell Sabrina Desiken but she wants us to call her just Sabrina. And it's a good thing because her entire name seems to be a bit difficult to pronounce. In fact she isn't English even if she speaks English very well. She also speaks French a little. She comes from India, more precisely Taminladu. She was born in the city of Tirunelveli and she stayed in her "region" during her studies because she lives in Chennai which is the capital of Taminladu. She told us that Chennai is a very huge city. In her opinion it is like four Paris together. She thinks it is a good city for students because there are a lot of colleges. She said that there are many foreigners too who are there for their studies or to visit the city. Consequently in Chennai we can find several hostels for students, in the universities or private mansions down town. We asked her if there are many shops in Chennai and she said yes and added they were open 24/24, 7/7. It is not like in France.

Concerning Sabrina, she is 23 years old and she hasn't got brothers or sisters. In her university she studied mainly English. She likes reading books and especially English literature, the classics and Shakespeare. Sabrina wants to be an English teacher or maybe a writer, that's why she came here. She is here in our city to teach communication and speak English. She explained to us that she chose Reims because it's in the northern part of France, it's close to Paris and because of the weather. Indeed in India the weather is totally different: it is very hot, more than 40° and there are no seasons. She plans to stay in Reims for 7 months until the end of April. She probably will be stunned by the weather this winter. To my mind she doesn't know snow. I hope she will like it! For the moment she is surprised by French people. She thinks they are very warm. Because it is totally different from in India, she was also surprised by the French traffic: the fact there are traffic rules and people who can cross the street and are able to walk a lot. It is a funny observation.

We also talked about holidays in India. It's pretty much like ours, for the important events but it changes each year. They have a lunar calendar. During her vacations she likes travelling. France is a very beautiful country. She has never seen the Eiffel Tower. I hope she will be able to see it.

Then we talked about the school system in India. We learned that there are 2 exams : in the 10th year and in the last one, the 12th.

The last topic we broached was Indian food. She explained there are 3 meals a day. Like us, they have a breakfast, but they eat spicy and savoury food because it has to be substantial enough for all the morning. Then they eat their lunch between noon and 2 PM. And they have dinner at 9. She praised the quality of Indian coffee because it is the best in the entire world.

Sabrina seems to like new adventures. We hope she could live a great one here in France with us. Welcome to Reims ! Enjoy your experience !

Marie