Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Start of a New Week

So far, my week has been going quite smoothly, if not terribly exciting!
Yesterday, I once again went to my high school to volunteer with a couple of English classes. I might be taking on an extra one from 9am-10am as well, which will be nice. In the first class, the students were presenting their press reviews. Basically, they were given an article which they had to summarize and give their opinion on. Armed with a marking criteria, I actually got to make notes about things like their sounds, intonation, accentuation, and flow/speed. It was really interesting trying to listen for such things as these, because I really don't ever do that... I think it will be helpful when I'm actually a French teacher. The two biggest things that I noticed were that the students mispronounced "h" and "th", and that they often said their phrases in a questioning tone, rather than a declarative one. In the second class, I just walked around and helped correct what they were working on. I also learned the difference between the passive voice in English and the passive voice in French, and how they are really hard to give a direct translation. For example, if you wanted to say "I was asked..." you would say "on m'a demandé", which directly means "it was demanded of me". So it was interesting to learn.
After, I went for my long run, about an hour, which felt not too bad.
Then, I worked on my philosophy essay which is due on Thursday and studied for my history test. The test was this morning, and I think it went pretty well. I actually liked studying for it; it brought back some good studying memories from the past two years... although there wasn't near as much to study. And like I said, the test wasn't that bad. We were given a document to read and then four questions. All we really needed was a bit of background knowledge to put it into context.
Later on today, in our literature class, we get to watch the film of the book we're reading, "Barrage Contre le Pacifique." I hope it is good and explains the book well.
Other than that, not too much is happening! It is beautiful and sunny, about 15 degrees, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to get cold shock when I'm home for Christmas.
I'm also really looking forward to this weekend; I will be going to Angers, a city not too far away, to visit my friend and exchange student from the last time I was in France. I'm really looking forward to catching up with them! It's been almost four years!
Have a great Tuesday :)

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