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It was a long time since I learned the French language and used it in everyday life. At high school I have had 3 years French, but that is about 16 years ago. You find that you learn the language faster in daily life than when you have to learn from a book. As a German teacher, I enjoy learning languages. It was not really a difficult task for me to remember the French lessons we had. To me personally, the lessons were fairly simple, but I thought about adding such lessons to our own projects. The students from the different countries we receive do not speak Dutch and, as they often stay in host families, it would be as nice if they could do something with Dutch. After all, a language belongs to a country and gives you the opportunity to express yourself and communicate more with the local people.

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Before coming to Guadeloupe I had French as a subject in middle school. We learned some words, grammar and understanding texts. After leaving middle school for studying, I never picked it up again. I’ve been on quite some trips to French speaking cities and places, and again on Guadeloupe I found out that the only way of learning to speak in a language is by doing it!

During the course on Guadeloup I found some words again which I was forgotten, and some really helpful practical words and sentences. At the end of this two week I am able, again, to have a really basic conversation about who I am and what I like. I can also order my food in French without a problem. I’m planning to do some more repetition of my basic French in the future, because it’s still a language that is spoken by a major amount of people all over the world!

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My experience with French has been weird this trip. The French lessons were useful not in necessarily learning basic skills, but more as the Kickstart to using the language despite all obstacles. I've been more inclined to pursue talk with the locals in French, and truly try to understand what they are trying to communicate in their own language.

And through doing that I've noticed that they smile a lot more, are inclined to help you learn and seem more so inclined to make my stay a pleasant one. I do believe that a person learning your language, and trying their hardest, is one of the most endearing things to experience in life. I severely enjoy that experience being both the learner or the enabler of that learning.

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We got many ideas to write new projectplans in the future. I am very grateful for that. Also I think we will use the topic of internationalisation even more in our lessons.

The French course was pretty difficult for me. I find it difficult to learn a language. I just don't remember the words. This course I learned soms French words and I tried to use it during my stay. This was great, because the locals like if you try to speak French.

J'ai nagé avec les tortues de mer en Guadeloupe:

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About my French practical experience in Guadeloupe I can be short: as a French teacher I enjoyed to be able to speak French with the locals.

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I was very interested in our class talked about the French language course and teaching language during the period we spent in Guadeloup .It was useful but it was difficult to me because I didn't take before .The book for study was not a style of pronunciation in France but helped me deal with shopping and at restaurant.

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Even tough I have had French lessons for almost four years (many years ago), it was extremely hard to remember anything. It is really true that you will forget things if you don’t keep up with them. For example, ordering food proved to me harder than expected, regardless of, my many attempts to practice in my hotel room. Pronunciation proved to be more problematic since people were unable to understand my Dutch/English/French accent.

The French lessons though were very basic and it came down to a lot of self study. We also didn’t have the chance to actually practice together. I did enjoy the quizes.

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Session 9 - French lessons

Having to speak French again after a nineteen year interlude is not easy. In eight lessons I could get reacquainted with the basic vocabulary that would help me order a meal, ask how much something cost, what the weather is like and what time it is in French. I tried to avoid Parlez-vous Anglais as much as possible but of course that 's almost impossible. Telling the receptionist that I had lost the WiFi connection in my room had to be done in basic English. I guess that in a way that is also a language task since I had to adjust my language to a level that the receptionist understood.

The French lessons, though basic, were a good addition to the course given the fact that our pupils will likely face a similar challenge to the one I had (expressing themselves in a foreign language they do not use that much in their everyday lives). Stepping out of your comfort zone is very much par for the course when you take part in an international (exchange) project.

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I had never had contact with the French language before coming to Guadeloupe, however the few words or phrases we have learned in this course have served me to exchange greetings with the people who live here, buy fruit, order in restaurants. .. small but everyday things that bring me closer to the culture here. I'm sure I'll continue to learn in Spain

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I am always happy to arrive in a country where they speak French or where Franch is the official language. So arriving on this beautiful Island for me was like arriving in paradise. A beatiful spot and the possibilty to talk French every day.That is ofcourse no wonder, because I always loved this language and the French culture so much that i became a French teacher.For me it was special to see my colleagues do ther utmost to speak French.I hope that they enjoyed it as much as i do. My quote of the day is not from a frenchman but from Nelson Mandela and i think it is so true:" If you talk to a man in a language he understands,that goes to the head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to the heart"

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Reflection on learning France in Guadeloupe.

My France certainly improved while I was in Guadeloupe, however that was more through dealing with the locals and being helped by my colleagues who teach France than by the actual course.

I think the level of the course was a little bit low for people from the Netherlands, since all of us have a minimum of two year of France in high school and we have some interaction with people from France or French speaking  people from Belgium, due to proximity to these countries.

I did enjoy however becoming more confident in having small casual conversations with Guadeloupian people, and slowly improved both my vocabulary and my grammar.

I’ll probably will certainly try to retain at least some of this new found ability, and I might even try and improve upon it a bit.