{"id":22614,"date":"2015-11-11T14:35:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T13:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22614"},"modified":"2017-10-24T13:29:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T11:29:51","slug":"22614-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/22614-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Education in France and Counting Backwards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>

Image by eltpics<\/a> on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Je viens de revenir en France<\/a><\/strong> (I just came back to France), which means I\u2019ve been dealing with le d\u00e9calage horaire<\/a><\/strong> (the time difference). That also means all the confusion of living abroad in another language has come rushing back, bringing up interesting interactions.<\/p>\n

Having a conversation with un ami<\/strong> (a friend), I wanted to tell them about something that happened during my time as an undergraduate student in an American university. I started the sentence with,<\/p>\n

\u201cQuand j\u2019\u00e9tais au coll\u00e8ge\u2026.\u201d
\n<\/strong>When I was in middle school\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

And proceeded to talk about university level classes. The confusion on la visage de<\/strong> mon ami<\/strong> (my friend\u2019s face) made me realize I\u2019d made an all too common mistake<\/a>. Le coll\u00e8ge<\/strong> (middle school) and college<\/em> are very different things in French and in English.<\/p>\n

It lead to an even more confusing conversation about le syst\u00e8me d\u2019education fran\u00e7ais<\/a><\/strong> (the French education system). After a long conversation and many explanations I still wasn\u2019t quite sure whether fifth grade<\/em> was the same as en cinqui\u00e8me<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Une fois \u00e0 la maison<\/strong> (once I was home), I looked up just how each classe<\/strong> (grade) is said in French and found an article here on Transparent Language<\/a> explaining the differences. I then understood why I didn’t get a perfect score<\/a>. The naming convention is very different and the differences can look scary when they\u2019re written out.<\/p>\n

\""EducationFr"<\/a>

“EducationFr” by Thomas Steiner. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

The important things to remember are that the general ideas of elementary, middle, and high school exist, they\u2019re just said very differently.<\/p>\n

L\u2019\u00e9cole primaire<\/strong> (elementary school) lasts for 5 years, with kindergarten being a part of l’\u00e9cole maternelle<\/strong> (nursery school) in France, le coll\u00e8ge<\/strong> (middle school) lasts for 4 years and starts en sixi\u00e8me<\/strong> (sixth grade), and le lyc\u00e9e<\/strong> (high school) is 3 years long. The hard part is counting backwards from sixth grade!<\/p>\n

Remembering these basic steps will make understanding your French friend\u2019s enfance<\/strong> (childhood) much easier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Je viens de revenir en France (I just came back to France), which means I\u2019ve been dealing with le d\u00e9calage horaire (the time difference). That also means all the confusion of living abroad in another language has come rushing back, bringing up interesting interactions. Having a conversation with un ami (a friend), I wanted to…<\/p>\n

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