{"id":29423,"date":"2017-12-12T05:20:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T04:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=29423"},"modified":"2019-11-24T21:09:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T20:09:18","slug":"french-language-and-culture-at-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-language-and-culture-at-school\/","title":{"rendered":"French Language and Culture \u2013 At school"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve mentioned before, ma tante Rose (my Aunt Rose<\/em>)<\/a><\/strong> likes to send funny jokes and pictures from the internet. Her latest courriel<\/strong>1<\/a><\/sup>\u2018courriel\u2019 <\/em>is Quebecois for \u2018email\u2019. <\/em>As my fellow blogger John B. shared with us last year<\/a>, the French use \u2018mail\u2019.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(email)<\/em> contained an attachment that sent me off on a little bit of an internet adventure. Unfortunately it meant a lot of extra digging. Fortunately it led to some fun discoveries that I\u2019ll share with you over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

A2<\/a><\/sup>Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be \u2018\u00e0<\/em> l\u2019\u00e9cole<\/em>\u2019.<\/span> l\u2019\u00e9cole<\/strong> \/ At school<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about school in France<\/a> before. My aunt\u2019s recent message got me thinking about the role of teachers in school.<\/p>\n

There are a number of different words in French for teacher depending on the role and level at which ones is teaching. According to the definitions in my copy of Le Petit Larousse<\/a>, the words are somewhat interchangeable, but by common usage you tend to encounter them in specific situations.<\/p>\n

The most generic of terms is perhaps enseignant \/ enseignante<\/strong> (teacher, <\/em>from the verb enseigner\/to teach)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A3<\/a><\/sup>Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be \u2018\u00e0<\/em> l\u2019\u00e9cole<\/em>\u2019.<\/span> la maternelle <\/strong>(In nursery schools) <\/em>or dans les \u00e9coles \u00e9l\u00e9mentaires (ou primaires)<\/strong> (in elementary\/primary schools)<\/em> you\u2019re most likely to hear ma\u00eetre ou ma\u00eetresse<\/strong> (masculine and feminine forms for teacher of small children)<\/em>. You may also hear teachers at this level referred to as instituteur <\/strong> or institutrice. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Older kids au coll\u00e8ge, au lyc\u00e9e, ou \u00e0 la fac4<\/a><\/sup>The French love to shorten things. ‘Fac’ <\/em>is short for ‘facult\u00e9’. <\/em>With the ensemble of a larger ‘universit\u00e9’<\/em>, ‘la facult\u00e9’<\/em> is a specific part dedicated to s specific topic. The equivalent (in most English speaking countries at least) would be a college within a larger university.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(in middle school, high school, or college<\/em>) will be taught by a professeur.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sophie aime bien sa ma\u00eetresse.<\/strong> \/ Sophie really likes her teacher.<\/em> [From the use of \u2018maitresse\u2019<\/em> we can assume that Sophie is une jeune \u00e9leve\/a young student.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Jean-Luc est professeur de Fran\u00e7ais. Il enseigne au lyc\u00e9e Albert Camus.<\/strong> \/ Jean-Luc is a French teacher. He teaches at the Albert Camus High School.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ma prof5<\/a><\/sup>Note that the noun ‘professeur’ <\/em>is masculine, but it is acceptable to ‘feminize’<\/em> it by, for example as in this case, adding a feminine pronoun.<\/span> d\u2019Histoire-G\u00e9o s\u2019appelait Mme. Girard.<\/strong> \/ My History\/Geography teacher\u2019s name was Mrs. Girard.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can read about the levels of French education here<\/a> and some useful vocabulary for school supplies<\/a> in this post from 2014.<\/p>\n

Next week: What was it like to be a teacher in a French speaking country at the turn of the century?<\/p>\n