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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to expect a secondary school French teacher to know French?

115 replies

bonbonours · 18/10/2017 22:11

DD1 just started year 7, having learnt French since toddlerhood as I teach it. Obviously she is finding she knows a lot of the French she is being taught at school which is fine.
She brought home a piece of homework where they had to match phrases in English and French, and in two of the phrases it used the word porte and the English it was supposed to match with was window. DD1 knows porte means door but she is not brave enough to say so to her teacher.

Should I be THAT mum and make a comment about it? Her French teacher is German which is a bit odd, but I assumed she also spoke fluent French. I'm now not so sure....

OP posts:
Evelynismyspyname · 19/10/2017 07:05

bonbon English schools can make any teacher teach anything. The "good" school I taught at a decade ago had two (British) French teachers and a Spanish native speaker whowas head of languages and taught French and Spanish, but then the Spanish teacher left and inexplicably the new head of languages (presumably in agreement with senior management) kept Spanish despite none of the remaining staff speaking it, and introduced German - he sent the two junior teachers to evening classes to take Spanish and German GCSEs so they could teach the subjects.

Obviously parents and students were not told they were going to learn with their teachers rather than be taught by them...

LakieLady · 19/10/2017 07:06

This business of only offering one language can be a bit shit, tbh.

My friend's daughter, 14, grew up speaking and writing Spanish and English. She also speaks German quite well, she has a German grandmother and my friend and her siblings tend to speak German among themselves (in fact, they slip in and out of all 3 languages in quite a bewildering fashion).

The girl's school only offers French at GCSE and won't enter her for Spanish, thus doing her out of an effortless pass. She's going to see if she can do it at college, when she starts her A-levels.

Footle · 19/10/2017 07:08

Languages are not harder for everybody. For some, it’s the one area where they can shine, but they’re no longer getting the chance or the encouragement to do so.

Maelstrop · 19/10/2017 07:09

@lakieladie the parents should ask for a GCSE entry, even if it's private. We offer whatever home language children have if there's a GCSE in it and source the native speaker, makes sense for the child and makes the school improve percentages easily.

youarenotkiddingme · 19/10/2017 07:10

I think there is a shortage of MFL teachers.

Ds German teacher is Spanish and speaks fluent French! She herself admits she has to learn what she's teaching them!

The only reason I think she teaches ds group and I'm not concerned enough to complain is that ds group is those who really don't grasp a MFL. Ds has 1:1 in English as struggles with that so o know even if he had an actual German German teacher it would make no difference - he won't be doing it at gcse!

Evelynismyspyname · 19/10/2017 07:13

My DD is a native English speaker whose had to learn English as a foreign language for the last 5 years... I must admit I have dropped casually into conversation with her teachers that I am a native English speaker and an English teacher (though I don't teach any more)... This has meant that DD hasn't had the problems with having correct English marked as incorrect to the degree I've heard other native speakers encounter.

The head of English, who I've never met, did a cover lesson for her class and inexplicably told the class that an orthodontic brace is called a "toothy speck" in English... She was too taken aback to point out that he'd suddenly started talking absolute nonsense! It is difficult for a pre teen to correct a teacher they don't know!

catkind · 19/10/2017 07:14

You can see how this sort of mistake happens. Teacher sets up worksheet. Teacher thinks actually, it would be better to use "door", oh and I'll use "table" here and here. Teacher changes the French but forgets to change the English for one of them.
I'd just neatly cross out and over-write one of the English versions and then she can get on with her homework.

BeyondThePage · 19/10/2017 07:15

OP - do you HONESTLY think the teacher does not know the word for window... HONESTLY? and then go on to correct her - or do you think "oh whoops, someone made a mistake there" and let your DD deal with it.

The condescending tone of the title of the thread will not show the best attitude to your daughter - just because you teach the language perfectly does not mean she will meet perfection in all walks of life and she will need to learn how to deal with it - rather than getting mummy to do it.

ohreallyohreallyoh · 19/10/2017 07:18

OP - are you a teacher with QTS and a PGCE? Have you worked in UK schools?

Spikeyball · 19/10/2017 07:19

Child says quietly and politely to the teacher "I think there is a mistake on the worksheet. The word porte is in two phrases". Teacher says "Oh so there is. Well done for noticing that".

pilates · 19/10/2017 07:21

Just cross it out and write in the correct word.

PesoisaTool · 19/10/2017 07:27

Natives are not always the best teachers as they sometimes struggle to understand how an English speaker approaches their own language.

Regardless of this, I wouldn't be happy with this situation. Perhaps leave it this time, assuming it's an unfortunate oversight. Keep your powder dry and see if future worksheets have errors on them. If that's the case, bring it up with the teacher. We all make mistakes. Not saying that it's OK to do so but it happens.

Uokbing · 19/10/2017 07:29

Yes reading it all again, the tone of your thread title and OP seems purposely hyperbolic (is that even an actual word, hmm maybe I don't know English).

I would have thought that for most people the first thought would be that it was just a mistake. Or maybe that was your first thought but you decided that making a big song and dance about having to wonder if the teacher even knows French would have made for a much jucier thread on Mumsnet.

Etaina · 19/10/2017 07:30

Let it go. As most are saying on here, it's a typo.

In our local school, they have to choose just one language to study, not because of a lack of teachers (they are fortunate in that respect and have great native and non-native teachers). It didn't used to be this way but all changed with Progress 8 and harder GCSEs. The hope is that by studying just one language from Year 7, they'll get a good grade.

Uokbing · 19/10/2017 07:34

Regardless of this, I wouldn't be happy with this situation.

What situation? That the teacher made a mistake on a homework sheet?

Sheesh, this place sometimes! Grin

noblegiraffe · 19/10/2017 07:38

Imagine the outcry if this were maths...

The state of maths teaching is probably worse than MFL. It's just more obvious when it's languages.

jamdonut · 19/10/2017 07:41

Whilst that is obviously just a slip up , can someone tell me:
We always learnt " comment t'appelle tu "." at school, but now they are taught " comment tu t'appelle ". ? I'm told it is the way French people speak these days. Is that true. I did A level French back in 1983!

YokoReturns · 19/10/2017 07:45

Both are acceptable although it’s ‘comment t’appelles-tu’Grin

Evelynismyspyname · 19/10/2017 07:51

It may well be a downloadable worksheet.

I downloaded some worksheets from the teacher resources on the TES site to send into school with my DD when she was at primary. Her teacher had suggested I could send her with her own work at that point for one specific subject, and I thought she could follow the UK curriculum for that subject. The quality of the resources was terrible though! More effort had been put into attention grabbing illustrations and cartoons than into content, and the writing was riddled with SPaG mistakes and factual errors and contradictory statements. I totally understand that it's easy to make mistakes "live" or when writing informally or in a hurry, but those were work sheets uploaded to a resource sharing site, along with comments on how well the lessons had gone down with their class etc! You'd have thought the mistakes would have been picked up once actually using the material with a class, and corrected before sharing the resources!

bumblingbovine49 · 19/10/2017 07:53

It is not just in the UK. My niece and nephew who were raised in Italy but who learnt English as small children reported all sorts of very basic mistakes that their English teachers made during secondary school classes.

They were also both regularly called on the explain/ tell others how to do stuff.

They never corrected the teacher (well my niece didn't anyway, not sure about my nephew who was always more of a handful at school[wink) but they regaled the family with stories which we found shocking/amusing in equal measure.

bumblingbovine49 · 19/10/2017 07:56

Sorry also meant to say the OP thing is almost certainly s typo. Even I know Porte is door in French and I only did Olevel 35 years ago with no french used since!

bumblingbovine49 · 19/10/2017 07:56

Sorry also meant to say the OP thing is almost certainly s typo. Even I know Porte is door in French and I only did Olevel 35 years ago with no french used since!

Ilovewillow · 19/10/2017 08:09

I would say something, it's not about trying to make someone uncomfortable or making a fuss but it's important that our children are given the correct information. Probably a simple error! Your daughter is lucky that she knew it was incorrect, many others may not and will now have the incorrect information.

I would expect a French/German etc Teacher to be able to speak and write fluently. My daughter's junior school teach French and have a teacher come in to teach as the other teachers are not fluent.

PesoisaTool · 19/10/2017 08:12

Uokbing, no I wouldn't be happy with the situation but I fully accept that teachers make mistakes as they are human. And before you ask, I'm a teacher and I teach Spanish and French. And yes I've made mistakes on worksheets. No matter how much proof reading you do, people make errors. As a parent and a teacher I wouldn't be happy.

pudcat · 19/10/2017 08:33

Just cross it out and write fenetre. Then the teacher can say without losing face "who spotted the deliberate mistake?"

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