Je suis huit ans

[meredeux]

The French teacher at my DCs primary school has taught both my children that this is how to say your age in French. Ummm.....

what do you think?

All she needs to do is to be one week ahead of the children. At this stage she can learn what she needs from a text book and pass it on.

If she can't manage that she is either lazy or stupid and I would complain

Well considering she's semi-retired, it's a pretty poor show. As vix says, she only needs to be a week ahead.

But having said that, I doubt it's causing any damage. MFLs are important but I doubt a bit of crappy French will destroy her pupils' ability to learn the language in the future.

I might mention it quietly to our head, in an informal manner, simply because they're shelling out for her teaching hours and she's shortchanging them a bit.

My primary school teacher friend came back after half term to discover that from the beginning of the following term she was the Spanish teacher. She'd never learnt Spanish and beyond asking for a beer and please adn thank you couldn't speak a word of it. The head insisted so she managed to get into evening classes (which of course didn't go over the holidays) so had had just a few weeks before she started teaching!

I think she's useless at French! Argh! Is she literally translating one word at a time?

That is truly dreadful and quite shocking. I really do think you should have a word with the head to make them aware of the appalling standard. Why should she be paid for such incompetence?

Non, tu n'es pas huit ans. Tu as huit ans.

Erm, scary. I know barely any French and I can see the error. What a shame.

I would be pissed off.
I am a primary teacher with a French specialism. I did French as part of my degree but in all honesty they were desperate for people to do Primary French at the uni I did my training, so the required standard wasn't exactly high.

In my county we follow a scheme which prides itself on the fact it can be taught by non-speakers. The f*ing woman who TRAINS us (in other words just goes through the sodding scheme lesson by lesson) tells us EVERY time that she can't speak French. It's totally wrong. I follow the scheme loosely, but conduct the whole French lesson in French. The kids honestly love it. I talk slowly, use mime, repeat, gesture - the kids think it's like cracking some code.

You wouldn't have a maths teacher who prided themselves on being innumerate...

Um it wouldn't translate as I be 8 years or I is8 years, but I am 8 years. It's wrong whichever way you do it - and one of the most simple phrases......

One does have to be very careful of your J'ai and Je Suis.....

Reminds me of when I was 14 and on a French exchange trip.

I said J'ai chaud and there was a deathly silence....apparently I had just said that I was 'on heat', infering that I needed a man!!!!

Opps!!!

dd did Spanish at her old school and in fact did so since Nursery. Both teachers Spanish and her pronounciation is fantastic.

She has just moved to an Independent school (Yr2) and they don't do any languages until Yr 4 and then I don't think Spanish is an option - shame.

I remember my dad, who had a French gf, telling me about getting mixed up between "faim" and "femme" so instead of asking if she was hungry, instead asked if she was a woman/virgin. She was most affronted.

At least they aren't being taught PSE in Italian by a non speaker, which my sil was doing in the school she teaches at in Australia.