Summer Barbecue! Or, "Everybody Loves Corn"
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Summer can feel kind of long. For me, the summer break is when I get to reflect on the year gone and think "big picture" thoughts about what we're going to do in the next year.
But I know that the summer break can feel long for my students. I wanted to have an event in the holidays so we could spend time together, catch up on how everyone's summer has been, and hopefully speak some Japanese too. I also just really wanted to have a barbecue. Everyone likes a barbecue, right?
I brought corn. Everyone else brought corn too. It was great.
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Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.