popo with aline next to her. what a clash!!!!! ;)

Hello dear friends.

It is nearly the end of my stay in Wales and to be honest, I’m happy. You won’t guess where I am just now. I am in Paris airport. I have spent my holidays in Belgium and my pane is delayed…
It is a bit difficult for me to be in that second school because it is a too short period to teach French. Moreover, We had two weeks off, so I will have to make a revision and finally I will have the impression they haven’t learned a lot, although I teach every day of the week to small groups in turn. Like I said, I am frustrated not to have had one only school for 3 months. But life is not very often like you want.
But I have promised to the other school I would say them goodbye. So, next Wednesday I will sleep at my first head teacher’s home and on Thursday I will go one last time to my first and favourite school!

I have learned a lot of thing about Welsh culture and I have experienced several culture clash.
People here are different than in Belgium. They are very helpful with each other and even with people they don’t know. I am in a small village with sheep and farmers (I think you are aware of that now)Did you know there are more sheep than people in Wales. For more information contact my friend Yves (0477/85.51.15)… People there know each other. It is a bit like a big family.
Welsh people are Celtic and English people are Saxons. Welsh people don’t like being like the others. They like being different.
Their language is very important. It is important to teach the children Welsh at school because they speak Welsh at home less than before. As I already said, that was difficult for me. Fortunately, I could give lots of lessons on my own with small groups and speak English with them. But when the teachers spoke Welsh in the classroom, my only wish was to leave…

The festivals are important too in the West. Even the children at school take part at festivals.
Very often, several schools participate to the festivals. There is a spirit of competition.

Something else I have noticed is that people there, are interested in how you feel. For example your colleague will ask you 2 times if you are all right. At school, the teachers show they are very proud of the pupils when they make something. The children are really more encouraged there than in Belgium. They have lots of techniques to reward them: by applause them, congratulate them.

People there are also particularly polite. I have the impression that here, you need to thank people at least 5 times and people say “thank you” very often. It is the same when they have to apologise. They will need to apologise 10 times

Something else very important is music, especially the instruments. Most children play one or more instruments. They also form choirs at school.

Enjoy the end!

See you…