Do They Know it's Christmas?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go.

From twinkling lights on humongous trees, to the fast approaching school holidays, there is little doubt that everyone’s mind is turning towards the festive season around the world. With images of Christmas markets in London and Munich, vin chaud in Paris, and many Christmas songs blaring from radios and iTunes, the spirit of the season is here.

However, as “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (Band Aid 30) plays away, I have to ask this question of the French.

With only a week left to go before the big red man visits, it doesn’t seem like the French are feeling very jolly. At least in Marseille, where I am currently working, the Christmas Markets are rather small and don’t offer much choice. There haven’t been any singing choirs or carols around the town. Most importantly, Christmas lights are lacking.

Without the usual decorations, there is a feeling of “Bah, humbug” here. Lots of decorations were only put up last week, and, with the exception of La Canebiere (the main street through the city centre), these are not very sparkly or Christmassy.

When I tell my children that we are going to talk about Christmas in the lessons this week, I am often greeted with a lot of passivity, no jovial and happy faces.

I have previously spent Christmas in Paris, and found all the festivities to be full of the usual wonderment, so I found myself asking why there was such a huge discrepancy and gap between the two cities, and which was representative of France.

Shockingly, it seems that most of the French are not spreading cheer this holiday season, according to a recent poll by YouGov.

When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I am looking forward to Christmas this year”, over half (57 per cent) of respondents in France said they weren’t getting excited for Santa’s arrival. None of the other countries that participated in the survey were nearly as gloomy.

Whether this is because of the economy, politics, or a more general mood prevailing in France is uncertain, but there seems a “laisse-tomber” approach as if the Grinch truly did steal Christmas here.

In Marseille, the mood is summed up by the canine community using the hastily put up and shockingly small Christmas trees as extra places to relieve themselves on the street.

Punsch and Judy, Salzburg Edition

Hailing from Manchester, where the cult of the German Christmas Market has become all-consuming over the past years, I certainly had to make the most of my connections in Austria this year to visit some of the most famed markets the world over.

Living in Marseille, I found the Christmas spirit in the south of France to be, sadly, lacking. From the absence of Christmas trees in the big squares of the city, to the small markets that offered little in the way of variety, I would be lying if I did not say I was disappointed and longing for the traditional festivities that Manchester offers at this time of year.

Fortunately, having lived and worked in Austria for half of 2014, I was able to arrange a Christmas reunion to visit dear friends and colleagues in Salzburg, just across the German-Austrian border to experience the authentic markets first hand.

When the idea was initially suggested in June, my boss made it clear that Salzburg at Christmas was not at all like Salzburg the rest of the year: “You think there are enough tourists now with The Sound of Music and Mozart, you wait.”

Markets next to the Cathedral

Arriving to a cold but perfectly blue skied Salzburg, the small city, with a population of 150,000 people, had been completely overtaken by Christmas decorations, the smell of Austrian food, and so many tourists that walking down the street took some serious skill in manoeuvring around the crowds.

The three squares that surround the Dom (Cathedral) in the city centre were filled with different stalls that were open throughout the day, from morning until after 9pm depending on the stand and the night.

In addition to the usual Salzburg memorabilia, the markets boasted handmade and locally sourced clothes for all ages, decorations for Christmas, present ideas, ranging from plaques and posters, to pots, vases and items for the garden, and German games.

Gluhwein

Of course, the stands that were the busiest were those that offered food and drink. Punsch and Glühwein were the chief attractions of the season amongst the many German brews on offer, and I was certainly spoilt for choice for dinner, between Bratwurst and Krainer sausages, Käsespätzle, hot baked potatoes, baked apples, Kaiserschmarren and other delectable dishes that have since merged into one in a post punsch haze (especially the Feuerzangenbowle punch, which translated literally means the flaming fire tongue punch!)

In Salzburg, these festivities are enjoyed in the charm of a UNESCO world heritage site under the watchful eye of the Festung (Fortress), in a city that looks like it might have jumped out of a Hans Christen Anderson story or Disney creation. With the extra lights spread through the streets and along the bridges, and religious cribs to be found scattered about the city, it is enough to make even the most cynical Scrooge feel warm affection for this season.

And if these Christmas nay-sayers remain resolute in their anti-festivity sentiment, there is always the Salzburg tradition of the Krampus – a mythical creature that comes to town on the 5^th of December to scare and beat up naughty children before the festival of St Nicholas on 6^th December. Inhabitants take it quite seriously, and dress up in masks and costumes and chase teenagers and children down the street. Scary.

A view of the city from the Salzach River

No wonder the Christkindlmarkt are the most popular and renowned – from the ambience, to the gastronomy, to the quirky local traditions, nothing shouts Christmas like these markets!

Lyon in Lights

Lyon, the little Paris by all accounts, is the third largest city in France, after the capital and Marseille on the south coast.

I recently had the opportunity to visit this wonderful city for the annual Fete des Lumieres, the largest festival held in France and second largest in Europe after Germany’s Oktoberfest.

The long history of the festival is wrapped with the religious tidings at this time of year. Lyon had suffered a devastating plague in 1643, and the people of the town prayed to the Virgin Mary to spare the town. Ever since, Lyonnais people have marked the 8^th December by lighting candles in their windows and celebrating with a candle-lit procession to the Basilica Notre-Dame-de-Fourvière.

A river side show

Recently, however, this has spurred an international exposition, where for four days every year, there are numerous light installations around the city. In 2014, there were over 120 different exhibits.

These lights are fantastic works of art and experimentation that are both unique and often interactive or entertaining. Amongst the hundreds of expositions, created by different artists across Europe, some of the most memorable were a “Test-Your-Strength” style game, where spectators were invited to hit an electronic sensor to try and light up a bridge and the bank on the other side of the river, a “Jackpot” machine, and a light projector which you could text and have your message beamed out in Morse code.

Light show at Place Bellecour

In the large squares, there were shows throughout the night. At Place Bellecour, this was based on the adventures of the fictional character “The Little Prince”, and explorers and adventurers of history; outside the town hall, there was a 15 minute projection showing the development of dance, from ballet, to street dance and everything in between.

Best of all, the festival is free. No tickets are required to admire these fascinating and illuminating pieces, and there is a real affinity between tourists and locals alike who come to celebrate this one of a kind exposition.

The city itself merits a visit at any time of the year. Gastronomy in Lyon is amongst the best in France, and is also surprisingly affordable, with tasty two course meals available for under 15 euros.

The Basilica

Elsewhere, the city has architectural echoes of Paris, and yet the old town has winding streets to explore and hidden passageways with shops that have been open for hundreds of years. At the top of the hill overlooking Lyon you can find the Basilica, which, with its mix of architecture, stain glass windows, and detailed tile artwork on the interior, is a highlight no matter what religion you practise. Nearby, there is also a well preserved Roman amphitheatre, and some Roman ruins, which tell of the history of this sometimes overlooked city.

For those looking for more modern fun, the Parc de la Tete d’Or has beautiful gardens and a large free zoo, open all throughout the year.

Lyon is approximately 2hrs from Paris by TGV train, or has its own airport, with many services operating for the special Fete de Lumieres event.

I would certainly not only recommend both Lyon and the festival, but desperately want to visit again, as the art work and light exhibits change and grow each year, amidst an ever larger number of tourists.

Thank you Lyon!

The French Food Question

Adjusting to French life also involves adjusting to French cuisine, which has not posed too much of a problem.

The best chefs in the world are French, and their famed meals draw food critics and food tourists from just about every country on the planet. Yet it is, of course, the staples of the French diet that remain the most fascinating and consistently delicious – the bread, the cheese and the wine.

Now, having recently been a student, and also having worked in Austria, I am no stranger to wine. However, the French approach is certainly different and refreshing. Wide varieties of the alcohol are available at low cost in every supermarket, and there is even a meal in itself dedicated to drinking wine – the apero – which is a big deal, not just a preamble for dinner.

Despite reports in recent years that the rate of French wine consumption has dropped significantly, my own experience seems to reject those claims. Perhaps it is the sign of a small, but significant enough, surge in the economy, but the French are drinking in force.

Moreover, with 2.8 billion litres of wine consumed each year according to the Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), the French still drink the most vino per head anywhere in the world. Despite the declining figure, the French still remain a nation dedicated to the drink and the number of occasional drinkers is rising according to statistics.

From the apero to a post-dinner accompaniment, wine is certainly shared and savoured at all major meals and it would be out of place if there were not at least one glass had with dinner.

With this post-dinner course comes the cheese. Another stereotype of the French condition, cheese is omnipresent, and a recent study found cheese consumption in the country to be a staggering 57 pounds per person per year, significantly more than other European countries and the US, where consumption is a mere 34 pounds a year.

In my experience, this is because the cheese course is taken as a serious post dinner treat, with a wide variety of fresh cheeses served up, boasting different tastes and textures in which to indulge. With so many artisan cheeses, fromageries and even walls and walls of supermarket fridges dedicated to the endless assortments, you cannot fairly say you don’t like cheese until you have searched through the comprehensive French catalogue of fromage.

Eating cheese? Of course, you need a baguette for that. Another long time staple of the French, 98% of people still buy bread every day, from over 26,000 boulangeries. Although research indicates a move awayfrom the baguette, my diet has already significantly changed to accommodate for this French essential, and I find myself buying one almost daily to accompany whatever meal I have that evening.

My landlord recently said “If I don’t have a baguette with dinner, I don’t know what to do. I feel sick. I would rather go without the meal altogether than have a meal with a baguette.” A few days later, my roommate and I were eating breakfast, and he laughed at my cereal, whilst he munched on a tartine that he dipped in his morning coffee, which he said was traditional in France. Well, as much as I have adopted the baguette (which is very cheap everywhere!), I will stick to only dunking digestives in my tea for now.

France has been at the centre of health debates for generations now. People here are liberal with their wine, they don’t count the calories from countless numbers of baguettes that seem to be consumed with just about every meal, and the supermarkets are bursting with so many cheeses, I am not sure I could sample them all in a whole lifetime. Yet, despite this, French people have one of the lowest obesity rates in the whole of Europe and the general health of the French population seems to be leaps and bounds ahead of European neighbours.

Growing up in the UK, there has been a certain phobia that has developed around appropriate consumption of food in recent years and our preoccupation has led us to be obsessed with a plethora of terms like transfat, saturates and monounsaturates, to name a few.

These things are seemingly forgotten in France amongst generous helpings of French cakes, salted caramel (can I have this with everything?) and of course bread and cheese. So is this the French Paradox?

Wikipedia says: "The average French person consumed 108 grams per day of fat from animal sources in 2002 while the average American consumed only 72. The French eat four times as much butter, 60% more cheese and nearly three times as much pork. Although the French consume only slightly more fat overall (171g/day v 157g/day), they consume much more saturated fat because Americans consume a far larger proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oil, with most of that being soybean oil. However, according to data from the British Heart Foundation in 1999, rate of death from coronary heart disease among males aged 35–74 years was 115 per 100,000 people in the US, but only 83 per 100,000 in France."

I am not sure how the French have managed to balance all these problems, but their Laissez-tomber attitude has certainly helped create countless culinary delights, and worrying about it doesn’t seem to have even factored into the equation.

Guess I best go grab a baguette for the cheese in my fridge before I obsess too much then.

That DOES Impress Me Much

Shania Twain and Christina Aguilera have been the unsung heroines of my teaching week, earning me some pupil respect and also providing the soundtrack to some quite entertaining lessons.

Music can be a substantial learning tool – the pupils here in France don’t seem to appreciate how much they are inundated with music in the English language and how they have consequently acquired hundreds of words and phrases through repeated listens.

Shania Twain
Image: Katherine Brock

Using different songs, particularly those which have been forgotten by French teenagers, can be a real treat, breaking the standard teaching methods. However, making sure that the class remember they are still working is a fine balancing act, particularly when Aguilera’s ‘Fighter’ reduces certain teenagers to air guitar heroes.

Nonetheless, finding appropriate singles, with great lyrics can be challenging enough in its own right, especially when trying to avoid repetitive choruses or explicit content.

Twain’s single “She’s not just a Pretty Face” came in useful when starting a unit on careers and future job prospects. The song lists a large number of professions, and the students had to try and note as many as possible, before repeating the vocabulary with a mean. For example, an astronaut is someone who goes to the moon.

This sparked conversation about career aspirations and we used the professions referenced in the song to come up with sentences about responsibilities for those people. For example, if I were a news reporter, I would have to interview people, or if I were a lawyer, I would help people in trouble. Twain’s song allowed me to explain a complicated grammar point here, introducing conditional tenses.

With a different class, we had started to investigate the use of comparatives and superlatives in English, which can be a rather dry grammar topic. Here, Christina Aguilera’s "Fighter" proved to be indispensable, reviving a class who had almost fallen asleep in the post-lunch food coma. The chorus has a number of comparatives (stronger, harder, faster, wiser), which the children had to listen out for and then also change these examples into superlatives.

Whilst the initial idea of comparative and superlative had not inspired the response I had hoped, this change of pace greatly lifted the mood and made sure the children were much more engaged by the end.

Music is certainly a universal teaching tool!

Celebrations!

Teenagers are fickle things, and the simple difference between class participation and a wall of glaring silence can be as simple as a chocolate.

Don’t underestimate the power of rewards. This is probably the single most important thing I learnt this week as I developed my own teaching strategies. For a couple of weeks, I have been trying to assess the different levels of English in my classes, and tried to encourage a lot of oral work. However, more often than not, this would result in blank expressions, and me talking for a lot of the hour.

In an effort to break this mould, I planned a lesson on films, which would both teach the most important phrases and vocabulary required to discuss movies with friends, and also have a guessing game that would require the children to talk.

Chocolate as a teaching tool.

Starting the lesson was, again, daunting at 8am. Having explained that we would be talking about films, I had expected a little flurry of excitement, but the children stared back quite vacantly. As I launched into my first riddle, without elaborating that this was a game, the children seemed a little lost, until about a minute later someone half mumbled, half yawned “Harry Potter”.

“Pardon?”

“Harry Potter”

“Perfect. Do you want a chocolate?”

On cue, the whole class seemingly sprung to life as I removed a packet of Celebrations from my bag and threw a sweet across the room. Suddenly, the whole class is actively participating, asking questions about the genre of film, who stars, who directs and so on.

We spent half an hour after the warm up reviewing different key vocabulary to talk about film, and to finish, the students made up their own riddles, which they had to first write down and then present for their peers to guess, meeting and surpassing the criteria given to me by the school teachers.

Surprisingly, the only encouragement these children needed to speak their English with a degree of control was a little reward at the end. It brought each one of them, even the most shy and reluctant learner, out of their shell, hoping to have an early morning sugar boost.

I am not advocating placating all moody teenagers with chocolate in every lesson, but as an effective learning tool, it allowed me to hear voices in the class for the first time, and meant I was able to wrap up by congratulating them on their English, further boosting their confidence for future lessons and trials that come their way.

Anything for a little celebration.

Teacher Life

I have survived my first lessons in France as a teacher and lived to tell the tale.

No, the classes have not been as dramatic as that (yet!), but I seemingly metamorphosed into a show and tell item at some point amidst the endless introduction classes I led this week.

I was introduced to no fewer than 12 different classes, of ranging abilities and ages, from 11 to 15 year olds. Nonetheless, the level of English in all groups appears to be strong on the whole and each and every class gave me a good grilling on the questions front.

Interrogations ranged from standard questions about where I am from, my hobbies and interests, my favourite cities, how I enjoyed Marseille etc, to the more bizarre (“Do I like platypus?” asked one student), to stereotypes regarding how often I saw the Queen, or drank tea, or if I had ever visited Hogwarts (which seems to be a young French child’s mock-up of a traditional English school).

Adolescents in Marseille, just as elsewhere, like to push the boundaries too: I had several people ask for my mobile phone number, and a couple of students ask if I had a girlfriend, or whether I preferred French women to English women.

Fortunately, it seems that the male student population are currently in awe of the fact I am a real born and bred Mancunian, as football is not so much a sport, as a cult in Marseille. If you are a teenager and you aren’t wearing a football tracksuit to declare support for your team (usually Olympique Marseille), you do receive an odd glance or two from classmates. This rule goes beyond the playground however and large swathes of grown men sport these tracksuits in the street on a daily basis. As such, questions of Manchester United versus Manchester City were fielded for a short time.

All of this has prepared me for what to expect in my regular lessons, particularly how to manage large numbers of teenagers all shouting for information, or complaining they don’t understand my accent. It also reflects on the amount of oral work to come as many of the teachers have emphasised a need to boost student confidence when speaking English. Managing these different expectations and controlling restless teenagers at 8am (yes classes at 8am), will certainly be the most challenging aspect of the job, but it will facilitate my desire to adapt my communication techniques and ensure that I am more adept at leading a group with poise and self-assurance.

Teenagers can sense fear after all.

Destination Marseille

Over the course of the 2014-2015 academic year, I will be teaching English as a foreign language in three high schools in Marseille. This is my first time in the south of France, and I am looking forward to practicing and improving my French here, exploring the region and helping teenagers learn English.

Vieux Port

I have decided to participate in a teach abroad programme so as to better develop my language skills, which will be crucial in the future should I become a foreign correspondent, or work in the media abroad, as well as to expand a number of associated skills, such as reacting to changing circumstances (who knows what will happen in a classroom full of adolescents?), working across language barriers (a daily task in global media), and making important decisions (leading a classroom will certainly provide an ever changing environment to control).

As for the city itself, Marseille has become renowned as the centre of French crime and poverty over the previous decades. With a long history of immigration, segregation and problems resulting from the Algerian crisis of the 1970s that still resonate here today, Marseille is a melting pot of different people, different societies, different traditions and different cultures.

However, I remain positive that the cosmopolitan mix of such a large number of social groups will provide an unparalleled Mediterranean experience during my time here.

Over the course of the year, I will update this blog with musings from my teaching, tips from my travels and comments on culture.

So far, I have been able to visit a couple of the major tourist sites and work my way around the town. Certainly, it is easy to see why some of the myths around Marseille have sprung up and captured the local imagination. Amongst a host of well-to-do south of France cities, Marseille is very obviously loud and conspicuous, as evidenced by its inhabitants and its buildings.

Notre Dame de la Garde

City planning certainly bears little resemblance to the uniform boulevards of Paris. Instead, each arrondissement appears to have its own feel and distinctive personality that change frequently.  Within moments of walking down a huge thoroughfare, you could be on cramped side streets, where buildings jut out, graffiti is scrawled over ever surface and you are beeped at from mopeds driving the wrong way along a one way system (apparently accepted behaviour). Buildings are generally old, with no modern skyscrapers or business districts. The tile roofs are quite ramshackle and there is no overall sense of flow.

Notre Dame de la Garde Interior

Having said that, the view from Notre Dame de la Garde – a huge basilica overlooking the city – renders these points moot and paints Marseille in a warm glow under the Mediterranean sun. Notre Dame itself is a glorious building and a testament to the dedication of its architects, who did not allow the isolated and difficult hills of Marseille to become an obstacle in the construction of this mammoth cathedral.

The interior is lavishly decorated in an appropriate sea theme, with cupolas representing sea voyages from both biblical stories and myths. Walls are covered in paintings and pictures that relate to the sea and wooden figures of ships hang from the ceiling. A visitor is made instantly aware of its unique position as the church that looks out over the port of this city, the oldest in France. A top the bell tower, a statue of Mary and child stand keeping guard, and many people in the town visit the church to ask for her protection and to give thanks.

Palais Longchamp

Elsewhere, the Palais Longchamp is one of only a few public gardens in the city centre. It was constructed in order to commemorate the building of a canal into Marseille, and in keeping with this heritage, the main façade of the ornate building is dubbed the “Chateau d’eau” (Water Palace), with several fountains, lakes and basins.

Of course, the generous climate in Marseille means that September is still very much summer (especially for a Northerner), so the beaches in the 8^th arrondissement have also been a highlight, with different stone and sandy beaches, shops, restaurants and water sports.

That’s all for now. I will update the blog as much as I can with work commitments, and hopefully talk a little about my experiences throughout the year.