Languages Corner
Visit of Bruno Valery, Coordinator of AEFE Asia/Pacifique Zone
On 12th June, we were delighted to welcome Bruno Valery accompanied by Flavie Coulbault from the French Embassy in Canberra and Myriam Boisbouvier- Wylie, Honorary Consul in Melbourne to the school. AEFE is the “Agence pour l’enseignement francais a l’etranger”, Agency for French Education Abroad and is the organisation which granted us the accreditation for LabelFrancEducation. Now the world counts 209 schools with the accredidation in 44 countries and GEC is one of the four schools in Australia who has obtained it.
Mr Valery visited our Year 8 Drama Immersion class and was impressed with the language the students were using for their play “La Cigale et La Fourmi” and the enthusiasm of Mme Cavanagh was noticeable. Year 9 French Immersion recited their poem “ Voyage Voyage" and confidently answered questions in French on their experience of the French Immersion Program. Our senior students had an opportunity to converse in French with our visitors on topic of bilingual education. Mr Valery’s visit ended with a dynamic chat with our Year 7 French 1st language students.
Teacher Exchange – France / Australia
In term 1, I had the amazing opportunity to undertake a teacher exchange in France. Morgane Roge and I swapped schools for a term. While I was teaching at college Jean Rostand in Dijon, Mme Roge was teaching at Glen Eira College. Both of us were able to learn and share new strategies in the teaching of languages. The students in both schools benefited from having an authentic experience of the Australian and French culture. Mme Roge organised a “Fort Boyard” game during Francophonie week and various activities every week in the French club.
The highlight of my experience was when I organised Australia Day at College Jean Rostand with an Australian 3 course meal (chicken parma/ fries, lamb roast and vegetables and gravy and lamingtons!) and games at lunch time including a Vegemite Eating Challenge! I was also able to organise an excursion to Paris for two of my Year 8 classes to visit the Australian Embassy, which happens to be next to the Eiffel Tower! I think I will never forget the sparkle in the students’ eyes and the screaming in the bus when they saw the Eiffel Tower as for some it was their first trip to Paris.
This exchange has helped to establish a link between our school and the Academie in Dijon and we hope that we will be able to create opportunities for our students in the future. I thank the school and the French Embassy and the Academie de Dijon for their support in making this exchange possible.
Student Exchange – France/ Australia
Sasha Hudson 9C
My French Exchange
Fanny Lozé turned around and faced me. In French, she said something very slowly
“I'm sorry what?” I responded. She carefully repeated the sentence again.
“Er.. je ne comprends pas?” I was forced to respond.
“C’est pas grave” she said and turned back around
“Oh..um oui?” I hesitated.
Fanny Lozé was my host mother during the three months I stayed in France at the start of this year and that pretty much summed up how the first couple of weeks were.
I was put with a family of four, Gregory, Fanny, Nathan (although he was in America on his own exchange) and Noemie Lozé. All amazingly kind and welcoming people.
I went to a small local school with Noemi and was welcomed by the community. School started at 8.00am and finishing times varied. Usually school ended around 3.00pm but on Wednesday and Friday we finished at 12 o'clock. All my lessons were in French.
On the weekends we went for long walks through Paris, visiting famous galleries and sites in Paris such as Notre Dame, Montmartre, Versaille and of course L’arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.
During the holidays my host family took me to The Alps to go skiing. The snow was amazing and the mountains massive and seemingly endless. We stayed there for a week, skiing everyday. I took ski lessons and was able to improve my skills a lot, lucky my teacher spoke English. Although by this stage my French had improved a lot and I was able to understand and engage in conversations.
All in all it was an experience of a lifetime, in spite of some challenges and bumps along the way. Living with a new family, with rules and new routines, having to speak a foreign language and losing my credit card. These were minor problems though compared to the whole experience.
Mon échange en France par Mieka Maloney 9C
in her own words
Des larmes apparaissent dans mes yeux alors que je marche à travers les portes d’embarquement, je ne pleure pas parce-que je suis heureuse d’aller en France, mais parce que je ne vais pas voir ma famille pendant trois mois. C’est tellement loin pour moi !
Le vent est très froid ici, il engourdit mon corps, c’est l’hiver en France. Mon amie Sasha me dit,”Nous sommes en France!”. Sasha et moi partons pour notre hôtel, il se trouve en plein milieu de Paris. Il y a aussi cinq autres personnes avec nous venant d’Australie. Paris, 'était très beau. Nous avons visité la Tour Eiffel et beaucoup d'autre monuments. Les trois jours se passent très vite et avant même de m’en apercevoir, j’suis dans le train pour le sud de la France afin de retrouver ma famille d'accueil que je ne connais pas, pour moi c’est très effrayant! Dans le train, mes mains sont tremblantes. J’ai passé les cinq premières semaines dans une famille et les cinq dernières dans une autre famille. Ma deuxième famille d’accueil m’a vraiment marquée :
A 15h, j’attends à la gare avec mon grande valise. Ma nouvelle famille est déjà là pour m’accueillir - Emma ma correspondante, elle a dix-huit ans et Aude sa mère. Emma et Aude ne parlent anglais, pas un mot, juste le français, donc c’est parfait pour moi. Leur petit appartement se trouve dans la centre-ville de Perpignan. Les étudiants ont été très gentils avec moi et je me suis faite beaucoup d’amis. A l'école en France, les cours commençaient à huit heures et finissaient à dix huit heures parfois, donc c'était très différent de l’Australie. Mais, la nourriture est tellement délicieuse, tous les jours je mangeais un croissant et je buvais un chocolat chaud ! En France ils mangent beaucoup de pâtisseries et de baguettes. Tous les samedis, on allait faire les courses au marché dans le centre-ville avec ma famille d’accueil. Perpignan se trouve à côté de l’Espagne, donc ma famille m’a fait visiter une petite ville en Espagne et c’était très jolie!
Le premier mois a été très difficile pour moi parce que mon français n’était pas très bon, et ma famille en Australie me manquait beaucoup. Mais la fin de mon séjour en France s’est passée tellement vite, avant que je réalise quoi que ce soit, j’étais dans l’avion du retour ! C’était une très belle expérience et j’ai beaucoup appris. Maintenant je comprends tout et je parle beaucoup mieux le français parce qu’au début je ne parlais vraiment pas bien !
J’espère qu’un jour je pourrais retourner voir mes amis et ma famille d’accueil en France...
Results Berthe Mouchette Poetry Recitation Competition Years 7 -10
Students who study French at GEC participated in the state-wide poetry recitation competition, the Berthe Mouchette. We are delighted to announce our winners for Years 7-10 who obtained a perfect score of 20/20.
Years 11 and 12 will compete on the 27th of July and students in the French 1st language program are participating in the poetry writing competition. This year’s theme is “ VOYAGE”
Year 7
Yvette Lipovetsky
Year 8
Ben Desuyo
Jovita Joy
Jasmyn Roberts
Year 9
Marcus Georgiou
Ben Matthews
Dasha Tolkach
Gabi Voges
35 students got “ Excellent” which equals to 19/19.5 out of 20!
Félicitations!!
Hebrew Book Club
Mr Kaplan has started a Hebrew book club, which meets every Monday and Wednesday at lunch times. The students are enjoying looking at different genres and we hope that more students will join next semester. It is a great opportunity for students to explore narratives in Hebrew.
Science Japanese Immersion
We are very happy that Muramatsu Sensei has been given a grant by MLTAV to develop a science unit in Japanese. Muramatsu Sensei has been teaching the unit to the students in Year 7 Japanese Immersion class and it was interesting to hear them talk about it with excitement! MLTAV is impressed with the hard work that Muramatsu Sensei has put in the development of the unit which will be shared with other Japanese teachers in the state.
Loveena Narayanen
Head of Languages