School life in the south of France

A different country, a different school life?

Well, when you visit other countries it is very interesting to visit the schools too.

You will have a lot of questions in your mind, like: How are the teachers? Are they more relaxed than in Germany or are they stricter? How are the lessons? What about the pupils? Are they bored as we sometimes are?

School life in France is quite similar to school life in Germany. The school (Collège et Lycée Jeanne d'Arc) consists of several buildings. Directly next to the school is a factory. A German teacher who has lived in Mazamet for nearly 20 years told us that they used to process wool¹ in this factory and when it rained there were many colorful puddles².

The first strange thing when we wanted to go inside was that the school isn't open for everyone.

In the front of the door stood a man who looked grouchy³ but in reality he wasn't. He welcomed everybody very friendly and he reminded us Germans of a doorman⁴ in a disco.

The outward appearance of the pupils is very important for this French school. The pupils are not allowed to have any piercings or tattoos and the dresses have to be knee-long - "very unusual", we thought.

In our opinion the pupils behave like the German pupils because in some lessons they are more concentrated (like in Maths) and in others they aren't (like in French). The pupils talk, laugh, draw little pictures but also help other classmates when they have questions.

The other thing we noticed was that for the French pupils English seems to be a difficult language. The people who live in the south of France have a strong accent when they talk in their native language and that's why they speak English with a strong accent, too. It wasn't very easy for the Germans to understand them but after some attempts we found a way to communicate.

The teachers are like in Germany (Maybe they are everywhere similar?! Friendly but strict!)

We don't know what else to say about the teachers because everyone knows how teachers are.

A thing we have never seen before is that the pupils from class five to seven have to wear white coats. These coats look like the coats you wear in Germany when you have Art at school and you draw with watercolors or acrylic paint⁵.

In the breaks the children can buy a meal in the cafeteria. At this school the meals are always prepared freshly because they think that it's better for the pupils' health than eating fast food.

Teachers and pupils gave us a very warm welcome.

We all had a very great time in France and we got a lot of impressions that we will never forget!

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1 Wolle
2 Pfützen
3 brummig
4 Türsteher
5 Acrylfarbe