Me, my French and I - A personal view of second language learning in Australia

Catherine Berry

By Catherine Berry
Community contribution / August 9, 2017

My children’s language education started in Year 7 at school–not theirs, mine. Mine was a Catholic college in Adelaide, run by the Dominican nuns.

“Ca va?”

“Ca va. Ca va?”

“Ca va.”

Not at all ‘nunnish’; however, was my French teacher ...

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By Catherine Berry

Community

Catherine Berry is a passionate language learner and educator. After the birth of her third child, her teaching was costing her more in childcare and schooling for her children than her salary warranted. Despite her love of the classroom, she turned instead to at-home tutoring, where a chance request from a student led her, a non-native French speaker, to attempt to speak only French with her son. This in turn led to a project for the family to live in France for a year. Three and a half years later, Catherine’s family returned to Australia. Finding it difficult to ‘turn the page’ on their French life, Catherine instead turned to writing. ‘But you are in France, Madame’ was the result (search by title (Kindle and paper editions)). Catherine can be contacted on cb222@me.com

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This was a very insightful piece and true to my experiences. I taught for 20 years. Teaching was a big part of my ide...

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