PEEPS OF FRANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 79

PEEPS OF FRANCE.

(Special tor the Otago Witness.)

These articles, from the pen of a New Zealand girl, who has gone to France to complete her education, have been specially written for my Little Folk. We hope that after reading them, you will have a new idea of a country which, to many of you, is known only as another place to be learned about in a geography lesson.—DOT. VI. Mes Petites,—lt may interest you,'to. hear a little about the French schools, and about how English is taught in France. ; ;V • ' Tim French . schoolboys and schoolgirls work very hard, and the examination

standard is exceedingly high. Science and mathematics play an important part in the school curriculum, and English is studied in all French schools, very often German as well being taught. It is amazing how quickly a foreign language may te learnt by living for a time in a country and hearing it spoken all day. I came across a little American girl who had spent nine months in a school in Paris, knowing absolutely no French at all when she first arrived. She can now speak it quite fluently, and I have seen many other such cases besides. As for the English teaching in France, it is all done by the “direct” method, i.e., French is spoken as little as possible by the teacher, and the text books used are written entirely in English. The pupils begin, of course, by learning the names of common objects around them, gradually proceeding to other and more difficult topics of conversation, and many of them learn to speak and write English with astonishing rapidity. In English schools French is taught along exactly the same lines, and the lessons are very bright and interesting in consequence. Sometimes, in order to make the classes seem still more “Frenchified,” the children all take French names, e.g., Madeleine, Marie, Dorothea, Blanche, Andre, etc., and when a special room is used for French, its walls are decorated with pictures and paintings of French towns and buildings and of scenes from everyday French life. This all makes the lessons more interesting, and even in the case of classes' if quite tiny children, very little English is spoken by the teacher. As for the French schools, there are, of course, schools and schools. Here are the Lycee, which correspond, roughly speaking, to our Government high schools in New Zealand, and whose standard is very high. Nearly every French town of any importance has its Lycee, and these schools seem to rank among the best in the country. Many foreign children go to them also, especially American children, large numbers of whom are sent to school in France. There are also private schools, of course, here, some of them very good, and some of them one might call a little antique. Of the latter kind I am thinking of one particular type of private boarding school, a survival of a good old-fashioned “ seminary for young ladies,” now dying a rapid death in England, but a less rapid one on the Continent. Though no doubt excellent in their way, these “ institutions,” as they are called, seem likely to pass before long into the limbo of forgotten days, making way for more up-to-date and modern schools of a less ‘‘ institutionary ” type. Of course, there are other schools too, some very delightful finishing schools in the Riviera and elsewhere, where girls have chances of delightful excursions m the holidays to the Italian lakes and other places. The long school holidays, of course, are in the summer, from the beginning of July until September, and the Christmas holidays do not last, for the most part, longer than a fortnight or three weeks. Many of the pupils remain at their schools for Christmas, as in a large number of cases they live too far away for it to be possible for them to go away for so short a time. The French, I gather, do rot make as much of Christmas as we do, but the children harm their stockings up for Santa Claus. In France it seems to be the custom to hang them in the firenlace rather than at the foot of the beds. Games, as I told you, do not receive very much attention in Fiance, but dancing is taught in most schools, and occasionally something in the nature of Swedish drill. I think I told you before how versatile and supple the children were. It is a pleasure to watch some of them move. Winter is coming on fast now, and the winds are very cold. The dead leaves are falling in the parks and gardens, and there is a damp feeling in the air. Christmas is not so far off now. and I shall . think of you enjoying brilliant sunshine -(J hone) in far-awav New Zealand, while here on the other side of the world winter has come to stay. —Yours, as ever. Jeanne.