The End

We're slowly coming towards the end of my British Log my friends...

Of course, my account, started a bit more than a year ago (yikes!) cannot be closed without a concluding article. I've done lots during these nine months as a Foreign Language Assistant, and I've learnt many things too. So here is the conclusion to my adventure!

My schools

As you already know, I worked in two schools: Soham Village College and City of Ely Community College. I mostly worked with Year 10 and 11 classes but had the chance to have some private lessons with Year 12 and 13 students.

Overall, the job was all right. It was quite often boring and very repetitive though, as I had to take small groups out in the corridor and make them talk for five or ten minutes. Basically, I had a list of questions and had to listen to and improve the pupils' answers, which were always the same and always learnt by heart. Sometimes I had to create games to make them practice. I was an assistant for 8 months and I had to deal with only two topics: holidays and health. I did talk about summer and part-time jobs and housing, but still... Pretty boring.

Before coming here, I thought I'd be able to talk about my country, its customs and culture, and have some more freedom. The problem is that the kids have to sit their GCSEs at the end of Year 11 and therefore only study for that purpose.

I was quite shocked by the pupils' level. Some basic stuff, such as grammar or fundamental spelling and pronunciation rules, are not acquired. Besides, they have a very poor notion of grammar in general, since the English grammar is not even studied any more... So it made it really difficult for me to explain things, when simple terms like “auxiliary”, “conjugated verb”, “direct” and “indirect objects” were not understood. It's also pretty damn impossible for them to understand a foreign grammar when they're not familiar with their own! I think there's room for concern here...

Fortunately, I had one really good class in Soham. It was a really small class; only five students. And they were really nice and motivated and also, I had the opportunity to actively participate in the lessons and did not merely have to repeat the same instructions and questions over and over.

Of course, I also had my private lessons with the Sixth Formers. I was looking forward to those, especially with my Year 13s, because I could spend more time with my students and had more freedom. It usually took my quite some time to prepare their lessons, but at the end of the day, it was a rewarding job! Their spoken level was pretty good (grammar-wise, it was not that great...) and I could talk about interesting issues and introduce them to the Swiss culture! Too bad I only taught them 3 lessons every other week...

In a nutshell, I'd have liked to work longer with the pupils, because I don't think that five or ten minutes is enough; actually, I think it's pretty worthless. What's more, I'd have liked to use all the magazines and DVDs and material I'd brought from Switzerland. But I barely used anything at all! So I'm a bit disappointed about my role as a language assistant. Fortunately, most of the kids were nice and I didn't have any serious discipline problems. And let's not forget about my colleagues! They were all really nice. All of them. They made me feel like a colleague and not like a mere assistant! =)

Host family

Of course you know that I lived with Kathy and her daughter Scarlett. At first, I was not really happy to live in Soham, because I wasn't keen on living in a small and boring town. But as soon as I met Kathy, I knew that I would stay there. She's so nice, kind, open-minded, generous, easy-going and she made me feel at home quite instantly. I could have my friends and family over and had total freedom. I'm really happy to have met her and I will stay in touch and try to visit her as often as possible. She said she'd be offended if I didn't haha.

What about Scarlett. The Little Monster, as I like to call her. She's one cheeky monkey. She sure has character! She hates going to bed at night, but it's almost impossible to drag her out of bed in the morning haha. But it was a pleasure to get to know her all the same. I enjoyed showing her my make-up and having my nails done – she's passionate about nails, see?

So yeah, I consider myself really lucky to have lived with Kathy and Scarlett. I'm gonna miss them, but as with Tatjana, I know that we'll see each other again if we really want to! England is an island all right, but it's not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so we should be fine XD

Contacts

You'd think that after nine months in the UK, I'd have socialised, met loads of nice people and made some friends. Well, I didn't really. I tried to meet people; I attended some keeping-fit classes, but only older people went there... On the bus maybe? Old people... So no, I didn't really make any friends, apart from Tatjana, the schools' staff and my host family. I'm a bit disappointed, but on the other hand, it means I won't miss too many people haha.

I'm really happy with the people I got to know though. I already talked about Kathy and her daughter, but not really about Tatjana, who was the German assistant. We got along really well. We took some trips together, went out a couple of times and organised DVD parties. It was lovely. I'm happy that her and I became friends. I don't think I would have survived if I hadn't got along with the other assistant, as she was the only friend my age. I mean, of course I'd have survived, but it would certainly have been difficult.

And I hope I'll keep in touch with the teachers too! I think they enjoyed having us working with them! As I said before, I think Tatjana and I were lucky to have worked with them, because they were really friendly and open and they really made us feel like colleagues. I know that some assistants are ignored by the other teachers, because the latter don't have time and are too busy to deal with mere assistants. So yeah, I'm happy we got to work with such nice people! =)

Allowance

So we got a bit more than £800 per month. I had to pay some taxes in April and May but will hopefully get the money back. I also got some money from my lovely parents. But even without their help, I'd have been more than fine. I didn't go out on weekends so it left me plenty of money for travelling and shopping. Besides, living in the countryside helps: food and transports are not too expensive!

Trips

I really made the most of my year in the UK! I travelled a LOT! If you go back to my “Places I Have Visited, Want to Visit and Will Visit in the UK” list, you'll notice that almost every place is crossed out!

I went to London every month and to Cambridge almost every week (as I had predicted). I took the train to Norwich several times, went to Bury St. Edmunds a couple of times. I had days out in Nottingham, Oxford, Aldeburgh. Took a trip to the north of England, which included Lincoln, Leeds, York and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Spent a weekend in Bristol and saw Bath and Cardiff, spent another weekend in Liverpool and Chester. Went to Scotland for a whole week and visited Edinburgh and Glasgow and even took a day trip to the Loch Ness and the Highlands. I visited Windsor Castle. And I even flew to Berlin for a weekend!

I didn't have the chance to go to the Lake District, the Cotswolds or Cornwall, but I will most certainly go back to the UK. Also, I'll go to Canterbury soon, since my brother will do an Erasmus exchange there, so I'll visit him for a couple of days =D

I'm so happy that I got to travel so much. I'm a really lucky person =D

My English

Well I *think* my English was already good before I went to England. Being a literature student, I had to (and still do) read a lot of different things, from novels to poems and through critical analysis. Likewise, I could understand films and series almost perfectly. Understanding English was not a problem at all. I also have to write a lot essays so I was and still am (hopefully) used to writing in English and I enjoy it very much, too! As for the speaking, well I've always thought it was my weakest point. My speaking skills really depend on the situation I'm in; who I'm talking with, whether I'm in a formal or informal context and of course, it also varies according to my mood. My English can astonish me some days or, on the other hand, disappoint and frustrate me. But then again, there are some days when I can't seem to speak French either, so...

It's really difficult for me to say if I've improved or not. Kathy told me that my English was already perfect when I arrived, but I don't believe her. When you're not a native speaker, I don't think it's possible to master the language like they do. Anyway. I have learnt a lot of everyday words and I also extended my household vocabulary. And I guess I've also become more fluent and improved my pronunciation. My regret is that I will never speak like an English woman, but hopefully, I've got a bit closer to sounding like one... Something that I have noticed is that if it was sometimes hard for me to understand some characters in EastEnders, I now don't have any problems at all! I've mastered Cockney, and that's the bloomin' truf mate!

And I haven't mentioned the most important thing! I studied for the CPE exam (Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English) and sat the exam at the end of my stay. I bought some books in December and self studied. I've learnt lots thanks to that! I decided to sit this exam because I felt like I wasn't really improving and I was thirsty for knowledge; I never seem to have enough of English learning in my life mwa ha ha.

Britain

Remember the long article I wrote about Britain, a while back? The one in which I tell you about the things I knew about Britain and the British? Well. Let me come back to that now. After nine months in a country, I guess you get a pretty good idea of its ways and customs. So let me take each point I previously made and comment on them.

I said that British people like to do thing topsy-turvy. Well, if seeing cars circulate on the left didn't surprise me much after nine months, I still struggled with drivers sitting on the right; whenever I had to enter a car, I wanted to open the wrong door. Gee. Never quite got used to it.

British doors are not all tricky. Kathy's got a pretty normal door, with a normal handle and a normal lock. And so do all her neighbours. So only some British doors are weird. Or maybe they've learnt. I don't know!

They haven't learnt about the usefulness of the single-tap system though. I had two taps at Kathy's and never managed to get tepid water when I wanted some! So annoying...

What about food. Well I cooked my own food so it was always tasty and perfect (=P). But I went out to restaurants and was never disappointed. And I stand by what I said about puddings; the British do know how to make good desserts =P I also tasted Kathy's food, which, while being a bit repetitive, was not bad at all! The lack of vegetables and green stuff is quite shocking though. Scarlett always made fun of me because I ate a lot of salad... Oh well...

The weather! I was really lucky! We did get horrible weather sometimes but we got a lot of sunshine as well! Winter was really cold but it didn't rain too much. It snowed though and because of that, I couldn't get back to Switzerland (for Christmas) quite when I'd planned to. Anyway. We had a lovely spring. Warm and sunny. So yeah, here again, I stand by what I previously said: it's NOT always raining in England. And that, my friends, is a true fact.

Well what can I say about British pounds? I still love them. I'm gonna miss them. Especially the fiver, which I find really useful (a fiver is a £5 note by the way).

Have I learnt any new and exciting idioms and expressions? Yes, I have! “A dog's dinner”, “bring home the bacon” or “sell like hotcakes”. But I have to say that I learnt most of them while studying for the CPE exam... And I've also learnt some interjections, such as “crikey”, which I really love! And I'm proud to say that by the end of my stay, I could say “cheers” to the bus driver without even thinking about it!

I won't really talk about literature because I didn't read much during my assistantship *ashamed*. I read some teen books and some Charlotte Brontë as well. Not much at all. Oh, and I read Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? for the CPE exam too. I'd seen Shakespeare in Love before, so that was boring. As for the android thing, I hated it. It's science-fiction and it's really weird. Sci-fi's not my cup of tea anyway. But I guess it was interesting (…).

In Britain, people do drink tea all the time. Kathy has about ten cups a day. With milk and sugar, please!

Queue is indeed very much sacred. I sometimes had to queue to get in the bus.

And everybody was polite to me. Except for some pupils who pretended they didn't see me and ignored me when seeing me down town. But I don't think it's an English thing; rather, it's a teenage thing.

Pubs. I only went into pubs a couple of times. And they're always cosy. There are some drunkards sometimes, but nothing too serious. So I still like pubs. And I still hate beer haha. Cider's ok though, I like it =P

And I'm still a fan of shops here in the UK. I love Paperchase, although I have to say that they used to have more things. I love All Saints and Radley and Waterstones and a lot of great shops. The only bad thing about shopping in England is that you can find the same shops everywhere, so it can get a bit boring. I wish there was more variety sometimes...

I already talked about travelling. I got to see lots of places and apart from Leeds, I enjoyed everything that I visited! If Britain's not varied shopping-wise, it's varied visit-wise! You can go from towns like Cambridge, which are really old, to big and modern cities like Liverpool, through little charming villages like Chester. Let's not forget the lovely countryside! You can basically get everything. I like that!

Ok now I'm done reviewing what I already knew. What new things have I learnt?

The British like their traditions and they like to make every event a big thing. Bonfire Night, Christmas, Pancake Day, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. If, by chance, you forget that Christmas or Easter is coming, don't worry! Here, you get reminded everywhere and all the time!

Food. They're obsessed with it. TV programs, TV adverts, street adverts, restaurant offers, more adverts. Food is everywhere! Everybody's talking about eating and dieting. I got obsessed with it myself. I felt guilty when I bought red-marked products. Yeah, not only do you know how many calories there are in every single thing, but they also tell you if the food you're about to buy is high or low in sugar, fat, saturated fat and salt, thanks to a very clever colour system: green for ok, orange for medium and red for bad. It's good in a way, because it allows you to make the right choices, but it also ends up driving you nuts (which are high in fat, but it's the good kind of fat. They don't tell you THAT on the package though!!).

Well I guess that's about it really! I like Britain and I guess that now I can say I know the country pretty well, given all the travelling I did and the time I spent there!

Personal development

What about me? Huh? Have I changed? Have I learnt things about myself? Have I become fully independent and full of self-confidence?

Well I guess my family and friends are the ones who will be able to tell. But I still noticed some changes.

I'm not panic-stricken at the idea of giving a phone call any more. I don't stress over insignificant little things; I'm way more relaxed than I used to be! Example: before going to England, if I had a trip organised, I'd plan everything well in advance and pack days before departure. By the end of my stay, after a few trips, I just didn't care and packed the evening before haha. I'm still a bit of a planning freak though. I couldn't possibly leave without a minimum of organisation! But that's my nature, I can't change that. I hope that my new stress-free attitude won't fade away once I get back to uni...

Also, I guess I've become more independent! I know how to cook – even though my cooking skills are still pretty basic – I can do my own laundry and I can manage my own money. I think I've gained some self-confidence too. And that was not unwanted. I needed some badly. I travelled around Great Britain. Never got lost. Never had any problems. I had to sort out so much paperwork, think about so many things (especially at the beginning). Yep. I think I grew up quite a bit during these nine months! I hope I did at least!

Finally, I've realised how much I love my country. I'm happy to be Swiss and I now know I want to live and work in Switzerland. I love England, don't get me wrong, but from what I've seen, I'll be better off here. Teaching in the UK is not paradise-like. Ok, it's not perfect in Switzerland either, but teaching here is, in my opinion, a more rewarding, fulfilling and satisfying job than it is across the Channel. The Swiss school system just suits me better I suppose!

To conclude...

My year abroad was a positive experience. My work as a language assistant was a bit disappointing; I was honestly expecting more. My advise to future assistants would be not to set their expectations too high.

However, I did have loads of fun sometimes and besides, assistantship is not just about being a language assistant! I only worked 12 hours a week, so that left me plenty of free time to do other things, such as... travelling and shopping hehehehe. Back to being serious: going abroad for a long period of time teaches you a lot about another country, its language and culture, but it also teaches important things about yourself and life in general.

I would recommend this experience to everyone. And I would do it again too. I don't regret it AT ALL!

Thank you for reading my British Log! I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. It's been a pleasure to share my experience with you, my dear and faithful readers, who were brave enough to keep up with my crazy writing!