As I am the only one teaching French, I alone came up with two activities on 20th January--quiz for individuals and singing contest for groups.
Two weeks ago, I started to prepare the quiz. I wanted my students to learn about France, its culture, history, etc which the French are so proud of. At first, I simply copied most of the 40 multiple-choice and true/false questions from the Internet and saved in my office desktop. I did not print the document out, nor kept a backup. Last Thursday, my computer suddenly broke down for the first time and to date it is still not yet repaired. I had no more access to the document! Thinking positively while resetting the questions, I decided to add my own ideas more while still referring to the ready ones from some websites.
As a result, there were questions like these:
AirAsia lands at which airport in France?
A. Charles de Gaulle, B. Orly, C. Neuhof, D. Mandelieu
Which one is a French hypermarket?
A. Tesco, B. Giant, C. Carrefour, D. Mydin
In summer, when it is 1pm in France, it is 6pm in Malaysia. (True/False)
Among 30 students who had signed up for the quiz, 22 turned up.
One hour after the quiz would be the group singing contest. The participants were having rehearsal at different corners around the city campus.
6 groups were in the list. Fifteen minutes before I went to the classroom, a student from his group informed me of their withdrawal due to no practice. Later at 6.45pm, only 4 groups were present.
The event was held in a very casual atmosphere with free seating. I myself was the emcee. I let the contestants decide who performed first. The 3 girls and 2 boys had long waited for this moment to show their talents in
playing the guitar,
singing and dancing. When they suddenly stood up and moved around the chairs, I had the impression that they were playing the musical chairs!
The audience definitely enjoyed their choreography, though they were not joining their peers to grab the empty chairs...
The second group was a girl band.
The singers were all dressed in red and black, which made them stand out visually.
The guitarists created special sound effects by knocking on the instruments with their fingers.
The third group consisted of two "sopranos". One and a half hour before the contest only they were consulting me about the pronunciation of the lyrics in French. They would have gained more marks had they been better prepared. Nevertheless, I believe that all of us admired their courage and the volume of their voice.
The final group was also an interesting composition with two male guitarists and two female singers who performed three songs. The two boys who sometimes amused the whole class with their happy-go-lucky demeanour during my teaching hours did not miss to insert an entertaining element by exchanging their guitars after each song. The two sweet girls especially impressed me with their rap in which they articulated the words very well.
My colleague Naga had accepted my invitation to be in the panel of judges. She required all the groups to introduce the background of their songs. She was judging on creativity, stage presence and overall performance while I was giving marks for the singing abilities and pronunciation.
It only took us few minutes to decide on which groups won the prizes. I also announced the results of the quiz which I had already finished marking. All the winners are invited to the closing ceremony of the language week next Thursday.
The following activity was no longer French, but Indian! I was going to give Naga a dinner treat. She brought me to Saravanna restaurant in town where she often settles her meals. I had never been there before. It was crowded with Indian, Chinese and Western customers!
Naga's office is very near to mine but we only had short conversations in the corridor and in front of the campus building when we happened to meet. I was very glad to spend one hour chatting with this friendly colleague while eating the tasty masala tosei.
Since I am talking about a restaurant, let me ask you another question from my quiz--
Places where homeless people can get food during winter in France are called
A. Restos du coeur, B. Restos d'hiver, C. Restos à la carte, D. Restos de pauvres
Now you should understand why merely 8 of the 22 contestants were able to score the passing mark.
1 comment:
some of them are my friends. =)
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