odile

nickel  is  slang  for  good   stuff. like : il est nickel ton portable! (Regardez mon visage: see Cathryn Tate's french lesson on u tube)

lots of useful stuff here, thanks. but since when is Burgundy in the North (east)?

because I find it very interesting - and as said - nobody forces you to reply... If you can't be bothered- just don't bother, simple as. Regardez mon visage  - et pas nickel, ta reponse, vraiment!

see 'help with a bat' post, in wildlife section for Chris's details.

sorry Carol, I have no answer. Hopefully Chris will come to your rescue. But good for you for refusing to kill it, and good luck.

fantastic story Rose. I'm so happy for you.  But I'm sure you undertand what I meant. a move should be positive, for the right reasons- and will not  mend any personal problems. I've been shocked by the reaction of some people in the UK, and who, on hearing of our impending departure, said 'good for you- country going to the dogs- too many bl... foreigners, etc. This is NOT the reason we are going to live abroad. Please 'older' posters. could you respect the fact that for some of us, this Forum (or any other) is new - and are looking for a live dialogue with live people - not old posts. So if my question bores you, or  you can't be bothered - that's fabsolutely fine. Nobody is forcing you to answer after all- although any positive (even if critical) exchange is very welcome.

as a teenager growing up in a Swiss mountain - England seemed a dream. Carnaby Street, The Stones, Pink Floyd - so after my A'levels and a 6 months trilingual secretarial course - I was off. Not for me boring clean mountain life, mariage, kids or becoming a teacher (as most of my friends did). Off to London to work as an assistant translator in a very big pharmaceutical firm. And mainly- off to the Isle of Wight to see Hendrix in the Summer of 1970. Kept away from ALL French speaking people- kept to the very deep end and learnt quickly. (see great trans. booboos). That was for 6 months. did get married a year later, had first kid 2 years later, became a teacher 8 years later! After London, several locations in the Midlands, currently East Leicestershire. And yet, I am going back to my boring mountains soon, and can't  wait. But I loved England almost every minute and have made so many great friends. So what are your reasons for considering moving to France (or having done it). Personally I feel that for some people, the move is to escape to greener pastures. Beware the pink tinted glasses though. If you are not happy with yourself, not happy with your relationship, or whatever - a move, like a holiday, can really exarcerbate things rather than improve them. So why or why? Would love to know.

Hi Fi,  (sounds funny!)  the answer to your question is NO. The 2 systems are VASTLY different, but it is not a question of better or worse. It is horses for courses. If your children are bright, they may well do very well in the French system. It is such a complicated subject - after 37 years of comapring both - I know the english system would have been better for me. I am not stupid by any means, but physics and chemistry, and to some extent maths - have never excited me- thanks to a brother (PHDGrenoble  in info. tech in 1966 - when most of us didn't know what a computer was) - I just managed to scrape through in those subjects, excelling in all the others. I would say if you are going to  make the move, the sooner the better- as your kids are young enough to adapt. Personally I would never go and live in a country unless I have a good grasp of the language (never mind the grammar - communication is the only thing that matters at this stage) - I don't know what your situation is. Be aware that prepa schools (where 18/19 year olds spend 1-3 years preparing for UNI beyond the bac) can be very expensive. Some of the better unis (called Grandes Ecoles) for engineering and Business can be vastly expensive too. the French post Bac system is very elitist. And yes, like in the old 11+ system, it is very difficult to continue to further Ed. in France if you don't follow the 'right' path. In the UK there is always a way round for the later developer, or in case of a few bad years Teenage crisis, etc). And there are multiple variations of the BAC, some regarded as 'soft options' and others regarded as 'the real thing'. Confused - I am so sorry- but it IS very confusing. One of my daughters spent a year At the Ecole de Commerce in Marseille (on an exchange with Aston Uni). She hated it as it was very snobby and elitist - very BCBG (bon chic bon genre = Sloany). Both daughters would have done well in either system - much brighter than mum (dad is a medic = good at science!).

anybody out there tried San An. yet?  As he would say 'vieux motard que j'aimais'  (mieux vaut tard que jamais!).

just call him your 'filleul' - In the UK I've always refused to be godmother for the same reasons stated above! In France/Switzerland I'm 'marraine' to a few. the 2 children I consider to be  'filleul/filleule' in the UK, I jokingly call my 'earthlings'... as they quite like it, that's OK.

be very careful with wedding invitations! In France it is customary for Faire Part de mariage to be sent to all friends of the family, however distant to 'announce' the wedding - if you are invited, an insert will be added. The family usually prints 2 inserts, 1 to ask lots of people to the 'aperitif' and 1 for the more select group who would be invited for the whole caboodle! A colleague from my school received a Faire Part from the French teacher who used to organise the students' exchange with me. He travelled to Normandy for the event... they were very surprised to see him and his wife! They were most welcomed, but a bit embarrassed when they realised they were in fact gate crashing!

bonne chance Betty- have a good laugh - if you can understand, that is!

by the way Emmenthal is a lovely region of Switzerland. they do make excellent cheese - but the stuff made under that name in France is just like welliboots on a bad day, chewy and tasteless. In USA when you buy anything with cheese, they always ask "cheddar or Swiss?' and my answer always is ' if you can get me Cheddar or Swiss, I'll happily have either. Otherwise I'll just have the tasteless stuff as usual!.

it took me ages to learn that the expression isn't ' I can't be ASKED' - very embarrassing when the 'penny dropped' (kids in my class explained, when I used the expression in the middle of a lesson!)

looking at another thread (bad feelings) I was surprised the word  ars**d got through moderators. Remeined me of the lesson when after trying 3 different tape recorders to play A GCSE listening practice exam, I gave up and told the kids 'Sorry, I just can't be asked to get another one- we will do something else!' They were amazed and told me 'Miss you can;t say that!'   That day I got a language lesson.

speak French - never mind the grammar - but 'communicate' - same for integration thread- by the way why can't I write  c U l   on this site without being ***   but arsed goes through no prob?

we are definitely not talking literature here... but one way to test for your colloquial/vernacular/slang French is to TRY and read any of the 1000s of San Antonio series (police series) - warning you, it can be rude- but very funny (once in a while) - if you can understand the linguo, you are definitely bilingual. His English is quite tortuous too    un p'tit beurre des touyoux (Happy bd to you) dans le c  U  L  Paris Match (thank u v. much)   etc.   Anybody tried yet? 

Hi Betty - in 'my' 6th Form, many students mixed A'Levels with NVQs or other Business courses quite happily. It's amazing that just across a bit of water - we encounter an education system so vastly different to our own. And yes the UK A'Level system is unique in the world - with all it's advantages and disadvantages. Friends who teach engineering in France and Germany can;t believe how low the level on Brit students is, who often don;t have a grasp of basic physics. another friend who teaches trainee GPs (himself a product of our Grammar schools) - says the level of basic knowledge of current students is lowering every year. But yes, the UK system is much better generally at ' making students think for themsleves, and allowing students to mix academic and vocational courses in order to get tailored education for the individual, rather than one size fits all. Still haven't heard about parents bringing up their kids in France post 16. what are your experiences out there? And yes, it is a FASCINATING subject - and shows how travelling opens your eyes to very different ways of doing things, that we had previously completely taken for granted and considered 'normal'.

quite true though that the French system is much better (!) at piling knowledge is students' brains followed by 'regurgitation' - whereas the UK system places more (intelligent) emphasis on getting students to think and analyse (but perhaps at the detriment of basic essential knowledge) for themselves. Certainly as a child the UK system would have suited me much better. I had a student from rouen university recently whose only oral exam at the end of the first year was to read a text in phonetics. No conversation, no text analysis, no opinion or debate skills!

any experiences from parents of older kids in France??? It would be a shame if this thread is only discussed by experienced teachers...

the way to distinguish between a woman and a lady is how she behaves ... with her family, her friends, her community, the world, and I'm not even talking about 'manners' here, but about attitude. do you mean to say that a man should be judged on the quality of his suit? Thank goodness my doctor is a poor dresser but with a great brain and a great heart.

if only we could take the best of both systems - and actually manage to help all students achieve the best of what they have got to offer! What a great thing students in the Uk can continue to achieve great things even if they are not academic in the traditional sense. but what a shame our talented linguists who want ot do medicine or vet. med. etc, have to drop languages at 15/16. they don;t even date continue for AS, as they worry languages are such a hard subject that this would take too much time away form sciences, where they have to achieve very high grades to get into Uni. And such a shame too that subjects like history and geography struggle to get numbers - when these subjects would really help understand the world we live in better. Fascinating too that philosophy or even Latin are such an important subjects in France, and yet unknown in the UK (bar a couple of 'public' schools). And what a shame (i feel) that so many 'unis' in France are totally private and only acessible to the rich - like Engineering schools and Business Schools. At least in the UK students who work hard and who are talented do have access to all unis, including Oxbridge (even if they often don;t apply!)

a climbing hydrangea? Can take a while to properly establish, but then will look after itself and is evergreen.

having been born and bred in France and Switzerland - and after 38 years in the UK, including 25 years teaching in several schools in the 10-19 age range- the main differences are at Post 15/16. A friend of mine who teaches design in Berlin, and another from an art school in Prague- both asked why in the UK we have so many talented young musicians, designers, artists, etc - and they were amazed to hear that in the UK students on do 2 years at A'Level, and only 4 subjects in year 12 (3 until v. recently) and 3 for A'Level. that means that students who are not scientific or linguists, can continue to study post 15/16 in only their favourite, or 'best at' subjects. In no other country I know of can students specialise so early - and chose only art subjects, or only sciences, or only languages- or so called 'soft options' like psychology, sociology, Business, etc (I personally don;t believe these are actually soft options - results are often very poor as students just do not have the maturity to understand those subjects in depth). There are great advantages in the UK system - as an inability to grasp physics or German for instance, does not prevent you from going into further Ed. A friend's daughter in Switzerland is currently in total crisis- she is an extemely talented violinist and singer, but she needs the BAC to enter the Conservatoire - failed twice by 1/2 point in maths one year, and 1/2 in German the next. When I was on a teacher exchange in East Berlin, 2 students from the Gymnasium (6th form college) did a Thelma and Louise from the top of the high rise school as they had failed their first year. i shall never forget that. On the other hand, we are creating scientists who never study anything but science from the age of 16 - and perhaps have little empathy with others. For the past 8 years I have been hosting small groups of students for English language courses from all over Europe. All of them were shocked that students here only study 4 then 3 subjects at A'Level. A couple of them decided to take a year out to come and study here for one year so they could become bi-lingual and really enjoy studying only subjects they like. As my last (state) school has a boarding house, this was possible- parents only paying for the boarding and not for the schooling. They both really enjoyed the experience. In France, Germany, and all other European countries - it is just not possible to go on to Uni without a pass in all subjects. If you gave me a post stamp to write on, I wouldn't be able to remember one thing from chemistry or physics- but I would have loved the opportunity to study Spanish or Italian instead, or indeed one of the soft options mentionned above. How do you feel your children will fare with the full BAC system?

thought this thread would compare UK and French TV. UK TV is far far superior, or at least has been until recently- with too many voyeuristic reality shows. Let's hope the BBC will continue to produce amazingly high quality series, documentaries, etc. And even the advertising in the UK is of far greater quality, satyrical, funny, compared to the 'OMO lave plus blanc' style. And I shall never get used to watching great British film dubbed in French - unbearable. Hope (for once) some of you will agree with me!