The English Blog

TOEFL iBT

Here in France the computer-based TOEFL (CBT) is being replaced by the internet-based TOEFL (iBT) on 22 October. The main differnece is that the iBT contains a speaking section. For more details, visit the official TOEFL site.

Catalogue your DVDs with Listal

Listal is a new site which allows you to create online catalogues for your DVDs, books and games. There are some really neat features such as tags and Amazon reviews. I've created a list of the DVDs we have here at the ESC Le Havre.

Le concours

Getting into a French business school like the ESC Le Havre is a real 'parcours du combattant', as they say here in France. First of all, candidates sit a series of written exams. They are then interviewed in French (l'entretien) and do an oral test in English and another foreign language. Many candidates (so-called 'prépa' students) will have spent two years preparing specifically for this entrance exam. I've been doing English orals all this week (very tiring!) The candidates have to listen to a dialogue on CD lasting around four minutes based on a current affairs topic. They then give a summary and answer questions from the examiner (that's me!) Hopefully, we'll be seeing some of the better candidates again in September.

Trip to Toulouse

I've been in Toulouse for the last few days recording dialogues for the ESC entrance exam. This is something I've done for longer than I care to remember (OK, about fifteen years, if you really must know). The dialogues are written by teachers from the ESCs and usually based on news stories from the past year. When they come for their English oral exam in June/July, students have to summarise the dialogue and answer questions from the examiner. Each dialogue lasts around three and a half minutes and we recorded around 80 in four days. The 'actors' were all English teachers from Toulouse (apart from me, that is). It was good fun but after four days in the recording studio, I was ready to return to Le Havre.

April Fool's Day

April 1st is April Fool's Day when people in many countries play jokes on each other. In my English for Marketing class, we looked at some of the ways in which companies have fooled their customers. For instance, in 1998 Burger King announced it was introducing a left-handed Whopper. BMW has a tradition of producing April Fool's Day ads. These appear in the press on April 1st only. You can find some examples of these on the BMW website. The Museum of Hoaxes has a list of the Top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes. BBC Online, has some good stuff on the origins of April Fool's Day and a video of the famous spaghetti harvest hoax.

Animal Farm

No, the ESC Le Havre has not transformed itself into an agricultural school. This is just the latest in a series of stunts dreamed up by students hoping to get their team elected at the 'Corpos' (student elections) in April. Every day, a team has the task of decorating and 'animating' the school's 'rue couverte' (covered street). This is often accompanied by loud music. Still, it's good to see such inventiveness being displayed. And don't worry, the animals were safely returned to the farm at the end of the day! Just as well they weren't around yesterday when the students organised a lunchtime barbecue!

Tobacco Ad Gallery

I did a lesson about tobacco marketing with my English for Marketing class yesterday. I got the students to analyse some tobacco ads. It's surprising what the tobacco companies used to get away with. One ad had the slogan "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette." (!)  A good source of tobacco ads is The Tobacco Advertising Gallery where you can search for ads by company, country, brand and ad type. Another excellent ad resource is AdFlip, which lets you search by keyword and by year. Unfortunately, access is restricted unless you become a (paying) member.

English for Marketing Project

I've got two groups of second-year students doing my English for Marketing option. They are going to do a project which involves creating a blog on a marketing theme of their choice. I introduced the project this morning and I must admit it wasn't a great surprise to discover that hardly anyone knew what a blog was. We're using Blogger for this project and by the end of the lesson all the students had made their first post introducing themselves and giving details of their choice of subject. I was amazed when one of them told me later in the day that she had already received a comment from someone in India. That just goes to show the power of the blog as a medium of communication!

Passerelle Exam Preparation

Today and tomorrow we're receiving over 100 potential candidates for entry to the ESC Le Havre in September. These are students currently studying in 'IUTs' (polytechnics), 'lycées' or universities and planning to take the Passerelle entrance exam next month. The idea is to help prepare them for the exam by giving a series of presentations about the various tests. My contribution was a presentation on the English oral test. The complete presentation on the written and oral English tests can be downloaded here: Download Passerelle.ppt

Culture Shock

Today our first year students had the second session in their Cultural Issues module. Visiting professor Raya Nuñez, who is Indonesian and teaches at the University of Utrecht in Holland, explained why culture is like an onion and how to cope with culture shock. Raya and her Columbian husband Carlos have also been teaching on the EBGS course this week. It's great to have such a wealth of multicultural experience to draw on.

   

The Latvian Ambassador

As an introduction to the European Business Graduate Semester, we were pleased to welcome the His Excellency Rolands Lappuke, the Latvian ambassador to France, to talk about his country and its role within Europe. Students on the EBGS course come from countries as far apart as Australia, China and Bolivia, so this was an excellent opportunity for them to find out more about the history of one of the newest members of the EU and the challenges it now faces.
   

A Visitor From Down Under

Tammy Hubycz (pictured below) is a student from Macquarie University in Sydney, one of the Normandy Business School’s partner institutions. Tammy has come to the ESC Le Havre for the European Business Graduate Semester, a four-month course with a focus on international marketing taught entirely in English. After braving the snow for the picture, Tammy kindly agreed to answer some questions about herself.

JH        Could you tell me why you decided to come to France ?

TH        I love France. I’ve been here about five times before, never to Normandy, and when I was looking into Masters courses, I wanted one where you had to come to France as part of it. Macquarie had a double degree with Le Havre, so I chose this one. I’ve finished my Masters at Macquarie now, so once I finish this I’ll have two and then I’m going to stop studying for a while and then go back for my PhD.

JH        You’re from Sydney, I believe.

TH        Yes, originally from Adelaide. I moved to Sydney four and a half years ago. After I came back from London, Adelaide seemed a bit to small.

JH        What are your impressions of Le Havre?

TH        It’s pretty. I love the snow because we don’t get snow in Sydney or in Adelaide. In the mountains of Victoria and in the mountains of New South Wales they get snow but I’ve never been there. Everyone speaks French and I think it’s cute.

JH        Do you speak French?

TH        A little bit. I’ve been trying to learn in preparation for coming here but I found it hard to find French people to talk with back home. I’m hoping that when I go back I’ll have some sort of fluency.

JH        What are you looking forward to doing while you’re here?

TH        Just having a look around. I haven’t visited Normandy yet. I want to see Mont Saint Michel and the Bayeux Tapestry. I have friends in Paris so I’m looking forward to seeing them and I’ve got friends in Germany. Anywhere in Europe it’s easy to catch up with your friends because it’s only a weekend away.

JH        The programme you’re studying on is the European Business Graduate Semester. What are your views on Europe?

TH        I’m very interested in EU enlargement  issues, particularly now that you’re beginning to take in countries that are less developed than some of the original members. I’ll be interested to see how they integrate.

JH        Do Australians tend to take an interest in European issues?

TH        I think because the majority of Australians are only first generation Australians a lot of people are interested in how the enlargement goes. For instance, I’m Ukranian Polish so I’ll be very interested to see how those countries integrate because it opens up a whole new world for us if we get dual citizenship.

JH        What does your family think about you coming to France?

TH        I think they’re used to me moving around now. All of my family’s still in Adelaide and I haven’t been there for about six years. I’ve been to Europe a few times and they’re just happy if I’m happy. And my parents are happy because I have established a career. I’ve worked all the way through my degrees, so they see I’ve got some sort of stability but also the freedom to trek all around the world.

JH        What do you plan to do when you finish your studies?

TH        I want to do something with more of an international focus. At the moment I’m working for an Australian-based energy company. I started work for the government and studied nights for six years to get my first degree, then took some time off, and it’s been two years part-time for my Masters. The reason why I chose Macquarie was so that I could come on the EBGS course.

      

 

Expolangues

I recently made my annual pilgrimage to Expolangues in Paris. We're looking to replace our ageing cassette-based Revox language laboratory (see pic below) with something a bit more up-to-date, so I was interested to have a demonstration of a digital lab with a server which can store up to 240 hours of audio material. Now all we need to do is to find 30 thousand euros. All donations will be gratefully accepted!

 

Barnga

A couple of weeks ago our First Year students had the first session in a new Cultural Issues module which I'm organising. Erika Marsillac, a Texan now living in Nantes, came over to run the Barnga Game and give her thoughts on Franco-American relations. Barnga is a card game designed to increase the participants' level of cultural awareness. The students seemed to enjoy it (thanks Erika!) and it's been very interesting to read the reflections they have made in their follow-up written assignment - even if it's taking me ages to mark the 160 papers! Here's a typical comment:

"I think that this game was a very good example of how people react when they are confronted with foreign cultures. It also reminds me that you have to be open-minded to adapt to another culture."