Hello, thanks for having a look at my blog. I hope this means you are seriously considering studying languages at university, and therefore looking at the incredible opportunity that is spending a year away as part of your studies.
Tadoussac, North of Quebec City
My name is Connor, and my degree is French with Film Studies. When thinking about going to university, whether or not to do languages, at the forefront of my mind was the fact I wanted to leave the UK after completing my degree. Personally, this would mean going to live and work in France, and to do that I knew I would need to get better at french and study and immerse myself in the culture of France.
What I didn’t realise, was that by pursuing my interest in this language and culture I could complete a year in a country entirely different to the one I want to settle in. The opportunity that is the year abroad, allows you to throw yourself out of your comfort zone, meet lots of different people, get better not just at your target language but be exposed to how other people think about things.
More on Canadian Winter later…
These pages are supposed to inspire you to want to embark upon a journey to a part of the world you may know nothing about. It is my experience, my choices and inevitably a glimpse into a narrow path, likely to be very different to your own experience depending on which country or language you choose to focus on. That being said, it should give you a broad outlook on what you can expect from being a Language Assistant, and being in Quebec.
As fantastic as working is, at least in my experience, some of the best and most memorable moments are when traveling around Quebec. In my time I went North to a place called Tadoussac, where people go to see whales. slightly west of there is Saguenay, the Fjord which has a national park. And of course, Montreal and Quebec City.
Bit more of a personal one, but equally very important to my experience. Being in Quebec also means being close to the US border, which in my case meant trips to visit my great uncle in Vermont. I took my new friends I met on the program (a great way to get people to like you more is to invite them to america), and then went down for thanksgiving and even hosted him up in what he considers the “uninhabitable Tundra”
Spot the more battered Quebec-mobile
Thanksgiving table
People come from all over to see the leaves change colour
Choosing to be a language assistant in Quebec means that you will be on the school calendar, which means school holidays. I was lucky enough to meet one of the monitors from the anglo-Canadian equivalent of our program called “Odyssey”. Together, we visited Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.
CN Tower, Toronto
It would have been a waste to spend so long in Quebec and not see a little more of Canada, so after a little stay in Montreal I went to see Toronto. On arrival, I had an essay deadline for university, so snuck into the university of Toronto Library (very exciting) and worked really really hard on it. (even when you’re free you’re not free).
I would never have met my now close friend were it not for being on the Language Assistant program, and it was only thanks to him driving us on a road-trip to the different cities that I got to see so much. He also helped me ice skate, which I can now do for thirty solid minutes before crying from exhaustion, concentration and frustration.
One of the benefits of being a real Working Man for the first time is having money to do as the locals do and go on holiday in the winter. A few people on the language assistants program went home for christmas, but my thinking was that it would just be a less enjoyable, still cold version of Quebec. Thankfully, another assistant who had grown to be a very close friend had the same idea, so we found some cheapish flights to Cuba and saved a bit of our pay and flew over.
Havana ooh na na
I’ve only really included this to emphasise that even though you might think you’re working, and so studying would be a more relaxing option, this is not necessarily the case. And also as a bit of a counter to all my university colleagues who stayed in sunny parts of Europe, still out on terraces drinking wine in October (what), you get lots of free time and you make money to go to cool places if you want.
One of the first hurdles to face was getting the school bus to school. Of course, excited like a pre-schooler, I waited for a big bus of high school kids to roll up. I expected a front seat all the way to my little school half an hour away. Cue an example of the kind of situation whereby it is important to find interest in otherwise trivial things.
All Aboard!
At the high school, we all get off and I wait for my next bus that will take me on the next longer leg of my journey. Ten minutes later, there it is! The 86, driven by a rather weathered and fun sized looking lady, pulls up and offloads it’s snapback and vape wielding horrors onto the unfortunate assistant assigned to the high school.
My rather withering description of Henriette goes to show how first impressions are almost always false. I find out i will be alone, with my two (later three) different bus drivers going to and from school. The obvious, being that we are in the daily situation of each others unique company , is that a strong friendship, familiarity and comfort with one another would develop. Less anticipated were the various journeys to be undertaken before eventually arriving at school.
If I clean the windows, you change the oil?
Some mornings we go to the Depot. Most mornings, in fact. It was only after our relationship had blossomed, that I was finally invited in to the little office where the drivers congregate. Exchange stories of students lighting one another on fire, and meet me. Peculiar, their glances seemed to say, that he should be in our little warehouse office. Actually I think this was the least interesting of our little pre journey pauses. We went to her gym. Well I didn’t go to her gym. Thankfully the Canadian equivalent of Dunk the Donut is never very far away. I’ve still got my loyalty card for the surplus bread shop. One free loaf for every sixteen purchases, I was never going to make the most of it. Nevertheless, Henriette made sure that if she was going to ferry me around Saint Georges every morning, I was going to understand the importance of economising. In fact, did you know that in Canada all of the discount magazines and advertising is put into one convenient sack? Neither did I, until we stopped to pick up a couple, and have it explained that; if you take a Walmart voucher to Maxi, you can save one dollar twenty five on margarine. I don’t even like margarine.
Michel will stop for his cigarette even in -20
The buses are equally offered to those people unable to drive, and this was a rather unique opportunity to discuss and understand the key role some of the industries in Saint Georges provide for these people with difficulties. Our frank discussions about the unfortunate girl with a degenerative disease, and the sorrow expressed by Henriette discussing her longing for the farming and land based life of her childhood, coupled with her admission that most drivers, herself included, suffer heart related issues were all things I would never have experienced driving a car. So perhaps the message here should be that having a car is essential.
Out of all the British Language Assistants my school is the best. Everybody probably thinks that, but in my case it’s true. It’s a small primary school in the more rural, and quite Southern USA styled part of Quebec called Beauce.
Saint Georges’ very impressive Cathedral
Some history about the nearby town of Beauceville
This photogenic bridge makes you wonder why there isn’t an equivalent for “Passerelle” in English
I work with children from grades 3 to 6, and the nature of the job means it’s both fulfilling and fun. I’ve had classes where I introduced them to what I never knew was a British tradition of tea-staining to make a book of Dragons. I’ve made fortune tellers, to practice using future tenses with the older kids. Recently I tried to get them talking about and into music other than Rock and Country, but Drum and Bass and Classical Indian music just made them cover their ears and pretend to be sick. At that age, you’re mostly there to try and make them think English is interesting, and to give the kids an opportunity to speak what they know.
Don’t remember lego sorting in the job description
My colleague and friend Mr Jean would be lost without our decorative skills
I am dressing as Twilight lá
Decorating the English door with a nightmare inducing Santa and letters to Mr Claus himself
Little Quebecois kids are notoriously difficult to enthuse when it comes to English, but did I have fun trying. I’m not kidding they run about, throw pink fluffy dice at your head, comment on the terrible haircut you had to get because you didn’t know barber specific vocabulary (Clippers are called Clippeurs by the way), but when they get excited as you arrive at the class to take them out for a bit of English practice it all feels worth it.
With the long journey back to England looming, it seems impossible that nine months has passed. Making this blog for the languages department has had the unexpected effect of really causing me to reflect on the different stages of the year. It would be a lie to say that the journey has been unrelentingly blissful, and therefore easy, but reminiscing now after assembling the chronicle of my adventures it is clear that the whole process was worth it.
Despite being told throughout the build up to university years how it will be the best time of your life, and as true as that may turn out to be, what is often not conveyed to prospective students is that this is very much still a time of personal growth and change. Spending a year away as part of your studies is no different. The main challenge you will face is that of being open to having your views, understanding and tolerance changed and tested. For me, these challenges materialised in the form of adapting to being far away from my family, and co-habiting with people of wider backgrounds and cultures than those even of my university friends. My advice will always be that you should do something very different for your year away, technology means that people are only an internet call away, and you will develop far more than just your language skills.
Language Assistant Quebec 