A sporting deviation

I am not the world's greatest athlete.  I never really enjoyed playing football on frozen pitches at school, watching as the school superstar dribbled the ball past me.  So it was somewhat of a surprise to find myself roped into becoming a rugby coach for the local children's rugby team.  My son had decided he wanted to play rugby, and as I was going to have to take him every week, I thought I might as well make myself useful.  I attended a training course and learnt to talk the talk, and walk the walk.  I have always preferred watching rugby to watching football so it was not too hard.

One result of my volunteering is that I am mercilessly ribbed every time there is an international tournament.  The French people, like their symbol the cockerel, like to crow loudly.  During these sessions I remain non-committal and wait to see what happens at the actual game.  Unfortunately the premature English team exit from the last World cup was a significant low point.  I am not completely innocent though as my son and I sport English jerseys whenever possible.  I also play on my Irish and Welsh ancestry to ensure that I have three chances of supporting the winning side.  So I was most pleased this weekend when Scotland beat the French team, even I cannot claim any Scottish blood.  The Scottish victory was particularly faced with the over confidence of the French before the game.  Now even if the French beat England this weekend, and I hope they do not, England has won the six nations.   However the French will do all they can to win, since beating England would be compensation for them, and for some would even be better than winning the six nations.

One thing I find interesting in all this is the nationalities of the different coaches.  The best performing sides have Southern hemisphere coaches, while Italy and France both have French coaches.  I am not proud of this; England's dismal performance in the World cup was under an English coach.  Is there, as the All Black's coach suggested, something wrong in Northern hemisphere rugby?

Personally I find the French style of aggressive contact rugby, concentrating on big, heavy players problematic.  During the last World cup both Australia and New Zealand combined speed and strength.  Both these nations play a lot of touch rugby, to develop speed and agility.  Touch rugby is not popular in France and my local team scoffs at any suggestion we play it.  Watching a big New Zealand forward break through the French defence and score a try seemed to suggest that working on speed and agility is just as important as impact.

There is another problem however and that is the popularity of foreign players in national leagues.  Racing Metro recently recruited Dan Carter, the All Blacks fly half star, with an annual salary of £1.3 million.  Dan Carter, at 34, is not a young man and this move is clearly financial, the problem is that he takes the place that could be used by a young French player.  This situation is not rare in France.  Some years ago Grenoble rugby club shook things up, firing French players and bringing in Southern hemisphere players.  This means that young players do not get the opportunity to play high-level rugby.  This in turn damages the International side who has to choose from a smaller pool of experienced players, and keeps bringing out players like Mathieu Bastareaud who isn't getting any younger.  In the Southern hemisphere league sides play national players providing a strong talent base for their international sides.   There is little opportunity or financial incentive for European players to play in the Southern hemisphere and push out local players.

In my humble opinion European rugby needs to take a leaf out of the Southern hemispheres book.  Train all-rounders who can combine speed, power and fitness, and give priority to local players coming up through rugby schools.

President Hollande attacked at the Salon d'Agriculture

Poor old President Hollande he cannot seem to do anything right.  This week he visited the 'Salon d'Agriculture'.  Traditionally the Presidential visit has big symbolic implications showing support for the powerful farming lobby.  President Chirac was a master at wooing the farmers.  He spent hours comfortably shaking dirt encrusted hands, admiring the livestock and seemed completely at ease with this world away from the ornate Elysée Palace.  President Sarkozy was much less comfortable when his turn came.  His visits were rapid, and awkward photo-shoots with livestock did not help his already low popularity.
However President Hollande has managed to outdo his predecessor.  He was greeted by booing farmers, some of whom shouted out 'resign'.  He looked small, nervous and out of his element as his ministers and bodyguards tried to push through the angry crowds.  The farmers, like many in France today, are not happy.  The supermarket chains are using their monopoly power to reduce the price they pay for farm produce, and thereby squeezing farmers profit margins.  At the same time government taxes on employers remain high, as for every other sector in the French economy.  Farms, in this country so proud of its "terroir", are going out of business and some farmers have even committed suicide.  The government, and more particularly President Hollande, are being accused of doing nothing.
To be fair there is a law going through Parliament concerning pricing in supermarkets, but we do not know the details and nobody is convinced it will change things.  President Hollande has also promised to reduce government taxes on employers, but here again we lack details.  There is, however, another problem that governments, and not just in France, can do little about.  This is the problem of consumer demand, consumers want cheap food.  If French people really supported their farmers they would be prepared to pay that bit extra for good quality, local food.  In reality everybody wants a good deal and we do not really care if it comes from Spain and is sprayed with pesticides, as long as the price is right.  If government legislates to put food prices up they will commit political suicide.
What can poor old President Holland do?

Britexit

I was very disappointed to discover that if one has lived outside the UK for more than fifteen years you are ineligible to vote in the referendum on British exit of the European Union.  February was my fifteenth anniversary of living in France. 
What would I vote, if given the opportunity?  Probably against Britain leaving Europe.  I have personally benefited from the European Union and would feel like a hypocrite voting to leave.  As a student I had the opportunity to study in Europe under the Erasmus program.  Later when my studies were over,  I Interrailed around Europe passing national borders without difficulty.  Then I met a French woman and moved to France in 2001.  I was able to quickly and, fairly, easily start work and set up home.  All this thanks to British membership (with numerous opt outs) of the European Union.  How could I vote for Britain to leave Europe and deny the same opportunities to future generations?
In my opinion too much emphasis has been put on the economic consequences of European Union at the expense of the cultural and social benefits, but then again I have never really understood Economics.  I think that the European Union is a brave experiment.  Of course it is never going to be easy getting diverse cultures and languages to live together.  But surely trying to live and work together is better than the centuries of war that raged in Europe before. 
So I am disappointed that I can not vote in this referendum, but I console myself with the feeling that the presence of Britain in Europe is so important that the British people will vote to stay.  And anyway nothing will change for me personally.  A few years ago I took French nationality, careful to ensure I could also keep my British nationality.  I also registered my childrens' births in the UK, giving them the chance to choose their nationality later.  I did this partly to enable me to vote in French national elections, but also partly because I always suspected that Britain might try to leave the European Union.  At least with dual nationality I might avoid any bureaucratic problems of being a foreign national living in France.

Language changes

There is a lot of press at the moment about plans to change the spelling of certain words, and the dropping of the circumflex accent.  Or as I have always politically incorrectly called them the 'chapeau chinoise', because of its resemblance to a Chinese coolies hat.  I must admit to being a very lazy writer in French, so any simplification of the system is good for me.  However the debate has given rise to some reflections about French education.
I have two kids in the French state system and I have also had some professional experience of how things work.  My first eye opener was working for a technical school that trained young people destined for a career in logistics.  Beyond the fact that the students had no interest in learning English, there was the problem of marking.  Every term the different subject teachers had a meeting to discuss the students’ marks.  Naturally in line with France's democratic principals two student representatives were present at this meeting.  Students are routinely marked out of twenty in France and I had mistakenly given zero to a student I had never even met.  My colleagues were most shocked by this.  It seems that in the French system you can never give zero.  I don't remember what mark was eventually given.  
Later I was asked to examine candidates for the oral part of the Baccalaureate exam.  I had finished with my list of candidates when a colleague asked me to help her with a candidate.  The candidate in question was a giant, Malian who when asked to present the article he had read, as per exam procedure, was able to say 'basketball' and little else in English.  I tried to extract more English from him but quickly realised we weren't going to get anywhere.  The candidate was thanked and left.  Now we had to decide on a mark.  I felt that given his limited oral comprehension and expression we couldn't give more than four or even five, and that was generous.  My colleague, an American who had been living in France for a number of years and clearly knew how things work, didn't agree.  She felt that if we gave him less than nine he would be discouraged.  
After these two experiences I have developed a rule of thumb.  Anything above twelve out of twenty is good and students are generally happy, ten or lower is a disaster and should be used with caution.  We never give less than five and twenty is impossible.
Now at this point you may think I am exaggerating but read on.  Fast-forward fifteen years and my daughter has started college.  She is bilingual having been exposed to English since she was a baby.  Recently she had to make a weather report.  We coached her a little at home but there was really no point.  Then she came home with her mark eighteen point two five out of twenty.  Now this is an excellent mark and any French parent would be over the moon.  But I was curious about the one point seven five that she had lost.  Where did this come from?  She was word perfect at home and would have made a respectable weather girl for the BBC.  Well the explanation was simple, she seemed nervous when she stood up in front of her twenty five adolescent class mates to present the weather.  Of course how silly of me to assume that an English lesson was designed to teach and test your English level.  A could give more examples of strange marking of my daughter's work; like the point lost for naming Ireland as a country when it is in fact the Republic of Ireland, this was in English and not Geography.  However I do not wish to appear a pushy parent.
Now this brings me back to simplifying the French language and the storm that this has created.  In my opinion the French Education system needs deeper reform than just making the spelling of some words easier.  They need to stop measuring students on a scale out of twenty.  Most students are more worried about getting a good mark than actually learning, understanding or even, God forbid, enjoying the subject.  All that changing the spelling will do is lower the overall level, and improve some student’s mark without tackling the real problem of reforming the system.

New Year, new life?

Life can be surprising at times.  As every New Year I have been having a crisis about my life.  I have taught English for 14 years now.  I started teaching by default, as it was an easy way to get a job and start making money.  In recent years I have become tired of endlessly trying to convince the French that they can learn English.  The French know they need to speak English for professional reasons, and for travel; but the global dominance of the language of their historic enemies obliges them to resist any attempts to teach it.  So every year, and sometimes more often, I anguish over what else I could do.  Inevitably I find a reason why I can not do anything but teach.
Then on the second day of the New Year I opened my letter box and unexpectedly found a card from my local mason.  This is not unusual.  French people traditionally send New Year cards rather than Christmas cards; a fact I exploit as an excuse not to send any Christmas cards.  Often tradesmen such as electricians or plumbers send cards to their clients.  What was surprising about the card I received from our mason was the quote over the photograph of a bridge.

"La volonté est un pont qui permet d'aller d'un monde imaginaire vers le monde réel"

Roughly translated: "Willpower is the bridge from the imaginary to the real world."
Sometimes I find motivational quotes pretentious but this one struck a cord with my mood.  It was also curious as I had not imagined my down to earth mason being someone who went in for this type of profound sayings.  Which just goes to show you can never judge people.
Anyway the quote spoke to me and helped shake me out of my holiday stupor.  I already have one ambitious target for this year to train for, and run a 47km Trail race in the mountains.  Now I just need to pin down how I can make a living away from English teaching.  I enjoy writing, reading, spending time in the mountains or in my garden, but none of these seem a realistic way to make a living.  A good friend has been pushing me for a number of years to learn a programming language so maybe this is the way to go.   Whatever happens I will be pinning the mason's New Year card up in my office as a source of inspiration to do something I enjoy.