I have to say that the style of teaching over here, or at least one of my professor's particular styles of teaching, has proven to be quite a challenge for me. It has definitely been a learning and a growing experience to say the least, especially since the material that we're learning is very complicated French grammar. A friend of mine today called it "grammar theory" and I think that he was quite accurate in that. I'm learning to properly use verb tenses that I'd never even heard of before, let alone used! I'm also learning that no matter how long I've studied French, I can still most definitely use grammar lessons.
Unfortunately, the grammar lessons that I'm receiving, I sometimes have a hard time processing because I get so frustrated. The particular professor who teaches grammar (as opposed to my writing/culture professor) has a very caustic teaching style. And by caustic, I mean sometimes downright mean. I have learned to take criticism better since I've been in college and have learned that I am, in fact, definitely not "all that and a bag of chips" the way that I once thought...however, this type of in-your-face criticism can be a bit much for me to handle. Enough beating around the bush, here are some examples:
If you raise your hand to answer a question, and your answer isn't correct, he very bluntly says "Non!" (no) and moves right along on to the next person. Sometimes, he emphatically answers "Impossible!" instead. Other times he says "petit oui" which means sorta-kinda. There are also usually not-terribly-nice faces that accompany said phrases. Yesterday in class I made a mistake from which he inferred that I did not know anything about the differences between two very basic French verb tenses and then spent 15 minutes telling the whole class what the differences were for "my benefit".... Also, today, he corrected a very challenging grammar exercise that I had done alright on and then asked if he could tell me something that wasn't very nice. I said that I supposed so, and proceeded to tell me that only half of my mistakes were legitimate mistakes and that the other half were just stupid. Ummm, right, I saw that, however, I didn't need the whole class to hear it...
There is a silver lining to this rant of a post, though! Today, after class, he came to my desk and told me that he could tell that I was stressed by the way he was approaching me. I told him that I just wasn't accustomed to his teaching style and that it was hard for me to adjust. He then said that he saw a lot of potential in me and that if he didn't he wouldn't hound on me the way that he does. He also said that if it ever got too much for me, all I have to do is say so, and he'll stop for the day. What a relief! (Slash almost compliment)
No comments:
Post a Comment