Language course day 1
Today was the first day of my language course. I've signed up with Eurocentres in Lausanne to improve my French and started today - first impressions are that they're pretty organised. I was able to start today having signed up on Friday, and the morning had the air of being something they've done many times before.
I arrived there at 0830 as directed (they seem to kick off at this ungodly hour of the morning, unfortunately) and wandered around for a while looking lost until a staff member gave me a pad of paper, asked whether I wanted a bag[1] (I did not) and shepherded me into a room full of around 30 people all sitting around, waiting for something to happen. The something turned out to be removing us in groups corresponding to our initial self-assessment of ability, after which we spent a merry couple of hours engaged in tests.
The actual teaching today was fairly minimal, limited to a token half-hour question/answer session around the room which was probably more so people didn't go away irritated that nothing had happened than for actual educational value. I was slightly alarmed at the tone being set by them taking us on an hour-long whistle-stop tour of Lausanne town centre (I can do that myself, thankyou: this course isn't cheap and I was rather hoping for more language education and less "fun") but it quickly became apparent that, once the tests had been completed, time was being killed before we start again in more appropriate classes tomorrow. This bodes rather more optimistically.
[1] You see these all the time in Cambridge - a cluster of blue rucksacks is best avoided, especially if they are mounted on bicycles when they're rather prone to sudden chaotic motion, posing something of a hazard to other road users.
I arrived there at 0830 as directed (they seem to kick off at this ungodly hour of the morning, unfortunately) and wandered around for a while looking lost until a staff member gave me a pad of paper, asked whether I wanted a bag[1] (I did not) and shepherded me into a room full of around 30 people all sitting around, waiting for something to happen. The something turned out to be removing us in groups corresponding to our initial self-assessment of ability, after which we spent a merry couple of hours engaged in tests.
The actual teaching today was fairly minimal, limited to a token half-hour question/answer session around the room which was probably more so people didn't go away irritated that nothing had happened than for actual educational value. I was slightly alarmed at the tone being set by them taking us on an hour-long whistle-stop tour of Lausanne town centre (I can do that myself, thankyou: this course isn't cheap and I was rather hoping for more language education and less "fun") but it quickly became apparent that, once the tests had been completed, time was being killed before we start again in more appropriate classes tomorrow. This bodes rather more optimistically.
[1] You see these all the time in Cambridge - a cluster of blue rucksacks is best avoided, especially if they are mounted on bicycles when they're rather prone to sudden chaotic motion, posing something of a hazard to other road users.