[WARNING: you might learn some French in the reading of this note]
There is nothing like being a teacher to remind you that you are, inevitably, getting old. Come on, at twenty-eight, really, I did not think I had anything to worry about. Oh boy was I wrong. Facing my lovely year 7 today, I simply got 'patronized' by a bunch of twelve years old. And about the Internet no less! Yes, this thing I am currently on in order to write this very note. Think of it, they also probably assume I don't know what a blog is!
We were learning about activities we can do at the weekend. Here is how it went:
Miss V.: Répétez: Je danse.
La classe: JE DANSE!
MissV.: Je regarde des vidéos.
La classe: JE REGARDE DES VIDEOS!
Miss V.: Je surfe sur Internet.
La classe: JE SURFE...uug?
Miss V. Is there a problem?
La classe: surfing the Internet? What is that m'am?
Miss V: ha ha, is it not what you say? What would you use?
La classe: 'Going on the Internet!' Nobody says 'surfing on the Internet', that's (say in knowing tone) old fashioned....
Point taken. And thinking about it, they are probably right. I haven't heard someone using that expression in a while. Has it become obsolete already? I was priding myself of being a bit of a nerd and now I am apparently not up-to-date with my Internet lingo.
My pupils have got a totally different background than me though. Going back in time when I was their age, Internet had just started to appear. Google did not exist yet and most people did not have a personal computer at home. My dad worked in computers (still does - salut papa!) and every holiday, I had the privilege of spending one day at his job, playing games & using Yahoo search to look up info on my favourite films & to print posters of them. It was an absolute blast and I will always cherish very much those memories when surfing the net (see what I did there?) was special.
However, now, will I use today's incident as an excuse....mmmhh...opportunity to go more on the world wide web? Oui.
