Errrr... I don't know which title to put on my message!!!
Well, after "hello", "heyhey", I think I will have used all the different manners of greeting you on this blog. I receive some comments about it sometimes, and I'm very glad about it. I know who they come from, it's better to have few messages from people you like than tons of posts from people you don't know. So, thank you very much for giving me reasons to continue... Today was a calm day, on the whole. My chief picked me up at the compound and drove me to the FR center, where I spent the whole morning. During this time, he went to the travel company to buy his ticket to go back to Riyadh. Today, French pupils who live abroad had their first exam at high school, and began with philosophy. His son is among those pupils, so it was normal that he goes back to Riyadh and encourage him. We spent 3 very interesting days, my chief and I, he gave me some instructions about how to run the center, about the objectives in terms of communication, partnerships with companies, advertisments in newspapers... There are a lot of things to do, above the mere act of "teaching" and this dimension gives a very interesting dimension to my job. I am free about taking initiatives, contacting companies, schools, educational institutions in FR.. This center will become what I want it to be, so on the one hand it raises a lot of excitment, and on the other, it supposes to develope a high sense of responsibility. It will help me to become more mature... I don't want to fail it. The responsible of Cultural office, in the FR embassy of Saudi Arabia, had been hesitating for a long time between closing the center and leaving him a last chance to survive. I think I want to take this chance and make this Center not only a language school, but a cultural center, a kind of tool for local schools and companies whose purposes are to cooperate with FR institutions. The demand for FR lectures is high, according to the phonecalls I receive, as far from the side of man as from the side of women. Saudi express a real motivation and interest for FR language and, furtherly, for higher education : it would be a shame to waste this demand... What do you think about this?
I'm very glad to talk with local people on the phone and to invite them at the office for a tea or coffee, it's the occasion to have a nice conversation about their expectations, linguistically speaking, and also culturally, by the way. In general, they are shy, they say 2 or 3 FR words, expressions in a sentence, to show you that they are interested in what you do, and that they would like to learn more. I spend nice moments at my office, sending some faxes to France, to Saudian companies to let them know about my new project. People are coming and going, I already have the impression that it's living, at least a little bit. What I would like, it is to leave a good and sincere impression to the visitors, so that they can talk around them. I would like to set a system of sponsorship, so that people thanks to whom new people come to register would be rewarded, I don't know yet the way I would do that, but not necessarily by doing a commercial special offer : rather by thinking about an intelligent way to catch their interest.. I keep this topic "under my elbow" ;) The main objective, of course, is to have as much people as possible in the courses.. But I don't want to favour the commercial aspect, i'm not interested in that. I want people to feel good by coming to the Center, both feeling at home and abroad. As the region is known for its very high production of Oil, it would be good to create some partnerships between the companies and the French Institute of Oil, for example, that proposes some very high education in this area... Everything is possible!
For the moment, I'm feeling good where I am. I visited the owners of the neighbour shops, as my office is inside a mall, and had some cool conversation with them. There are different types of shops, which is interesting : offices of educational information, restaurants, clothes shops, candy shops... They all greeted me very kindly. I admit that the position of the "white foreigner" makes me feel uneasy, although I can't get rid of it I need to show that I'm here to work "with" them, and not only "next to" them. Integration is important to me, even though I am quite realist about it, I don't have utopical expectations. At least, I have to try! The secretary who works in the office is really kind, he's going to help me to find a car. Today, I told him that I needed to leave the office because I was a bit hungry, he proposed me to call Mc Donald's... and finally went there for me, although I felt embarrassed. I don't want to command anyone, hierarchy is not something that will cross the door of "my" center.
At night, i'm living in the compound, where there are some important (quantitatively speaking) communities of people from France and Lebanon. The day before yesterday, we played Scrabble altogether and I was amazed by the deep knowledge of FR language that people from Lebanon have. To get back to my temporary living place, i'm very happy and quite sad at the same time. Eric, the Latin&greek professor who invites me, is really welcoming and helpful. I enjoy talking with him about anything, jobs, conditions of living abroad, our respective lives in FR. The sad thing is that soon, I will have to find a place to live in outside the compound.. not that I am afraid, it's true that the idea of living downtown is exciting, but still, the Fr community is nice here and I will miss the compound, for sure. I'm still thinking about a present for Eric.Tomorrow in the morning, I'll visit the French school, which has been proposed to me several times so far. This place is also a potential partner in the activity of the FR center : its director looks interested in the running of the center, we will probably soon talk about settling the female lectures inside the FR school. I'll also contact the teacher for women, we need to work together on the way we will communicate. My boss told me that she just "teaches", I think we'll reconsider her status and give her some little more tasks in terms of communication about the center.
Wow.. I thought I wouldn't have that many things to tell today, it seems that this post is longer than the previous ones. I can't promise that I will write so much everyday, but I'll do my best to update the blog as much as possible. Now i'm thinking of a picture to publish with this message. Oh, and one more thing, I admit that it's not easy to publish pictures, but anyway I managed to find a solution.. not the easiest one. Now, you can have a look at this URL, if you want to see some pictures : http://martiello.free.fr/web/index.htm I will also put this link as a permanent one, on the blog, above Google News. Try to look at them sometimes, if you wish !
Have a good night, feel free to leave messages and questions...
I'm very glad to talk with local people on the phone and to invite them at the office for a tea or coffee, it's the occasion to have a nice conversation about their expectations, linguistically speaking, and also culturally, by the way. In general, they are shy, they say 2 or 3 FR words, expressions in a sentence, to show you that they are interested in what you do, and that they would like to learn more. I spend nice moments at my office, sending some faxes to France, to Saudian companies to let them know about my new project. People are coming and going, I already have the impression that it's living, at least a little bit. What I would like, it is to leave a good and sincere impression to the visitors, so that they can talk around them. I would like to set a system of sponsorship, so that people thanks to whom new people come to register would be rewarded, I don't know yet the way I would do that, but not necessarily by doing a commercial special offer : rather by thinking about an intelligent way to catch their interest.. I keep this topic "under my elbow" ;) The main objective, of course, is to have as much people as possible in the courses.. But I don't want to favour the commercial aspect, i'm not interested in that. I want people to feel good by coming to the Center, both feeling at home and abroad. As the region is known for its very high production of Oil, it would be good to create some partnerships between the companies and the French Institute of Oil, for example, that proposes some very high education in this area... Everything is possible!
For the moment, I'm feeling good where I am. I visited the owners of the neighbour shops, as my office is inside a mall, and had some cool conversation with them. There are different types of shops, which is interesting : offices of educational information, restaurants, clothes shops, candy shops... They all greeted me very kindly. I admit that the position of the "white foreigner" makes me feel uneasy, although I can't get rid of it I need to show that I'm here to work "with" them, and not only "next to" them. Integration is important to me, even though I am quite realist about it, I don't have utopical expectations. At least, I have to try! The secretary who works in the office is really kind, he's going to help me to find a car. Today, I told him that I needed to leave the office because I was a bit hungry, he proposed me to call Mc Donald's... and finally went there for me, although I felt embarrassed. I don't want to command anyone, hierarchy is not something that will cross the door of "my" center.
At night, i'm living in the compound, where there are some important (quantitatively speaking) communities of people from France and Lebanon. The day before yesterday, we played Scrabble altogether and I was amazed by the deep knowledge of FR language that people from Lebanon have. To get back to my temporary living place, i'm very happy and quite sad at the same time. Eric, the Latin&greek professor who invites me, is really welcoming and helpful. I enjoy talking with him about anything, jobs, conditions of living abroad, our respective lives in FR. The sad thing is that soon, I will have to find a place to live in outside the compound.. not that I am afraid, it's true that the idea of living downtown is exciting, but still, the Fr community is nice here and I will miss the compound, for sure. I'm still thinking about a present for Eric.Tomorrow in the morning, I'll visit the French school, which has been proposed to me several times so far. This place is also a potential partner in the activity of the FR center : its director looks interested in the running of the center, we will probably soon talk about settling the female lectures inside the FR school. I'll also contact the teacher for women, we need to work together on the way we will communicate. My boss told me that she just "teaches", I think we'll reconsider her status and give her some little more tasks in terms of communication about the center.
Wow.. I thought I wouldn't have that many things to tell today, it seems that this post is longer than the previous ones. I can't promise that I will write so much everyday, but I'll do my best to update the blog as much as possible. Now i'm thinking of a picture to publish with this message. Oh, and one more thing, I admit that it's not easy to publish pictures, but anyway I managed to find a solution.. not the easiest one. Now, you can have a look at this URL, if you want to see some pictures : http://martiello.free.fr/web/index.htm I will also put this link as a permanent one, on the blog, above Google News. Try to look at them sometimes, if you wish !
Have a good night, feel free to leave messages and questions...
