THE INTERVIEW with Monsieur Davies
“So I taught English as a foreign language to the French students
And I felt leaving Bordeaux as I felt when I first got there - almost like a reversal of homesickness.
The first 4 days before school started, I was homesick. I cried most days and most nights because I was homesick. And this was before Skype, before zoom - this was back in 1990. The first few days it was like ‘fight or flight’. Either I stay here, or I go back. I was the only person from my University who was in Bordeaux. I was on my own. So one day I decided to go to a little bar near the bus station. It was like the Western films with the Saloon doors, and when I walked in, the bar stopped. I felt like a complete stranger. When I started talking, people knew who I was because my French at the time wasn’t Fantastic. It was good, but it was no way near fluent.
I became fluent in French within 9 months. I also became quite fluent with slang. When I started speaking to my tutor, who was a lovely guy, he started to laugh. And when I asked what was wrong he said it was my accent.
“You must be the new teacher…” “Oui, oui, je suis le nouveau professeur d’Anglais, ici au collège” I sat down with a bunch of guys my age and started talking about Football. And this was when Marseilles had Chris Waddle - a very famous English player who played in the World Cup. So it was a really really good time to be an English football fan in France since one of the best players was playing there for 3 years. And then that was it. Within a matter of 2-3 hours I had made several friends, all my age. Within 4-5 days I went from being really homesick to having friends that are still friends - even 30 years later. I spent my entire University life in France with French friends. I would go and see my English friends in Paris occasionally - but I didn’t see many of them.
“What do you mean by my accent?” “It’s beautiful, it’s authentic, it’s like I’m talking to a Bordelais - who has lived in Bordeaux all his life”. I really embraced the French culture and that’s what helped me improve my French. So, I really acquired a very deep cultural sense of France since the time I’ve been a Francophile. But you only get that from totally immersing yourself within that culture. You can’t get that from being a student spending your entire time going out and partying.” So do you think you will give a lot of credit to living in Bordeaux to acquiring French as a language? Like, do you think living there has helped you become as fluent as you are today as opposed to just being a student studying French? “Yeah. Parents ask me about Sixth Form A-Level French, “Will I be fluent in it?” and I say no. I don’t think you can be fluent in French or a language from only having 12 hours a week of French tuition. Unless you have a tutor at home and you totally live in a French speaking environment, you cannot be fluent. As in, I don’t have some of the nuances as a Native would.
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