While study abroad is a popular program for UR undergraduates, plenty of opportunities exist after graduation as well. This week, we invited Jenna Katz ’07 to share some highlights from her recent experience working in France.

I moved to France for a year following graduation to teach English to elementary school children, ready to more fully embrace French culture in a way that was impossible as a student studying abroad during my junior year. By living with a French student and working in French schools, I was excited that I would finally have authentic “French” experiences. I never could have predicted, however, that it would be my students who would provide the most consistent reminder that my “Frenchness” was imperfect, no matter how much I thought I fit in.

The younger kids were mostly well behaved, and even though they didn’t always listen very well, they never intentionally pointed out my differences. While the emphasis on their English education was not on writing or spelling, sometimes the teachers would ask me to write the words next to the images that they had just learned. As someone who writes in print rather than script 99.9 percent of the time, I never thought to embrace the other .1 percent. French children, however, are taught from a young age to write in perfect script (better than I am capable of at age 24) and found my use of print to be intriguing. One day, as the general classroom teacher walked around to check their work, she questioned a student as to why she wrote in print. She responded, “I’m writing in American, like Jenna.”

Controlling my classrooms was not always easy, especially when my supporting teacher would view English class as the perfect opportunity to make their photocopies or have a coffee. Because the kids had a rather low English level, I had to teach English through extensive explanations in French. In order to command the class and teach effectively, I often tried to mimic some of the disciplinary phrases that I heard their other teachers use. On more than one occasion, I found myself standing in front of a classroom of 35 screaming children, but after I had courageously used these terms that had previously yielded success for their teachers, I would find their screams replaced by uncontrollable laughter at my pronunciation of their language. Sometimes a student would be audacious enough to correct me, while at other times they would just laugh. Somehow, I never managed to allow myself to laugh with them.

My “Americanness” was not only evident to my students in my handwriting, accent, and vocabulary choices, but also in the way that I celebrated holidays. I thought that the kids would enjoy using their new vocabulary by writing Valentine’s Day cards to their classmates; an activity which they found extremely bizarre. A couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day, my French boyfriend and I broke up and another friend asked me shortly thereafter to go out with him on Valentine’s Day. I presumed that he was just being a nice friend and did not want me to be alone on Valentine’s Day. During my Valentine’s lesson, however, on the actual day, my kids explained to me that in France the day is never between friends, only those who are in love, which is why writing cards to their friends was not a normal exercise. At that point, I could not cancel my date that was only a few hours later, but could only prepare myself for the evening that was to come.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to work in France was one of the best decisions that I have made, as it not only taught me much about French culture and improved my command of the language, but it also challenged me and taught me more about myself than I could have imagined. For more information about working or studying abroad following graduation, please contact the Center for Study Abroad.