On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 Martin wrote:

On Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:57:19 +0000, Pam Moore
wrote:

At least he tried to speak their language and not use a translator.
He did better than many English would have done with only school
French (all those years ago!) to depend on!

If he has regularly spent periods in France since he left school, when
he was at school is irrelevant.

Agreed. Monty said at the beginning of each programme (and I suspect
this is going to be the intro for all the programmes in the series)
that, when he was nineteen, he spent six months in Aix. Thus I wonder
why he didn't pick up the Provençal accent. (He also explained at the
same time why he was driving a 2CV which seems to have escaped
everyone's notice!)

All those years ago school French was taught better than now.

Don't agree.

The only thing wrong with the teaching was an
emphasis on grammar and on translating from French to English with
little emphasis on translating from English to French and zero
emphasis on being able to communicate in French.

That was four things - but you're absolutely right (and is what I said
in an earlier message). I don't agree with your blanket assertion that
French was taught better in the old days because it varied greatly from
school to school and from teacher to teacher.

The French were
taught English in a similar manner. Sometime in the 1970s the French
sorted out English teaching, most educated French can communicate in
English and write English well nowadays.

Well, I would strongly disagree with that, having been in French schools
on exchange visits and observed English lessons in the '80s and '90s.
From what I saw it wasn't much better than the way I was taught French
in England in the '50s. And music was even worse (that being my
subject). The music lessons were so bad that I was not allowed to
observe any classes because the teachers could not keep order. And from
what I heard through an open window, music lessons simply consisted of
learning to play tunes on a descant recorder. My last visit was to a
French private school where I *was* allowed into the classroom but it
was just the same except that the discipline was better. The pupils were
not primary school children but 14 - 15 year olds! No wonder they were
bored and played the teachers up!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK