MICAI M1 22-23
Hi everyone, welcome to the MICAI programme and to the liaison interpretation French-English class in particular. This class is run by two people, Martine Fade (martine.fade@uha.fr) and myself, Ellen Chew-Jolley (ellen.jolley@uha.fr) both from the English department of the FLSH on the Illberg Campus.
We have been working at the FSESJ at the Fonderie for nearly twenty years now, mostly in the MICAI programme in interpretation. Martine is a true linguistic hybrid, one of the most bi-lingual people I know; as for me, (Ellen) I am just a ‘parvenue’, originally from England having lived in Alsace for 38 years with acceptable French and long forgotten English. So Martine usually deals with the French side of things and I deal with the English stuff, but you will find us chopping and changing languages….. as all true schizophrenics do!!
We center the classes around the idea of a debate, in which people can support one or more ideas or notions, argue, dissent, agree with or question another person’s statements. Of course, you may wish to express an opinion which differs fundamentally from your own convictions : this is an interesting intellectual exercise, used far and wide in the world of business….we suggest you adopt a persona or a profile which can help with this. ‘Father Martin(e)’ or ‘Jean-Marie’, or ‘Jean-Luc’ or ‘Germaine’…..this is theatre where you can be anything, male, female, or trans, black or white, old or young, a priest, a prostitute or a pundit…for an hour. It all dissolves as you go through the door. No-one remembers anything! It’s theatre….
Our classes are usually scheduled for the Monday morning slot for M1 students (check this on ADE the planning webpage found on the UHA e-services). Each year group will be divided into 2 : TD1 and TD2. Because there are sometimes other language classes in parallel, we have divided you not alphabetically but according to your language choices to avoid a timetable clash.
This class where we debate should be fun (we hope so!) but also a place where you can learn more vocabulary and expressions to make your English not just accurate but elegant. This should be a means of enriching your form and content use of English to be used elsewhere, most probably in your professional life. Participation is everything; we expect you to join in without being prodded even if you are shy by nature. Your levels of English may vary; OK, that’s natural, but in participating, noting down expressions and learning, you will make progress.
So here is a list of topics chosen by you and us to debate upon in Semester 2, starting in January 2023:
- Introduction and setting-up of the class Ellen/Martine
- Peut-on séparer l’artiste de son œuvre?? Basse / Roberta
- Est-ce que la culture du pays influence le comportement de ses habitants? Adama.
- Pour ou contre la fermeture des Zoos? Hawa / Yannick
- Est-ce que le feminisme profite toujours aux femmes? Camillia
- Is it better to leave or be left? Zaccaria / Nicoletta
- Le passé d’une personne influence-t’il notre façon de la voir? Mario
- Est-ce que nos action ont rapport avec nos signes astrologiques? Diana / Omayma
- La vie des parents influence t’elle la vie des enfants? Elda
- What would you choose: time / money / peace of mind? Haiane / Douha
Mulltilingue : Monday XX. 04.2023: Topic to be decided by all staff and students together ; please contact your various Spanish, German and Italian professors and try and define a subject that everyone is happy to debate on. We usually define French as a language we translate into, from your choice of language, either your LV2 or LV3, or a language you have from your family, or from having lived in another country; all you need is a partner who can translate into French from your chosen language. (We will not be translating from French into that language). Over the years we have had students speaking in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Armenian, Albanian, Arabic + North African dialects; Alsacien, Gaelic, Brummie/Black country, Chinese, Japanese, Catalan…. the list is endless. The more unusual your language is, the more the interpretation process become interesting. It’s great fun!!