Prakhar Amba is an accomplished photographer and regular contributor to the Grenoble Life Gallery, including these magical ones of Fête de la musique 2009 in Grenoble. The pictures suggested a story, and Grenoble Life invited Prakhar to tell his …

by Prakhar Amba

Whenever I ask the French what they miss most when they visit foreign countries, the most common responses in order of priority are le pain and le fromage. There is never a third response. Now I am an Indian, a country best described by the word ‘diversity’, be it languages, colours, smells, spices or music.  Music is everywhere in India, it is in the loudspeaker playing the latest Bollywood hit, the brass band blaring in a marriage procession, the cacophonous symphony of the tuc tuc’s horn as it criss-crosses the traffic, or the prayers at the banks of holy rivers. Life for us revolves around music. After all, even our Gods are master of their own musical instruments, be it Krishna’s flute or Shiva’s daamru.

Needless to add, the thing about India I miss the most is music. Here in Grenoble, the streets are silent, even the traffic is muted. So I anxiously awaited La fête de la musique on June 21st, and I was not disappointed. But how does one write about music? After all, Victor Hugo said “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent”. Words fail me, but maybe images say it better, for they are stuck forever in the moment when the singer lets go and you are immersed in the note never to escape. So I set off for the centre ville in the pleasant Sunday afternoon on my metro vélo with my camera. The wind blowing in my hair, my ears open to catch any musical notes floating by. And the soft notes of violins pull me to the church next to Place Victor Hugo.

Here a group of children played their violins. Ah violins! There already is something mystical about its curves and the mirrored ‘s’. To behold the sight of kids nimbly working the strings and the accompanying gasps from the parents is quite something. After all, music is not only played by the musician but has to be appreciated by the listeners. It reminded me of a poem by Tagore I read in school which spoke of music being born from the crash of the sea waves (player) on the shore (listener). Music of the wind (player) rustling through the forest (listener) and here before me was the same interplay between the player and the listener.

To add to the magic of the moment was the conductress who, through the swish and swirl of her hands, wove tales of love and despair in the music.

I also found a little cherubin sitting in a corner, practicing her violin with her friends. You know the shot which makes you smile, when you know you captured the moment right. For me it was this. I don’t know the music they played, Vivaldi or Beethoven, it didn’t matter for me. For me a smile played on the faces of everyone present. The performance ended, and endless claps and graces later the group dispersed. The violins are packed in their cases for another day.

I move on to another street where a girl sings enchantingly. She sings in English but music knows no language and it is appreciated by all. She sings jazz, or was it blues or maybe folk? I know not. For me she sung from her heart, she sung of love and longing.

Sometimes I wonder why most of our songs are about love and the most beautiful of them are those of love lost.  Maybe it’s because we as humans fare poorly in expressing our love for another through words that we burst into a song to do the same. No doubt in Bollywood every expression of love is faithfully followed by a song. To say ‘I love you’ to someone for the first time is never going to be easy until you practice it a hundred times, setting it to the tune of your favorite song. Even mystically speaking, Sufism is for instance a facet of Islam in which divine love for God is expressed through music. Similarly with Hindus, the Bhakti tradition is love songs for the mystical lover, Krishna.

And now its time for some punk – around the corner a group plays with the lead singer swaying in her skirt causing the traffic to snarl down while onlookers gulp down glasses of beer. I thought France was more about wine but it seems with music it has to be beer. Music beckons me to move forward, somewhere from a narrow alley flows a song in a language which I know not of. Maybe it’s Spanish or Portuguese or Zulu, I care not for I can move to the beats of the drum and the singer, she has nirvana written all over her face. She sings as if she is in a trance.  I imagine she sings of reunion with her lost lover for otherwise I cannot explain her expression.

She opens her eyes and all is silent. We wait maybe for a cue before everyone breaks into applause. A moment of awakening. And then there is guitar solo. The guitar is I believe one of the most versatile instruments, from the Spanish to the electric it has a certain aura about it and can break into the most beautiful and unexpected notes. So here was the guy who performed a duo with the girl with the drums and made people tap their feet.

I move on towards the Gare but the streets are silent so I decide to explore the river side. On the bridge from where you can see the cable car (les bulles) are a group of musicians preparing their gig. So I cross over to reach the lane of Italian pizzerias. I find Grenoble to be a gastronomical delight even compared to Paris, for here you can find good Indian restaurants and also authentic pizza. Coming back to matters of music, a delightful sight beholds me. It’s dancing skirts or, as my dad remarked on seeing the photos, dancing lehengas. Now lehenga is traditional Rajasthani dress worn by the bride at Indian marriages. One can always find similarities between cultures.

I first thought they were Italians – after all I was standing outside a pizzeria – but the music, no, it carried tones of South America and yes, they were Colombians. The music had the energy to make your foot tap but the best part was the swirling skirts, the elegance. Enough to make the passing cars honk to the beats of music. Yes, it felt like India where the traffic contributes to the music of life. It got better when I meet a friend there who introduced me to the group. The girl in maroon is the sister of the girl in pink and the one in red is their mother. The little girl whose expression I call ‘I dream of Jeannie’ is the daughter of the girl in pink. So we had three generations dancing and singing together.

Now, about the little girl. Do you know the American serial ‘I dream of Jeannie’ where the Genie granted you your three wishes by twitching her eyes? This little girl was just like her. I wonder what she wishes me. I was granted my three wishes, good music, good photographs and memories of back home. Later, I joined the group for a drink in a café nearby. See the benefits of the La fête de la musique? Making new friends. So we sat and discussed, I a little humbled in presence of such talented musicians and singers. When the question popped up – what instrument do I play? I replied, ‘none’, for I am the listener, I am the one who appreciates their magic.

Evening falls and I walk in the small lanes along Bastille where different styles of music, French, African, American, and from all nooks and corners of this wide world, fuse together to create a new symphony of harmony. We may have barriers of languages between us but music joins us for we can dance to any rhythm. Another thing I noticed was how there was space for all different kinds in the same small lane, it teaches us small lessons of co-existence with the other.

Later I walked back to Place Victor Hugo and now the space was taken by the rock gigs and an endless mass of people moving around. It was heartening to walk in the city awake even late at night, people breaking into spontaneous dances, some kissing and some holding hands. It felt good to be a part of the crowd, felt like home. To end, my favorite French instrument, I encountered it in 2000 when I first visited Paris. I still don’t know its name but it has its charms. I visited Sacré Coeur in Montmarte and there was an old man with a red cap turning little punch cards into it with a lever and out flowed music that reminded me of childhood. So here it was again in Grenoble.

Stephen William Rowe at home

Dr. Stephen William Rowe is a well-known industrial scientist and a Fellow of the renowned IET in the UK. He is English and at 57, has been living in France for more than 25 years. He is also an accomplished musician and songwriter and has a particularly rich past. Grenoble Life wanted to find out more …

Grenoble Life: You are a Senior Scientist in the “Innovation Department” at Schneider Electric (SE). This sounds like fun. In the simplest terms (i.e, for the unscientifically minded like myself), what do you do?

Stephen William Rowe: Well James, in practice I have two simultaneous roles linked to my varied background and my creative penchant.

Firstly I act as a corporate consultant on matters concerning extremely high voltage insulation and very high current arcing phenomena linked to circuit breakers.

Secondly, I apply my creativity to generating innovative ideas for new SE products.

I also spend a good deal of my time passing on my experience, to the upcoming generation of engineers. In today’s highly competitive world, this has become increasingly important because engineers no longer have the time to learn at a leisurely pace by making their own errors. With 120 000 employees in 100 countries, most of whom do not have perfect mastery of the English language, the challenge is not trivial. I love doing this of course!

Creating an environment enabling continuous generation of innovative ideas has become one of the keys to long term company survival. In this respect SE is an excellent place to work at if, like me, one thrives on creating new ideas and concepts.  However, it is a very bad company for those who are looking for a quiet life and a nice corner to doze in …

As “energy efficiency” has become the centre of gravity for our group, I get to work on everything which goes in this direction. The company motto, “Make the most of your energy”, leaves plenty of room for any creative mind. However, at the end of the day, an innovative idea has to generate a useful advantage for potential customers, so not everything goes. Today, mental flexibility is an essential characteristic in industry I think.

GL: Earlier in your varied career, you worked on projects to reproduce lightening at up to 3 million volts. How does that compare to the big storms we get in summer in Grenoble?

SWR: The whole idea behind this is to check that the apparatus manufactured is able to resist being struck by lightning, directly or indirectly. So the voltages at which I have worked are designed to create equivalent conditions to those that nature throws at us.

The laboratory which I led was capable of reproducing the conditions of typical lightning strokes experienced by Grenoble dwellers. The sparks created might be only 20 meters long, but they are also produced only about 10 metres from the control room.

Imagine a lightning stroke falling at the end of your garden, while you’re tending the barbecue…that should give you an idea of what it’s like.

Often, the lightning itself is not the problem. In practice, during the very brief stroke, the high current flowing between the cloud and the ground induces a very high voltage spike in surrounding cables and overhead lines. In this way dangerous overvoltage’s get into everything, PCs included.

My job was to understand the physics of how various insulators behave when such large voltages are applied to them, in order to develop reliable protection devices.

Although we understand a lot, there are many details which remain unexplained. I hope this encourages the younger generation to keep up the good work in this field.

GL: You have also worked frequently with enormously high currents. Isn’t that dangerous?

SWR: Yes it is. There is absolutely no room for non-respect of safety precautions when working with currents of up to 300 000 amps.

But remember, one of the numerous sectors of activity for SE is the protection of electrical energy distribution systems and above all, of the people using them.

To do this we have to reproduce the critical conditions under which our apparatus must function and prove that they consistently function as required.

To do this we use carefully designed installations in which we can repeatedly carry out impressive destructive tests, whilst ensuring the safety of all involved.

The key to successful design here is a perfect understanding and mastery of extremely high current electrical arcs, which otherwise can cause huge amounts of damage.

GL: You left school without qualifications, how did you come to work in Grenoble as a research scientist?

SWR: I left school before 16, with no “O” levels, and two days later was working as apprentice in a TV repair shop. Well, in truth I started by sweeping the workshop floor, making the tea and going to the local bakers to buy sandwiches for the repair engineers.

I then graduated to going out to collect and return TVs with a qualified engineer. In practice this means that I carried the TVs while the engineer chatted-up the customers, who unaccountably always seemed to be good looking women. Waiting in the van I often wondered why discussing a fault should be such a lengthy and tiring process (I never fully clarified this point).

Once my real learning phase began, I rapidly came to appreciate the team spirit and mutual assistance which is at the centre of any apprenticeship process. This taught me the value of sharing knowledge which is now at the very core of my being.

During these years I discovered the value of logical thought for solving the more complicated faults. To me this was like detective work and as Hercule Poirot says, requires the use of the “little grey cells”.

I soon also developed the desire to be able to design, rather than simply repair, and this is when everything really started …

After night classes to obtain “O” levels, I spent two years at a college of further education to obtain “A” levels and thence to Southampton University.

Oh! I also fell in love with and married a French girl, which might just explain some later decisions.

At the end of my BSc Hons in electronics, I was the only student that year who wanted to study further. Consequently I was bombarded with offers for MSc degrees, two being in France.

I chose Grenoble and a subject dealing with polymer films (Plastics). Characteristically, I hadn’t the slightest idea what a polymer was… but the challenge appealed to me. Oh! I also didn’t speak French at all at this time..

Anyway, at the end I got my PhD and then an employment in the company which has since become Schneider Electric and haven’t look back since.

GL: You’ve been nominated for the grade of “Membre Emerite” of the Illustrious French SEE.

SWR: Yes, but Nominated does not mean elected, (as many unsuccessful Oscar Awards candidates know only too well). At present I have simply been invited to submit a “dossier”. This will be considered on its relative merits in September by a panel of eminent engineers and scientists. All the same, this would really be a nice feather to put in my cap.

GL: How do you think Grenoble competes with other cities as an area for scientific and technical innovation?

SWR: Grenoble has always seemed to me to be at the centre of technical and scientific excellence. It has excellent universities and world class research facilities. As a town, it has managed to attract and retain a strong multi-national scientific community which is the basic ingredient to firing innovative thinking.

Few however, can survive on enthusiasm for science alone and the harder one works, the more there’s need for other outlets. In this respect Grenoble has a unique quality in that it has outdoor activities for everyone, AND all year round. Not many places can boast equally attractive outdoor activities for every season. So body and mind are equally well catered for.

And then there is culture and music as well, of which Grenoble has more than its fair share.

Finally, Grenoble is a human sized town, has an excellent public transport system a superb healthcare infrastructure and breathtaking views.

Tell me where I can find a better mix and I might go and take a look, but I doubt it.

GL: You must have had opportunities to work in other countries, why have you stayed in Grenoble?

SWR: As you say I have had ample opportunity of observing other towns, other countries and of course, other companies.

However, the company I work for has always backed me up and supplied me with the opportunities to use my talents to the utmost. I have been able to contribute to many extremely interesting topics and have never for an instant been bored or tempted to look elsewhere for fulfilment.

I work hard and play hard and have found Grenoble to be perfectly adapted to my conception of life. There are other places which I’ve found very pleasant to be for a time, but not to live and work in.

GL: You also speak at a lot of international scientific conferences, how do you find any free time?

SWR: I don’t really know what “free time” really is and I’m not sure I need or want any. My time is always taken up 100% by the things I want or need to do.

When home, my time is filled by looking after family, house and garden, music making, outdoor activities, writing etc. I very rarely watch television, so this alone frees up about 20 hours a week with respect to many other people.

In fact, at present, I could do with an extra couple of hours per day to write novels and expand my vegetable garden, but not at the same time. In ten years time I’ll probably appreciate a little “free” time, but for the moment, no thanks!

GL: As a long term resident in Grenoble, you must feel like a ‘native’?

SWR: Ha! Nasty one that … The truth is that I no longer feel native anywhere.

I lived for nearly 20 years at Crolles and was completely integrated into the community there. This is the advantage of the Grenoble region where people are so used to the presence of foreigners. I didn’t feel foreign though.

I now live in a small mountain village and although being integrated into the tissue of things, will obviously never be felt of as anything else than l’Anglais.

This doesn’t trouble me much because the local people have so much to teach me about rural life that it is a very small price to pay.

GL: You have two grown up children. Have you raised them bilingually? How?

SWR: Yes. Since they were born, I spoke to them only in English and my wife only in French.

They were naturally much better in French because I was their only source of English for many years. Both went through a phase of being nervous at school about their double nationality, because they were worried that teachers would expect too much of them.

English spelling also gave both of them trouble because they had insufficient practice. However all this has now been resolved. For both of them, probably the most important tool was surprisingly listening to songs in English.

GL: You’re a black belt in Judo and Self Defence. Are these really useful in modern life and have you ever had reason to use it!?

SWR: The key to success in learning martial arts is that they give you self confidence and the intelligence to know when there is no other way out than to apply them. It teaches you when to move away from a confrontation rather than to allow anger or pride to cloud ones judgement

Judo is a sport, and using even a simple Judo throw on a hard surface such as a road is extremely dangerous. The damage done can be immensely more serious than the perceived danger because a human body thrown over your shoulder onto the pavement does not bounce back like a rubber ball.

So each situation requires applying a graduated response. The first and best is to learn to avoid delicate situations and the second best is to know when to back down gracefully.

Self defence (Ju Jitsu) is another kettle of fish. Its objective is to supply the tools to defend yourself or your family when confrontation is unavoidable and the danger real. It is potentially more dangerous than Judo, because you are learning to save yourself from very serious risk to health.

For example, if attacked with a knife or metal bar you should turn and run, but if you can’t, you must disarm the opponent and ensure that he will not have a second chance. You have about two seconds to do this in. This can be very painful for the opponent.

I was lucky to learn all this at Crolles with Frederic Rouhet (5 Dan), and warmly recommend his club to any who would like to discover this discipline.

At 57 I don’t get frequently aggressed and rarely have to do more than give a few calm words of warning, which is best for all involved.

GL: You are also a passionate musician and have recently started writing songs in French. What difficulties have you faced?

SWR: I started learning classical guitar at 11 but soon turned to folk and was writing lyrics at a young age. I came across these early efforts recently and feel very fortunate that I didn’t have the courage to perform them in public at the time.

I don’t think I’ve stopped playing guitar since those days, although work and family did slow things down for some time.

About four years ago I decided to record all my favourite compositions to keep as a memory of times gone by. This took about six months, but I discovered that the creative spirit was still alive and kicking and one new song led directly to another.

I have never had any difficulty in finding new ideas, they just seem to spring up from nowhere, but this time I found myself composing things I never did before, such as Jazz , pop and Rock.

The only major problem is that I have never had a good singing voice, except for some specific styles, so I decided to look for pro singers who were looking for new songs. This is much more easily said than done. However this didn’t dampen my spirits and I’ve since produced 15 new English songs.

On the other hand, before trying my hand at writing lyrics in French, I hesitated for several years. Bad lyrics sound so much more embarrassing in French and I was not convinced that I could manage it without bring shame on the entire household.

My main problem in writing the lyrics was rhyming, because gender has to be taken into account and this invalidates many handy rhymes. It is one thing to speak the language fluently, but a very different business to write convincing, rhyming verse.

However, when I started I was surprised to find that ideas came completely differently in French than in English. Surprisingly, my Myspace page and website have been successful, but nothing positive has come of it yet.

GL: You won a BBC TV scenario contest in 2006. What was the story and how can we see the finished result?

SWR: The scenario was called “Grass”.It was played out in Wales and told the story of a research team hunting for ways of improving crops resistance to drought for poor economies.

The hero (a really nice chap) discovers a naturally resistant grass growing high on Snowdon. But where did this grass originate from? It proves amazingly fast growing and extremely resistant, unfortunately to everything including weed killers. And then some seeds get out …

This was really good fun to write but showed me how difficult writing for TV really is. Everything has to be visual and fast moving. Part of the prize was to work with an upcoming pro. This is when the trouble began …

I won’t go into detail, but suffice to say that we disagreed very strongly as to how the various characters would react to the various situations.

No doubt, a research scientist jumping onto the lab bench and tap dancing, and girlfriends vomiting, is good for audience counts, but I wasn’t prepared to go that way, so I abandoned the project.

Sorry for those who would have liked to see it on BBC TV. However, I am planning to write this and several other ideas up as books … As soon as I have a little “Free Time”.

Alison Dupré at work!

Originally from the UK, Alison Dupré has lived in France for over 10 years. She moved to Grenoble 18 months ago and now works at the Crédit Agricole Sud Rhone Alpes bank in Grenoble where she has set up the new “Bilingual Service”. James Dalrymple has a few questions.

Grenoble Life: Why has Crédit Agricole introduced a service offering financial advice in English?

Alison Dupré: There’s a large population of English-speaking customers in the region: in the Ardèche and Drome mainly Brits with holidays homes and in Isère expats who are employed in local companies or students. Although many clients have a good level in everyday French, when it comes down to discussing housing insurance or mortgage repayments that’s when things get a bit complicated!

GL: What services do you offer English speakers ?

AD: I’m based at the online branch at the head office where we have set up the free Bilingual Service. We can help Anglophones to open an account, provide them with means of payment and offer other services and products that they are entitled to have according to if they are residents or non-residents. The most important aspect of the Bilingual Service is that we give advice in English concerning all banking and insurance matters – I have a direct line where clients can call me if they are in France or abroad, we can communicate by e-mail or they can come to see me at the head office in Grenoble.

GL: Is this an increasingly common service now in French banks?

AD: Some banks advertise “English-speaking services” or have part of their web site in English, however as I mentioned in my article not all staff speak fluent English or understand cultural differences. A couple of months ago a lady phoned me to test if I was a “real” Anglophone. She  had contacted other banks which offered an “English-speaking service” but the staff were unable to understand her questions.

GL: How were you recruited for the job and what kind of training/qualifications did you need to get your job?

AD: I simply sent my CV to the bank when I first arrived in Grenoble and luckily my profile corresponded to a new position they were contemplating on creating.

As a student in the UK I had several holiday jobs in banks and during my Modern Languages degree I worked in the international department of a bank in France and in Madrid for an international finance company. I then obtained a Postgraduate diploma in Business Management in the UK and a similar French qualification.

After several years of teaching business English for Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand and for the Chamber of Commerce in Le Puy-en-Velay my husband was offered a new job in Grenoble.

When I arrived at the bank they had drawn up a training programme for me over six months. I also had to take several exams and carried out placements in different branches to gain the necessary experience.

GL: You said in your article for Grenoble Life that many people, including the French themselves, struggle with bureaucracy in France – have you mastered it now [laughs]?

AD: It helps having a French husband. I must admit that I deal with banking and insurance but my husband deals with the rest!

GL: As a long-time ex-patriot who has mastered the language and works in a French company, do you feel completely integrated into French life or do you still sometimes feel étrangère ?

AD: After 10 years I now feel completely integrated and strangely enough it’s when I go back to the UK that I feel étrangère. Although I speak fluent French I still have my “Jane Birkin” accent, but this doesn’t bother anyone and my work colleagues are proud to introduce me to others as “notre petite anglaise”.

Alison DUPRE
Bilingual Financial Advisor & Account Manager
Tel. 04 76 86 74 40
From abroad: 00 33 476 86 74 40

photo: donaldtownsend

by Alison Dupré

Until 1999 I had always lived in the UK. When I decided to settle in France I soon realised that there were as many cultural differences as there were new words to learn. I was fortunate enough to study languages at university, so at least I could get by; nevertheless I found it difficult to sort out everyday administrative tasks. After several years of living in France I have discovered that even the French find their administrative system complicated!

I meet English-speaking folk, some of whom have decided to settle down in France, others who have a holiday home here, but who don’t speak much French. They invariably find themselves in great difficulty when they come face to face with French bureaucracy. Even paying a bill can seem complicated if you don’t know how to write a French cheque or if you cannot fill in the direct debit request form.

For newly arrived French-residents the main problem areas seem to be taxation, banking and social security cover (health insurance). Whilst the main difficulties encountered by non-residents tend to be paying invoices and bills, how to transfer funds to France cheaply and efficiently and understanding how French companies and institutions work.

French banks can offer information and solutions to most of the above, but there are relatively few French people who are fluent enough in English to provide this information and this can lead to various misunderstandings. For example, contrary to popular belief, it is possible for a non-resident to open a bank account in France. However, given that bank personnel are often unable to identify a proof of address or proof of tax residence in English, foreigners have often been refused bank accounts unless they already have a property in France.

In reality, however, the documents which are required to open a bank account are as follows: a valid passport, a recent utility bill for your home address, together with a recent tax return/pay slip/ P60 or other tax document which allows the bank to correctly identify your official country of residence. (Generally speaking, where you spend more than six months in any one year is where you pay your taxes and is therefore your country of residence). Some banks do ask for additional information such as bank statements as a form of credit check in order to verify that you are entitled to have a bank account in your country of residence.

French banking usually works on a pay-as-you-go system whereby you pay a monthly fee for your account for a package service including several services free of charge or at half price and an overdraft at preferential rates. There is also an annual charge for bank and payment cards. The costs vary in accordance with the type of card.

Together with a bank account and direct debit card, most non-residents require a cheque book (there is no such thing as a cheque guarantee card in France) and a savings account. Many non-residents choose to have a French mortgage in order to take advantage of the low rates and advantageous conditions offered.

Most French banks now offer a full range of insurance policies most of which are available to their non-resident clients. These include home insurance, car insurance and legal cover.

A range of banking services are available through most high street banks, although few offer an English-speaking service. Although staff have mastered English, they haven’t always mastered the cultural differences between France and neighbouring countries. But things are improving …

Alison Dupré is Bilingual Account Manager for Crédit Agricole Sud Rhone Alpes

English is increasingly common in Grenoble, not least in graffiti !

I used to wonder why, very often, when I tried to speak French in a restaurant, shop, post office or market, for example, the reply would come back to me in English. Given that I am at least semi-competent in French, I couldn’t help feel offended at being treated as a tourist in the country I called home. I don’t think it would be presumptuous to say that I am not alone in this experience. When I first arrived in Grenoble I made a school-boyish but pardonable error in asking: Est-ce que vous avez du bière? at a café, having not quite nailed down the gender of that favourite English beverage. The waitress looked at me as if I was from out of space, before replying “Not bière”.

However, what has become increasingly apparent to me is that my linguistic skills are not being spontaneously judged and deemed unfit but rather that the French are grabbing an opportunity to practice their English. The look of the woman in the café was probably not one of complete incomprehension but one masking certain grammatical computations, for what it was worth. It is probably a look I wear myself quite often as my brain lags doggedly behind my tongue during an experiment with, say, the French Subjonctif.

On the bus yesterday I was very amused to hear a group of nine or ten primary school children singing in unison, “I like English! I like English!” before a musical rendition of the alphabet that faultered every time they negotiated the obstacle course that is “L-M-N-O-P”. “Yes, it is! No, it isn’t!”, I left them chanting ecstatically, presumably in recollection of their English classes, quietly wishing to myself that I had adult students with such unbridled enthusiasm about their training.

This morning I was delighted to be greeted at the boulangerie by a welcome new face. As I have mentioned in a previous post about Grenoble’s service culture, trips to my local shops have sometimes been fraught with peur et tremblement. Today, however, I was greeted by something extraordinary, a new face whose defining characteristic was a smile from ear to ear. Surveying the empty shelves I asked, “Vous n’avez plus de croissants?“, to which the smiling face replied, amiably and in no poor accent, “Not any more!”. In such situations I prefer to persevere in French while remaining friendly enough to show that I don’t mind a conversation in two languages. As he handed me my change with the kind of extraordinary deference reserved for a foreign dignitary (a half bow, and a “thank you, goodbye”), I didn’t even care that I had no viennoiseries to bring back to my wife on Mother’s Day.

Such exchanges are not always as pleasant, I had an interesting experience at the market in Aiguinards a few weeks back. I was at the fromagerie when a man struck up conversation with me, at first curious about my five week old daughter in a baby carrier: generally a guaranteed way to attract attention in France, for better or worse. Realising I was British, he then used the occasion to practise his English, even though I persevered in French. He told me he had spent time studying in the UK, before complaining about the “Shitty weather”. He went on to add that the “food was really Shitty in England, absolutely disgusting! The food was so Shitty it was the first time in my life that I lost weight. There’s probably more cheese here [gesturing at admittedly fantastic selection on the market stall] than in the whole of Britain”. “I don’t mean to offend you”, he added. Charming!

So, despite the best efforts of the Académie française, English seems to be permeating French culture. At my school the other day I had to evaluate the level in English of a number of employees sent by their company. For many of these, it was their first job and they had just recently completed their studies. Furthermore many had taken the opportunity to live and work in the UK to learn English. The impression I am getting is that while the French are proactively and pragmatically studying English, the Brits have become lazy and complacent about studying languages since English became so internationalised.

Tant pis!, the Brits might say (if they knew how to), except that, as reported in the Guardian, companies in the UK are increasingly turning to foreign nationals for jobs that require more than one language. The article shows how second language study has declined in Britain since the Labour government stopped making it obligatory at GCSE, a serious error in the view of many, myself included. I remember one frustrated colleague when I worked in London reacting to a telephone conversation in stilted English with a counterpart from a French museum with the angry exclamation, “I hate it when people can’t speak English!”. Perhaps the wind of change has already come.

The view across from the Radio Campus Grenoble

Vivian Draper is a freelance writer, documentary film maker and broadcaster. She lives part time in Grenoble, and is a presenter on English Talk Radio 90.8FM Radio Campus Grenoble. You can listen to ETR every Wednesday at 1900 hours and every Sunday at 12h30. James Dalrymple interviews.

Grenoble Life: How did you come to be involved with the show on Radio Campus?

English Talk Radio: It was the idea of Bernard Picard, a colleague at Open House, The English Speaking Cultural Association, to put English on the radio in Grenoble. He had heard English on the radio in Annecy, and wondered why we didn’t have it in Grenoble. He did all the research, and ended up talking to Radio Campus Grenoble. Then he sent me an email …

GL: Who is your show for?

ETR: People who are interested in books, theatre, film, finance, travel, ideas. We also do local motion – what is going on in the schools and unis and business schools. For a city with 35,000 expats, 65,000 students, 9,000 of them foreign students, it is a super place to be communicating in English. Also, English conversation groups listen to maintain their English, mostly French people, so we have to be very clear and precise with our language. I have heard of two people who are trying to learn English from our show. Truly terrifying to think of.

GL: Is the show pre recorded and then edited?

ETR: We started off in 2005 with a live show, which went out at 1400 hours every Friday. We then realised that this was not a good time frame for most of our listeners, as they wanted to listen in their cars, or on their computers; so we asked to pre record, and go on air during drive time, 1900 hours every Wednesday, with a repeat on Sundays at 12h30. We still pretend we are live though, never stop and change anything – mistakes are part of our charm (laughs) … we are never edited, as far as I know.

GL: Do you work with a separate producer?

ETR: We work with a sound engineer – it can be Alexandre Hadade, who is the co-ordinator for 90.8FM, the boss man, or it can be one of the other technicians, depends who is available.

GL: What is the most difficult thing about presenting the show?

ETR: Timing. Timing is everything. We have thirty minutes to fill, and thirty minutes is a long time in radio time. No silences allowed; radio time is valuable, so we have to watch the clock, watch the script, watch the technician, watch the guests. It can be overwhelming. If the sound engineer is ringing a guest, and there is a problem, and we are expecting to talk to said guest, then we have to go into free fall, filler, talk about anything, everything, just to keep things going until the guest is available. Can be nerve wracking. That is why my favourite number is 29:54 – it means we came in under 30 minutes, and we didn’t cause any trouble for the next show, or the technicians.

GL: Do you have to work or study on campus in order to be involved in Campus Radio?

ETR: No. Anyone can present an idea to Radio Campus Grenoble, explain what they want to do, and see if the board thinks it a good idea. It does take up a lot of time though, so be prepared for that. You do have to join the association as well. Radio is 90% male, out of 50 shows on radio, less than 5 will be written, and presented by women. I would like to hear more women on radio. ETR is an all woman show – we even had a female technician for a time (laughs) … it was wonderful … we didn’t start out with that idea, it just happened, at least fifty percent of our guests are male – really … 90.8FM is a music station, so we are a little bit of an anomaly; however they are all so helpful to us, and make things work for us as ETR is a talk show. Go and see the Richard Curtis film, Good Morning England, working at 90.8 is exactly like that … (more laughing)

GL: Had you worked on the radio before Radio Campus?

ETR: I’m a freelance writer, specialising in politics, elections mostly, so I had interviewed people on the radio. Nothing like this though, if I am not prepared, or slip up, the whole show can come crashing down. Fortunately we have strong presenters – Kristine Minski who is our financial presenter has been with the show since 2005, Christina Menez who talks about China has been with ETR for two years now. They are always prepared, on time with their copy – ready to go. They are very professional, and we work well together. We also have an intern, it was Ingrid this year, who talks about what the students are up to. ETR is a team effort. No stars, no divas, lots of behind the scenes drama, though …

GL: Can you tell us about some memorable guests and experiences you have had during the course of the show?

ETR: Our guests are always wonderful, I’ll tell no tales, they are the pivotal part of ETR. They are always interesting, they make us laugh, and sometimes makes us cry. I think the best shows have been when we have several in studio guests, they start talking to each other, and we lose control of the show. That is fun. You didn’t ask me this, but I want to say, for all the hard work, working on ETR is great; we all enjoy doing the show so much. I think that comes through in our broadcasts.

GL: What do you do besides your work on Campus Radio?

ETR: Well, as I told you, I’m a freelance writer, that is my main job. I’m also a documentary film maker, working on my second film right now, so I’m away from Grenoble about half the time. Then there is the radio show. I’m also on various committees for volunteer work, under 5s food programme in Africa, literacy in Washington DC. Then there is my love of international literature, I belong to three book groups in Grenoble – books are my passion. Ideas, I’m very curious, I love to share ideas. I dislike the word exclusive, love the word inclusive. Having lived all over the world, I like the idea of sharing books, books bring people together. Quoting Anjana Chowdhury – ‘books can change your life’.

GL: Why did you originally come to live in Grenoble?

ETR: I came to Grenoble to finish a book, which I did, and then, like so many people, just stayed. I love the mountains, the multi ethnicity of Grenoble – inter cultural dynamics, multi cultural sensitivity, all very interesting to me.

GL: Have your activities on Radio Campus been affected by the recent student strikes and protests?

ETR: No. Not at all. The radio has kept going, no sit ins, no taking over the radio station, so our work has not been affected. However, we have talked about it.

GL: How does campus culture in France compare to your experience as a student in your native country?

ETR: Well, it is a long time since I was a student, if you don’t count my attempts to learn Chinese. I think students should protest, should care, should try to change things. Life should be messy and annoying sometimes, if it brings about change for the better.

GL: What advice would you give English speakers planning to come and live in Grenoble?

ETR: I don’t give advice. Thank you for this interview, Mr Dalrymple … (last laugh)

Cours Berriat in the good ol' days, when it was very easy to get your baby's picture taken

For now my daughter is uniquely a French citizen. British citizenship – and hand-cramp inducing paperwork that involves – will have to come later, preferably with me excused from block capital inscribing duties, since it seems I have long forgotten how to use a pen. As my wife and I were planning to take our daughter to the UK for a holiday this summer (OK, it’s not so much a summer, but the notionally warmer period that sometimes takes place, probably for around two weeks, between July and August). we have set ourselves up for the administrative rigmarole of applying for her carte d’identité in a relative hurry. Easier than getting a passport, the bureaucratic requirements didn’t seem so exigent on paper, but necessitated the usual documentative suspects that have become a regular feature of my administrative life in France: both the mother’s and baby’s copie integrale de l’acte de naissance *; photos taken by officially designated photographer; and a recent bill as proof of address.

It all seemed so suspiciously easy, but alarm bells started to ring when our casual enquiry about where such photographs should be taken was met by a bureaucratic stonewalling: would the town hall give us some tips where the official photo should be taken? No, of course they wouldn’t. Fools us for having the gall to ask. Apparently photomaton booths no longer exist, and in the digital era only photos numériques suffice these days for such purposes, despite the ease with which they can be manipulated. No matter: a five week old baby girl could hardly operate a photo booth anyway, considering how much trouble they can give certain 31 year old men (ahem).

Without enormous difficulty we located an appropriate place of business, at the somewhat dingy and conspicuously non-air-conditioned K’Store on Cours Bérriat. When we arrived we were surprised to find only a small photo developing counter in the middle of the mall where a young woman both serves customers and develops the photos herself (I am developing a totally unscientific theory that the much-fabled French productivity may be the result of sacrificing service, or at least combining service into a job which would perhaps be done in another country by a separate person – not unlike those bossy owner-waiters in restaurants who seem so displeased to see you). To be fair, the woman was making the best of a difficult juggling act: it was surprising how much business this little photo lab was doing at half past three on a Tuesday afternoon.

However, there was one major spanner in the works. For a carte d’identité, the baby’s eyes must be open, which seems ridiculous given that her eye colour is bound to change in the coming months, not to mention the fact that her entire appearance is transforming with every passing moment. Furthermore, my daughter has a curious defence mechanism when in the company of strangers, and that is to retreat completely into herself like a hedgehog, either feigning or genuinely falling into a deep and unshakeable sleep. Normally this is a blessing – we have even managed to take her to a restaurant and she has slept peacefully and angelically without interruption, attracting appreciative glances from other diners (yes, that’s right! It’s only been five weeks and we’ve already nailed this parenthood business!). On this prematurely sticky May day, however, the blessing became a curse. We tried to wake our daughter up but she wasn’t having any of it, despite us employing our full arsenal of tickles and noisy toys.

All this was taking place with increasing desperation as I had to periodically run out to the street to top up the parking metre and the photo shop lady, camera tripod at the ready, had to attend to customers. During a small window of open-eyed opportunity, she managed to take a couple of shots, but these proved too blurry given that we were doing our utmost to jolt some life into our daughter at the time. Stubbornly, she fell back to sleep with a swiftness that might lead you to suspect that she was toying with us. Another sweaty dash to the parking metre later and we intensified our efforts to rouse her in full view of bemused onlookers, starting to feel oddly abusive to this ostensibly peaceful little baby, knowing full well that she would choose to ‘release the tension of the day’ as soon as we set foot in our apartment.

Finally we were reduced to undressing her to just her body suit, and after a generous amount of begging and bouncing she awoke with a startle and promptly vomited over herself. As any parent knows, a baby being sick is no exceptional occurrence, but the next few moments were tense as we tried to position my daughter decently in the camera’s line of sight, her mouth working languidly as if ready to be sick again. (Once, in her first couple of weeks, she vomited so spectacularly it was like the detonation of a milk-filled grenade. One moment my wife was cradling her, the next moment both mother and baby were covered in regurgitated milk. It was a like a scene from Ghostbusters: She slimed me!).

The photo, taken seconds later, managed to transform my once beautiful baby into a slavering Shrek-like creature; or more precisely Phil Mitchell from Eastenders. Not a big deal until you realise that this will be her identity card photo for the next ten years. On the other hand, the application is yet to be approved – which is touch and go considering the fact that she appears nearly diagonally in the photo, and is meant to be completely upright – we could have to do it all over again!

*Copie integrale de l’acte de naissance is a copy of the official birth registry that can be obtained from the Hôtel de Ville or Mairie of your home town. This is only required for the carte d’indentité application when one parent is a foreign national.

Communication Café kids painting

Reia Farrall – Bilingual Education in Grenoble

The battle has been won for the moment … with my husband constantly speaking to our daughters in French and I in English (and having an amazing English nounou one day a week), and with regular visits from respective grandparents: our children appear to be bilingual and quite happy in either French or English. Now, we are just about to embark on making that all-important ‘next’ decision that seems to affect English-speaking families in Grenoble – which primary school will our children go to? Do we leave them in their local school? Do we put them in La Houille Blanche: where English is taught for one hour for a day, but has a competitive entrance; and would require a lot of organisation for getting ourselves together to get there? I really enjoy the fact that my girls can go to their local school, so that they can still be with the friends from their local area. And given the lack of resources, the teachers and school where our girls go do amazing things with 30+ in their nursery school classes.

However, being a teacher, and having specific ideas on the ways in which I would like our girls to learn, I do sometimes feel a little battered by the French school experience where the girls are consistently assessed according to the ‘norm’ of what French students should know at certain ages. I know that us English-speaking people are often criticised for our ‘positive reinforcement‘ – but I feel that it is lacking a little in my daughters’ education.

Education for me is not just about learning facts. Knowledge is important but education is also about showing our children the different paths that they can follow in life, and how to think for themselves. A school education should help our children to become dignified human beings, respectful of others, conscious that we live in an interconnected world where our decisions affect not just ourselves. The question as a teacher becomes how to encourage ‘learning’ and to help students discover the individual intrinsic worth of each person and themselves.

So rather than worry about the fact that I feel the French system is not doing this and put our girls into another French school, my friend Zoë Atkinson – a speech therapist – and I have taken the plunge and set up an association called Communication Café to help our children learn English. We want our children to embrace their dual cultures, to learn English in a way that we both feel helps our children’s confidence in themselves, and with positive reinforcement. We want to above all encourage our children’s English language development, to help our children feel good about themselves, and to meet other children like them. So it looks like it is not the French system at La Houille Blanche for now…

Results!

Zoë Atkinson – Speaking English in Grenoble: a speech therapist’s view

As far as French cities go, I feel lucky being in Grenoble as an English-speaker, the town being cosmopolitan and open-minded beyond its size. Being an English-speaker has not caused me many problems, apart from the occasional blank when faced with needing to talk about something beyond my French experience. So knowing that my child was going to be French, and not English like myself, didn’t pose as much of a problem for me as it did for their grandparents! Most people react positively when they know that my three year old can speak French and English almost fluently (even if a little mixed up!). I, however, have a few reservations.

Being Mum to a bilingual child, I wanted my daughter to have the chance to mix with other kids in English, to be comfortable with the English part of her identity, and to learn to read and write in English. To summarise, I wanted her to be able to make the most of her opportunity to be bilingual and for it to not be an embarrassment to her. If ever we need to go back to an English-speaking country, I would like her to be able to re-integrate without difficulty.

Being a speech therapist, I was aware that bilingual children integrated into French schools and, learning English at home only, may miss out on academic vocabulary that they would learn in French in school (concepts relating to specific subjects, such as maths, science, technology, religious study or art). I also felt that their use of English is often restricted, and that kids may find it difficult to speak to other kids in English. The French sound system is also different to the English, which affects the ability of bilingual kids to learn how to read and write in English.

Communication Café

Communication Café

We created the Communication Café association to provide another solution to our English-speaking frustrations in Grenoble. We currently run groups in English for children who have at least one English-speaking parent. We start young with Baby-Signing for 0-2 year olds and offer classes for ‘Maternelle’ and Primary ages. We have small groups, with fun theme-based sessions. For the ‘Maternelle-aged’ kids, we have adapted communication objectives taken from speech therapy, plus the foundation objectives from the British National-Curriculum. For the Primary ages, we have adapted objectives from the British National Curriculum, primarily English, but we also dip into other subject objectives with themes that suit those subjects.

Here is a quote from one of our mothers:

I can’t put in words properly the joy we share, watching Oscar spotting English words and wanting to read them and seeing the flash of satisfaction and brightness across his face when he “gets it”. I cant pin point exactly why or how, but it seems you have given him a quiet, assured confidence to try and have fun with words and seeing that confidence develop within him is very rewarding – so thank you very much to you both. Oscar has always been a very curious person but sometimes can lack true confidence to give things a try. So, seeing this natural confidence with words evolve in Oscar is a parental pleasure money can’t buy, if you know what I mean.

Reia Farrall is an Australian-qualified teacher. She has lived in Grenoble for six years, is married to a Frenchman and has two daughters. She currently teaches at Grenoble University at the Institut d’études Politiques. Zoë Atkinson is a UK qualified Speech and Language Therapist. She moved to Grenoble in 2000 with her French partner, and has a daughter. For more information visit our website or contact us via info@communication-cafe.com. Additionally, the Babel association offers English classes for children from English-speaking families: association.babel@laposte.net

Reia Farrall at work

Open House was founded in 1987 to support the growing English-speaking population in Grenoble and the surrounding area. We have currently over 150 members and their families, from 27 countries, all of whom are linked by the English language and the fact that they are living, or have lived, as expats. Our members all know what it means to pack up and come to live in a foreign country, where the language and customs may be very different from home. The support offered by kindred spirits helps the transition at this exciting but challenging time.

We run a wide range of activities for people of all ages and from all walks of life. We have two regular groups for those with young children, plus children’s parties and occasional days out. There are also regular get-togethers such as Wine Tastings, Lunches, Outdoor Activities, Book Groups, evening chill out evenings and simple coffee chats where you can get to know other English speakers in the area. If you want to learn French or improve your language skills, we have a fortnightly French-English exchange. We have guides about almost everything you would need to know about living here. Plus, our members are a source of information on just about anything you could need to know during your time in Grenoble.

Welcome to Grenoble. Welcome to Open House!

For more information about any of our activities, please contact us at president@openhousegrenoble.org

Coffee and Chat

French Xmas

Halloween Party

Picnic

What's French for 'ga ga' again?

Looking down on the improbably cherubic face of my week-old daughter I already find myself pondering her future. As a Brit who’s been living in Grenoble for nearly two and a half years, and married to a genuinely bilingual wife, there are some important decisions to be made soon concerning the language of our child. I’m making slow but steady progress in French although my wife and I normally converse in English. We met at University in the UK and we spent most of our first six years together in England. There was no effort – language-wise – on her part: she grew up near Grenoble in a bicultural household with a French father and an English mother. Despite having grown up in France my wife has strong roots in the UK, particularly Greater Manchester, where her mother comes from and where she spent all of her summers and Christmases since birth.

However, now that we live in France it is difficult to make the transition to speaking French together. We do sometimes, but it never progresses far beyond the pedagogic and often lapses into English if we want to refer to the numerous cultural shared references and jokes that resist translation. The other major excuse factor counting against my accelerated progress is the fact that I teach English for a living, and whereas I come into regular contact with French, in principle I am not allowed to use my students’ native language as it is contrary to the methods employed by the school at which I work (and indeed most theories of language learning). Thus, of all the knowledge I am likely to impart to my daughter, naturally pronounced (or even, for the moment, fluent) French is not one of them. Nor should it be of course. My daughter will grow up in France and no doubt have no difficulties assimilating the language.

One of the overlooked factors of language is its synonymousness with culture. My daughter will be three quarters British by blood and naturally I expect her to be bilingual but also bicultural, to embrace the British side of her identity as much as the French, more or less in the same way that my wife was able to do. My wife’s family had specific rules about language in the household that remain today: she speaks to her parents in their respective mother tongues, to one of her two brothers in English and the other in French. These bonds are hard to break or to invert: language is after all emotional too – which might be a good reason she and I found it difficult to make a meaningful switch to French.

Grenoble being very international, there are a number of organisations sprouting for Children to learn English. These range from associations which aim to support the needs of parents of mixed nationality, for example The Communication Café (more from them soon!), to those – such as the franchise Les Petits Bilingues – which offer predominantly French children a head start on the school system. The latter camp owe their existence less to Grenoble’s Anglophone base as to the increasing importance of English as a core requirement in the diplôme-centric French job market. Whereas such organisations do no harm, the word bilingual or bilingue is often misused as a selling point to French parents who want to give their children the best possible start in life. Bilingual is clearly not the right word. In my (unscientific) opinion it is practically impossible to be genuinely bilingual without growing up in a bicultural environment. Semantics aside, the traditionally globalisation-resistant French are getting pragmatic about the world’s international language.

Initially we discussed the idea of speaking to our daughter in different tongues: English individually with me, French for my wife, and English as a family. However, the early signs are that my wife feels more comfortable speaking English to our daughter, as that is what seems most natural in the context of our relationship. This may change but it will certainly not be to the detriment of our child. Where it leaves me is another question. I’m not overly worried about my abilities in French, it will come with time, but I may not get the kind of exposure to the language that I had envisaged before my arrival in the country.

It has been said to me on several occasions that I will never feel French, significantly by long-term ex-patriots fluent in the language. I agree: fluency in a language doesn’t necessarily amount to complete cultural integration. Having grown up in multicultural London, it has taken me time to adapt to the notion of my own otherness: I was surprised by what a curious specimen I seem to be to the Grenoblois. Being French wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows in the UK, I imagine. There are times when I feel like the French are from a completely different planet, though I’m sure the feeling is mutual (at least where I live). However, it is with a small modicum of sadness that my daughter will feel French, perhaps (but not necessarily) more than she feels English, and that will make me a little exception to the rule in my little bilingual household.

What is certain is that my wife and I can give my daughter a rich future accented by the best of France and Britain (perhaps meaning a British sense of humour and taste in music, with French taste buds and Gallic good looks!). We must be disciplined, but we shouldn’t be overly anxious. Unlike many couples of mixed nationality my wife and I have the advantage of both being native English speakers. I just hope that by starting a family in France, I will feel less and less étranger and increasingly at home.

There is a fair amount of literature on the web concerning bilingualism, from personal experiences to practical help, none of it particularly conclusive. However, there seems to be a general consensus that there are two principal methods to bringing up your child bilingually: 1) one parent, one language; 2) speak the minority language at home. Your opinions on the most effective are most welcome.