Back to school

A few days ago I was somewhat caught off guard. I was walking to a lecture by an American judge when I bumped into one of the Dutch students I taught last month, and who greeted me by saying "Hello, Mr. Connah". I don't think I've heard anyone address me like that before, and I suddenly felt like my Grandfather.

Anyway, yesterday I went back to school. But fortunately this time I was neither teaching nor being taught, and instead I became an English language assistant. Our first task was to be interviewed by groups of 11-12 year olds who then had to produce a newspaper article on us. Their English was terribly impressive and I wouldn't be surprised if some were almost fluent - all this despite the fact that it was only their first or second year of learning English officially. Most of the questions they asked were quite innocuous ("What's your favourite ice-cream?", "Do you like football?" - "Why not?!", and the rather more probing, "Do you like Dutch girls?" etc), but I had a rather disconcerting exchange with one group. They asked me how old I was, so I asked them how old they thought I was. The guesses went something like: 24...22...26...29... at which point I stopped the exercise and let them know that I was in fact a comparatively sprightly 21. 24 I can deal with, 29 though! The second task was to talk one-on-one with 16 year olds, and surprisingly, they seemed a lot more self conscious about their English than the younger ones did. They then took us on a tour around the city of Culemborg which culminated in them trying to get us into a Coffeeshop. It didn't help that it was raining and that I'd neglected to take my umbrella, but still, it seemed like a pretty place - a bit like Delft.

It was actually good fun though and everyone seemed to have a really good time taking part. Comparing it to my school experience though, the secondary school was more like my sixth-form than my secondary school. No uniforms, more relaxed teachers etc. I wonder if it's part of the reason that the Netherlands ranked as the best place for children to grow up recently, and the UK the worst? Humphry Davy School it wasn't.

Later that day I saw Notes on a Scandal and aside from it being a rather good film, it was also set in a secondary school. So I'm now well and truly in the schoolboy mindset!