Podcast: An Interview with Elizabeth Anne

For the first podcast, I spoke with Elizabeth Anne, an English teacher in Grenoble, France. I asked Elizabeth to tell me about a typical day in her life. Listen to the interview. If you need it, the transcript of the interview is below.




Transcript:

NL: OK, This is Nina Liakos in Gaithersburg Maryland, and I am speaking with Elizabeth Anne in Grenoble, France. Elizabeth is going to tell us about a typical day in her life. So, Elizabeth, what do you do on a typical day? Start with what time you usually get up.

EA: Well, if I talk about a work day, then I have to get up at half-past six, because it takes me a while to wake up. And I leave the house at around half-past seven because we start classes at 8 o’clock. I’m a teacher too, as you know. So it’s not every day because I teach at the university. Sometimes my classes start at 8:00 and sometimes they start at ten, or even some days I don’t have class at all.

Then I have to go to the university by car because there’s no direct bus service, so I drive to work and then I have to set up things for class. I need to get out the video projector and things like that, before the students come. So then we have four hours in the morning. And I usually have lunch in the staff room. Everyone…

NL: What time do you have lunch?

EA: Around 12:00. People either bring their lunch with them to work, or we have a cafeteria downstairs, which sells snacks.

NL: When you eat lunch, do you speak English or French?

EA: Well, at the entrance to our floor we have a sign in French saying “Vous quittez le zone francophone.”

NL: “You are leaving the French-speaking zone.” Our classroom is an English-only zone, and it’s challenging because all of my students speak Arabic…

EA: Aha.

NL: … so it’s very difficult for them not to speak Arabic.

EA: And, um, so my day will usually finish around five, although sometimes I don’t leave work until 7:00 in the evening.

NL: Wow.

EA: There are even some classes from five to seven.

NL: Do you teach those classes sometimes?

EA: One or two days a week, yes.

NL: OK. What time do you usually go to bed?

EA: Rarely before midnight.

NL: Okay, Elizabeth, thanks for talking to us today. This is Nina Liakos in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and I have been talking with Elizabeth Anne in Grenoble, France.