Rebecca James reports on an unusual community project…
Orient defenders Romain Vincelot and Mathieu Baudry spent the afternoon at George Mitchell All-Through School in Leyton on Thursday afternoon for a very unique community trip. This was no regular question and answer session; the question and answer session was actually in French!
The O’s pair took part in a French lesson with 100 students. Vincelot and Baudry kicked off by introducing themselves before the students began to ask questions in French to the players.
The aim of the task was for the students to be able to ask the French-born players any question, but to be able to listen to, and understand the reply in French.
Baudry said, “Some of the children spoke very good French: it is important to speak another language and it was good to be able to talk to them about the importance of education.”
The pupils questioned Baudry and Vincelot about their careers, education and their moves to England.
One pupil asked, “What was the hardest thing about moving to England?”
Baudry answered, “The hardest thing was not being able to speak very good English, we learnt English at school but foreign language was never my strong point, I started watching TV with subtitles to learn English properly.”
Chris, a year 8 student, said, “I think it went well. I learnt a lot and I had a lot of fun.”
Sohaib, another year 8 student, added, “I had a good time learning about them and what inspired them to play football.”
Marissa Tomkins, curriculum leader for modern foreign languages, explained why the school wanted the O’s pair to take part in the French Q+A.
“The pupils asked loads of questions,” she said. “It was really nice to be able to make French real to them and use the language in real life, that was the aim of the session. The kids spoke really well and the players were brilliant with answering them slowly to allow them time to understand and take notes.”