ED'S WORLD

I was summoned to go and test 12 candidates in Lyon as part of an exam entitled "BTS" (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur). They have 20 minutes to get ready to talk about a document (text, ad, painting, cartoon...) dealing with art, design, advertising, architecture, media, etc. They have never seen the document before, so they have to be able to work efficiently and concisely. In the last part of their oral, we have a conversation about their professional experience and their plans for the future (job, further studies, etc.).

Doing this is usually an interesting experience for me. But this time I didn't enjoy it so much. Was it because the weather was so hot and sticky ? Or because the majority of the students seemed to be very reluctant to speak English at all, or to say anything slightly original about the documents ? (Some of them should have read this book, and maybe would have remembered the basic vocabulary !) Or was it simply because I was particularly tired and traveling for five hours on Sunday had not done anything to help, that I found so hard not to fall asleep ? Some rare but precious moments enlightened my stay though. A nice stroll on the quayside on Sunday evening. A nice meal at a Pakistanese restaurant with my friends. An iced coke drunk at a terrasse on a beautiful square outside the Beaux-Arts Museum.