A fellow student of English at university 20 yrs ago (English youth taking the course in order to teach English, had been living in France since childhood) proposed, in a translation class (French into English) a sentence in English. He was told by the French professor, teacher of English: "no, no, an Englishman would never say it like that!" I am married to an American (20 years in France, excellent French), who teaches English in Lycées. The first time he tried to pass the CAPES, he was given a "0" in a French exercise. That mark eliminated him despite the fact that all grades combined he had passed. The jury had not agreed to his concluding his "explication de texte" by comparing Marivaux to 18th c. soaps. Today, his proviseur wants him to mark his pupils so that the class always has an average of 10/20, regardless of the level. This is symptomatic of an education system obsessed with grading above promoting know-how, and which only serves the elite. It is archaic and dishonest.

Marge, Mulhouse, France

I have to say that Mrs Zuckermann's comments are very far fetched indeed. The French Education system, despite its flaws, is a venerable and rigorous institution of which I have first hand experience.

Becoming an 'agrégé' is far from being 'largely unattainable' as she would have us believe. I think this is definitely a case of sour grapes and nothing more. She failed after 20 years living in France which only proves that her French was not up to standard. Why was this important? If you can't speak French or argue in French to bilingual standard you have no business being an 'agrégé'. You have to train yourself before becoming an 'agrégé' or else take the CAPES which entitles you to teach English in schools in the same way, though not at University level.

Its a shame that the British and American seem to jump at the opportunity of rubbishing a system that is in a constant state of flux and improvement and where the teaching is becoming more and more effective.

Nick Wise, Cannes, France

Having grown up in Quebec, I can report that there is an attitude of disdain towards English that is both cultivated and encouraged in some French intellectual strata.
It seems to part of what has been described to me as a wider training in "intellectual bullying" and is a technique for dominance and control.
It is unfortunate that these attitudes are passed on from generation to generation for so many centuries.
How much more fun it would have been to learn French if it had meant that I would be able to look forward to talking about something other than how despicable English-speaking people are.
I suppose the lycée people are repulsed by the idea of having anything to do with the English language at all, and are loathe to facilitate its learning or speaking.
I am certainly happy that France has some positive qualities to balance these experiences out.

David, British Columbia,

Well, yes the questions for aspiring teachers of English in France do seem rather far fetched.
But of course I can testify to the many hundreds of teachers of English as a foreign language in England who don't even know what the word syntax actually means. Or, can't tell the difference between a subject pronoun and an object pronoun.
This is to say that in my 40 years experience as a teacher of English being a native speaker isn't sufficient.
One needs to know the strucure of the language in order to compare it to the student's mother tongue and explain it professsionally.

Arnold Attard, Bergamo, Italy

I work in an environment very similar to that of Ms. Zuckerman, teaching English to Francophone adults in the City of Light. It's amazing to see how poorly they speak English, even after years in public schools spent studying the language (supposedly). Indeed, the incompetence of the French schools in this regard keep innumerable language schools in business, since French businesspeople have no choice but to use English at work, and they cannot speak it when they get out of school, even if they are Polytechniens (if you don't believe me, take a look at the English version of the Ecole Polytechnique Web site--it looks like it was written by a junior-high student). The French are living in in a tall ivory tower and they are losing the global race, I'm afraid.

Tony, Paris, France

Yes i can understand this lady's frustrations and yes perhaps the Sorbonne is a bit snobby .... There may even be a little bit of sour grapes on her and her british colleagues behalf for failing the course
But as an English national who has lived and and owned businesses in the UK the USA and for the last twenty years France I would strongly defend the French level of education as a whole.
If I had to award marks for the overall level of education displayed by general employees, excluding the professional classes , I would give the UK 3/10 the USA 2/10 and French 6/10.

andy james, Lyon, France

Whatever the failings of our system, most young French people speak far better English than the English or Americans I have met speak French.
And there are many opportunities here for English speakers to teach the language without having to go to the Sorbonne to obtain a qualification.

R. Bouchier, Nueil sur Layon, France

On Sobonne Confidential, two things missing : the author a I understand is an American naturalized as a French citizen and this book is only available in French - a marvelous contradiction ! A French bestseller about teaching English in France only available in French (at the moment ?). Some English publisher ought to grab this right away and make a mini-series for television at the least. I can't imagine anything more funny and intriguing - or intellectually interesting - as the story of an American in Paris becoming French to teach English to the French and being done in by the French who wish to leave the teaching of English to the French, with all the permutations and complexities that implies. Bravo Ms. Zuckerman !and where can we get our copy in proper English please ?

E Dmitril, London, England

Excellent. I just wish the BBC applied this test to its newsreaders. The only fault I can see is one of omission.

There should be a mathematical question. Nothing outrageous, just something simple like; "Prove Pythagoras' theorem". We all know it, we all take it for granted, but can we show it to be true?

It seems that the French require a teacher to have an intellectual range and capacity that is above average. We should learn from them.

Ray , Dartmouth,

I know what this is all about as I had a very similar experience in Italy nearly 40 years ago.

I did a 'concorso' and was expected to know everything about English literature and history, and also about Italian legislation as regards schools. That was the part that bothered me most and I have since discovered that not even Italians know it thoroughly.

I was lucky in that I passed, but an English friend of mine didn't - they asked her some of the dreaded legislation questions.

I have since concluded that what is at stake is your cultural level - which has nothing to do with your ability to teach the language of course. It's also to do with your stamina and how much you desire a 'state' job that nobody will kick you out of.

But once you're 'in' then you have to decide how much you can take. But this is not the time or place to go into this. Suffice to say that I have survived - miracle - and am about to retire,

roberta, sassari, italy

Peter C Chetty -

It is true that the French are snobbish and defensive about their own language and culture They sneer at Canadian French and at foreigners trying to speak their language who make grammatical slips. This is an intellectual and ethical failing which they should, but do not, make an effort to overcome.

The rest of your comment also misses the point of the article. Mrs. Zuckerman substantiates serious flaws in the French qualification process. The ramshackle nature of the training and testing speaks for itself. If this is typical of the French educational system, it is no wonder that France, alas, is in the mess it is.

Michael Bruce, Selby, Yorkshire

American English is not rated very much in France nor is French from Canada.
How will you explain to an American that what they think is English is really not Standard English and "You should not have gotten drunk" is correctly "you should not have got drunk". France is willing to accept that the regional accents for the dining table are not good enough for schools so the Arizona drawl can stay in Arizona. She can't complain. What is the percentage of people who speak standard English in America around? 1%? maybe even less.
I know that Americans are laughed at all over the world and even in Liverpool for their "excents"

Peter Casie Chetty, Liverpool, United Kingdom

I agree wholeheartedly with Mrs Zuckerman, the French teaching system seems to have a lot of very intelligent people amongst its staff, but many of whom are no good whatsoever at passing on that knowledge! In France, whether it be in teacher training or any other university subject, the main concern of the 'professeurs' appears to be to maintain their position and status, and they do this by making life very hard for the students instead of encouraging them and giving them the tools they need to learn.
My experience with French schools has taught me that teachers come out of training with a very narrow view of the way things should be done, I think this is instilled in them from day one.

le quellec, CADEN, France

If all countries would adopt the Dutch method of teaching languages we might have multi-lingual school leavers who would feel at ease in half a dozen European languages. If the Dutch can do it, why not the English and the French?The former teach grammar but not colloquial usage of foreign languages, and the latter teach only so that the pupils can pass exams. Example: English boy attending French school, asked what he preferred as a second language, replied Spanish. Oh, no, they said, you must take English. "But I am English". So - you wil be top of the class and have the highest marks in exams and your language teacher will be congratulated. For the benefit of his French teacher , he was not allowed to learn Spanish . Which century are we in?

peter kinsley (www.peterkinsley.com), London, england