A Funday is an immersion experience of all-day English for French kids. Instead of real school, they get a day planned with activities like English songs, dance, quizzes, outdoor games, and cooking manned by a team of English assistants and teachers. I got the singing workshop.

My job consisted of training groups of kids to sing the chorus to Pharrell Williams’s “Happy”. The group was then split in half with one side singing the backup of “happy, happy, happy happy…..” and the the other more comfortable English speakers were tasked with producing the actual words. For those of you living in a box (Mom ;)), here is the link to the song.

They were shy with singing loudly at first, but I was surprised at how quickly they caught on.

My day was a lot of keeping the kids on key and wild snapping to keep time. My fingers were red and my voice was cracked by the end of the day, but I had a great time. It was awesome to do something different, a refreshing change, and we all got pancakes at the end! The pictures tell the rest of the story.

The entire school was let loose outside for the performance, with half the kids having learned the happy song and the other half having done the fish and chips song. What ensued was a valiant attempt to separate the two groups and get everyone to listen at the same time. Just another day! I think I’ll stick with a class of 20.

Until next time.

-D.