Dear Mme. Biard,
I am writing to thank you for your kind gift which I received, as I was leaving Lycée Sainte-Ursule, yesterday. It was unexpected and unnecessary, as it had been my pleasure to talk to your students.
Your students were a credit to you, I was very aware of their concentration, their interest and their good manners. I know the amount of effort it takes to listen to someone speaking in a foreign language for a long period of time and it is even more difficult if it is about a subject which might not be of great interest to them. To have listened to 2000 years of history and culture compressed into one hour and to try to understand it, must have been exhausting for your students.
I hope you can forgive me for extending my time with you by venturing onto two subjects I have strong feelings about. As I am not a teacher, I hoped they might listen better when I told them to avoid slang and ‘Americanisms’ they may hear in films or on the Internet because it would be so damaging to their final note in the Bacc. Finally, please reinforce my request that they find the courage to approach any Anglophone they can find, to ask if they can practice English. The confidence they would acquire will improve their English enormously and add great value to their future careers. You have given them the tools, I want them to understand that tools are no use unless they go out and use those tools.
If any questions arise or any clarifications are required, please contact me. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to your students and to them for their concentration and their courtesy.
Yours sincerely,
Ken Holmes