Name:
Cheryl Pegues
Nationality: American
What
are you teaching? Specialized
English for Top-level Professionals in Government, Business, Media,
Communication, Entertainment. English for Fashion Professionals
How
long have you been teaching? 14
years
How
did you get into teaching English? I
was recruited to lead “English for entertainment professionals”
workshops for les
intermmitants du spectacle who
were members of AFDAS; my
5 years of weekly work with them, along with my background as a chef
cuisinière and
fashion prototype developer morphed into the specialized language
training and coaching I do today.
Do
you have certifications ? I owe
my position in the specialized English field to the fact that I
do not have
classic certification which tends to format pedagogy in a specific
way; however, I do currently teach preparation for the IELTS test at
the university level.
Where
are you currently working? Are you looking for new opportunities? I
have an ongoing translation contract with EDF-DME and a training
contracts with EDE EDEV and the French Ministère
de Défense ,
provide simultaneous and written translation services regularly at
Sonia Rykiel S.A and at Karl Lagerfeld, teach English for Fashion and
Fashion Marketing at Mod’Art International, and am part of the
staff of English Coaching professionals at English Booster. And I am
always looking for new opportunities, particularly anything that
takes me into new arenas, new professional challenges, new things and
people to see and know, and where I can evolve and grow.
Where
else have you worked? I have
trained many business leaders, several of the bilingual on-air TV
journalists at France 24, a porte
parole at the French Senate,
participated as an English specialist in the election campaign of a
French Député, have been a part of the training staff at the CFPJ,
and coached actors, producers and directors and television execs in
English for various French cinema and television production
companies.
What
do you love about teaching English? Watching
my trainees succeed, develop, and win.
It
is often said that French people are bad at English. How would you
react to this statement?Too
much of English training at the Education
Nationale level
focuses on written exercises, and English is not taught as a
“language vivant”. When added to the psycho-social inhibitions
inherent in the culture, which make perceived vulnerability a no-no,
there is not much room for taking the kind of risk-taking involved in
communication in a language not your own. This favors appearance (a
good grade on your exercise, and the status it confers) over
substance (the actually ability to communicate well verbally, if
imperfectly, in English). The two languages also have different
purposes. English is based on exchanging information in the clearest,
most straight-forward and linear way, whereas French is a sometimes
elegant, sometimes gritty and dynamic exercise in “linguistic
bravura”, where subjects are conceptualized (“le dispositive”,
“l’enjeu”, “l’affectif”), examined, and validated based
on a pre-agreed standard of merit (you “defend” your thesis, and
learn philosophical arguments that support your position). English
involves a lot of question and answer-type exchanges, and most French
English speakers are uncomfortable asking questions both
linguistically and from an interpersonal standpoint. There are
therefore a variety of handicaps involved, which have little to do
with actual ability, and
everything to do with “amenability”!
Is
there a blog/a website on which we can find you? I
have a blog, “Exoteric,
Intelligible” and no time to keep it up – but I’ll need to
get at it soon – I am writing a book in tandem with a French exec!
