Audiovisual

Lycée français de Belgique, Brussels, 1979.

 

Audiovisual

 

It was the 70s, in French high school, at the beginning of electronics in the classroom, more specifically in the English “lab” where we were the guinea pigs of the new “audio-visual” method. We quickly renamed it the “idiot-visual” method because, without any books or worksheets, we didn’t understand a thing and so learned nothing. They showed us drawings without texts all the while bombarding our ears with sound sequences, and no way to distinguish one word from another or know their meaning. How many years were lost? Thankfully, my hobbies pushed me towards works in English, which I was dying to understand. Thanks to a dictionary and a good dose of stubbornness, I learned English on my own.

 
 
Philippe Graton