When a non-native speaker asks a French person a question, the response is typically a pause, a smirk, and then a correction of the question with perfect and fully-confident pronunciation. Of course, they have something to be confident about; their language is relentless and they're masters of it, yet seems to be an inherently French thing. You rarely see an American feel so haughty about being able to speak their own language well...well, not a nice American. So where does this confidence come from?
The only place I can think of is from the depths of Hell: L'Université de Bordeaux (or any other French school.) Mais pourquoi? A little something they like to call "un zéro", or the lowest grade possible on their 20-point scale. In American schools, a completed assignment is likely to receive no lower than a B-, assuming it was turned in and not done by a rabbit. On a 20-point scale, that would be around a 16, or 80%. In French schools, a 10, or what they call "le moyen" is what students shoot for. Around half of them get this grade. And of the rest? A simple bell curve is incapable of drawing out the range typically doled out by professors. From stealing glances and hear-say, I'd conjecture that the vast majority of the rest of the students receive an 8 or a 9 with those fortunate enough to receive an 11 or 12 what we would call "curve-setters". Those who receive other grades are typically lower, often much lower. And what of "le zéro"? Well, I don't think it's given out much, but I have seen a 5, that's a mere 20%, and considering the entire assignment was completed, I thought a bit harsh. In fact, I had a professor say that as she could not give us foreign students less than a 1, because that would be cruel, so she opted to give us global grades, taking into consideration our inferior language skills. But what I think is more important even than the grade of 0 is the fact that the term can refer to the person who receives it. And boy do professors like to announce the grades out as they give them out. Each student has his or her grade stapled to their forehead while the professor tells them, in front of the class, what they did wrong.
So what does this have to do with confidence in oral communication skills? I think that the ruthless grading system in schools actually forces students, and as a result people, to shed their sensitivity about their shortcomings and to don thick skin. When they're right, they know it and are proud to show it. When they're wrong...well, they're so rarely wrong. The moral of this story? If you want confidence, you have to allow yourself to be cut down, demoralized, and humiliated in front of a classroom of your peers. Only then can you truly understand the thrilling sentiment of hearing an American butcher your language.
