Annales gratuites Bac L : A job for a German immigrant

        The waiting area grew colder and emptier as dark fell, and he moved closer to the smoking
     stove by the clerk's counter. Soon there would be nothing left to do but knock on church doors and
     seek lodging for the night. He brooded over other possible avenues but came up only with cold
     alleyways. Well, it was warmer by the stove at least, and he stretched out his legs toward the heat.
5       He surprised himself suddenly with a twitch - he'd been asleep. He looked to the far corner and
     saw the clerk at the desk beckon at him.
        "You. Yeah, you"
        He had been called.
        "Yes, sir." Hands on thighs, optimism rising, he stood.
10     "You been here all day. Didn't you sign in? Don't you realize we're closed?" He looked about
     and saw that the other benches sat vacant and the hall was empty but for himself and the clerk.
     The optimism dwindled away. The man was just kicking him out.
        "Sorry. Sorry. I'll go."
        "No - wait. Turns out you're lucky. See, I only let you snore because of the rotten weather, but
15  now it seems I'm lucky. You noticed the snow? Well, someone at Street Cleaning only just looked
     out the window, and they sent a boy over here with an order for an overnight shoveling¹ crew - just
     in time for closing. So what about it? Shoveling snow for the city. You want the job?"
         It took him a moment to follow. "Snow, a job, shoveling," he repeated, and then he understood.
     "Ja, danke, danke" he said.
20    "Is that a yes? You better stop speaking Dutch and learn some English."
        "Yes. Yes, sir."
        "All right, good. You can start now and go till the regulars show up at six, see? Anyway, you've
     had your beauty sleep, and I think I can tell from looking that you ain't got evening plans." Beauty
      sleep? the stableman wondered. Evening plans? He wasn't sure how he should respond.
25    "Or don't you want a night job? You want I find some other lug²?"
        "A lug? No... or, yes. I mean, yes, I'll do it - and no, no one else.
        "'You'll take the job."
        "I'll take it"
        "Good. The thing of it is, you're the only man left. You think you're man enough to shovel the
30  city alone?"
        "The city, alone?" He thought a moment. Perhaps it was a joke. "That would take a long time,
      sir," he finally said. His English might have been better if only the few people who talked to him
     had made more sense.
        "You're right, it would. So, first thing you do is round up, say, twenty men and take 'em down to
35  the dock at Coffee House Slip, East River off of Wall Street. You'll get the carts and shovels there
     and sign up with the fellow at the office. The others get paid for the time they shovel, you get paid
     foreman's³ wages, starting right now."
        Foreman's wages.
        "What's your name?"
40     "Geiermeier," he said, and leaning over the clerk's ledger⁴, he saw it written out in the beautiful
     Gothic script he'd learned as a boy and pointed to the entry. "I signed in this morning."
        "You got to be kidding. Is that how you say that? I must have tried to call you five times today,
     yesterday, too. I started to think it was Chinese, all that up and down and curlicue around, no way
     of knowing what letters is meant. Where'd you learn to write like that anyhow? You don't know how
45  to give yourself a leg up, do you?
        A leg up? Americans said much that he didn't understand. He had listened almost obsessively
     to the names being called. But then the clerk uttered a strange, vaguely familiar word, and it
     dawned on him: this was how the clerk had been pronouncing his name, with the g misinterpreted
     as h, the vowels collapsed, the m transmuted, and the sounds and stresses generally so different
50  from the actual pronunciation that it hadn't even registered on him. He frowned slightly with
     frustration - how many opportunities had he missed in the past two days because of this?
        "That's a G," he said weakly, pointing to the page. "I never realized you were calling me."
        "What kind of writing is that, Greek? You ain't Greek, are you?"
        "It's German."
55     "Aw, jeez. Now, there's plenty of Germans in New York, and they seem to get along. But where
     are you going to get with a name no one can read, and you can't even tell when they're trying to? It
     just won't do, that name. Or the handwriting either."

Adapted from Elizabeth Gaffney, Metropolis, 2005.

1 to shovel : déblayer
2 lug : gars
3 foreman : contremaître
4 ledger : registre

Choose one of the following subjects.
(250 words approximately. Write down the number of words.)

Subject 1
Trying to make oneself understood in a foreign country is not always easy. What sort of situations can it lead to? Give examples.

Subject 2
You tell your friends that you have decided to apply for a summer job in an English-speaking country. They react to your decision. Write the scene.

I - LES DIFFERENTS TYPES DE SUJETS ET LEURS CONTRAINTES

Le premier sujet est un sujet d'argumentation sur la difficulté des étrangers à se faire comprendre. Sujet classique qui permet de vous exprimer sans contrainte en donnant des exemples.
Le second sujet impose des exigences de forme et de fond. Il faut rédiger un dialogue entre vous et vos amis. Le style doit donc être informel, voire familier sans tomber dans l'excès.

II - LES NOTIONS ATTENDUES ET SAVOIR-FAIRE

Subject 1

Le premier sujet est à la fois descriptif et argumentatif. Vous devez illustrer votre propos par des exemples cocasses et originaux afin d'attiser l'intérêt du correcteur.
Vous pouvez introduire le sujet de manière générale ou directement raconter une histoire en vous plaçant comme protagoniste. On vous demande de relater des évènements. Faites donc attention aux temps et à la concordance des temps.
Le sujet étant vaste, vous pouvez utiliser le style direct ou indirect, et de la narration.
Vous pouvez également vous mettre à la place de l'étranger en faisant part de ses émotions :
● I felt / bewildered, stunned, disappointed, misunderstood, belittled, uneasy, queasy ;
● People were looking down on me.
Vous pouvez conclure sur la nécessité et l'intérêt d'apprendre une ou plusieurs langues étrangères aujourd'hui.

Subject 2

Il est primordial d'introduire votre dialogue : annoncez en une phrase de quoi vous allez parler en précisant les circonstances.
Le discours en anglais suppose des guillemets (surtout pas de tirets). Allez à la ligne lorsque le locuteur change. Les verbes introducteurs doivent être au prétérit :
She said, I replied, He insisted...
Modulez à l'aide d'adjectifs et d'adverbes pour colorer le dialogue (firmly, abruptly, hopefully, delighted, surprised, inquisitive...)
Utilisez le registre affectif et la notion de volonté et détermination :
● "I intend to" ;
● "I plan to" ;
● "I'm determined to go" ;
● "I'll stick to my decision, no matter what you think".
(Futur + when) "When I come back, I will...
Réponses possibles des amis:
● "What if you don't fit in?" ;
● "You might / may / could feel lonely / desperate / at-a-loss" ;
● "If I were you, I would not leave / have second thoughts about it" ;
● "We will miss you".
La fin du dialogue ne doit pas être brutale sous prétexte que vous avez atteint votre quota de mots.