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The early stages and primary school My name is Christian Marc Gallie. I was born in February 11th 1972 in
Bouake, the second biggest city of Ivory Coast (West Africa). I belong
to a very large family of 10 members: Five sisters and 4 brothers. I grew
up in a very small suburb called Tchelekro in bouake. When I was five,
my parents sent me to a Catholic kindergarden located in Downtown Bouake.
I spent a year there and returned to my suburb. In 1978 when I was six,
I started primary school in a local school called "Ecole Primaire Public
EPP Yaokoffikro." Three years after I started primary school, my father
died. Fortunately, he had worked hard enough to provide the family with
every necessary financial support. I spent seven bright years in that school
and succeeded to my CEPE and Entree en Sixieme exam.
The years of secondary and high school With that degree I started secondary school in 1985 in a district named
N'gathakro. The name of the school was College Henri Poincare. I was granted
a scholarship by the Government which covers all my school fees, except
the book and clothe expenses. In addition to paying my school expenses,
I was receiving 12 000 CFA (approximately 18 US dollars) every three months.
After four years, I graduated from secondary school with a BEPC degree
in 1989. To reward me for my success, my elder sister, who was living at
that time in London (Great Britain) and serving the Ivorian Ambassy, paid
me a trip to London. I spend one month and half and returned home with
three heavy suitcases. It was the first time after my father's death that
I received as many presents. My trip to London actually instigated my love
for the English language. When I came back I realized that I was oriented,
to my great pleasure, in the Literature field, which included Languages.
I then decided to make of English my major when I will get to the University.
To achieve that, I had to start building and stengthening my knowledge
in the language. For the four years of high school I remained one of the
best students in English. In Terminale (the last year before College),
I was the second best of my class.
The years of college and university It was the second time I went to Abidjan. The first time was a very
quick stay (4 days) when I was in transiting for London. So, I knew things
would be very hard, based on what I had heard about the capital. But I
was fortunate enough that my elder sister had come back from London to
live in Abidjan. As I was refused scholarship and residency at the University
village, I had no other choice but to stay with my sister and her two children.
I spent six months with them and then decided to be on my own. I went to
one of the University villages and shared a room with a friend of mine,
who had been in the same high school as me, and the best student in English.
We were both accepted in the Department of English, so I knew we would
get on well. We actually did until we both got the scholarship and I particularly
got accepted in a different village. Our desire was to be among the best
students of the Department. We did then study a lot because the four hundred
students who had also been accepted in the Department, were supposed to
be the elite of all high schools all over the country. We got our reward
by getting that scholarship two years after we started College. Among the
four hundred students who started College with us, and except the 15, who
actually got their scholarship right away, only thirty students got the
scholarship.
My teaching experience In 1990, I entered a teacher training program for Cathechists in Saint
Jean Baptiste, a Catholic church in Bouake. Six months later, I started
teaching cathechism to the children of my church (Saint Francois Xavier
in Tchelekro). The following year, I taught adolescents (like myself) before
I graduated from high school and before I went to the capital. In the beginning
I decided to focus on my studies only, but in 1994, I resumed teaching
cathechism to children and adolescents at a church in Port-Bouet, a district
of Abidjan. At the same time, I started tutoring secondary and high school
students in English. In 1996, I stopped teaching catechism for time constraints,
because I was having more and more students to tutor. I finally turned
those tutoring sessions into private teaching sessions. At the same time,
I got an offer to tutor Libanese children in French, Maths, and History.
In 1998, I was offered a teaching position (my students were civil servants)
at SOCIMAT, a well known enterprise in Abidjan. In November 1999, after
having found a substitute, I stopped teaching and flied to Atlanta to enter
the program of Applied Linguistics and ESL.
How I got into the program? That same year (1999), a few months ago, I met Dr. Doris Derby (Direcor
of the Office of African-American Services and Programs at Georgia State
University). She introduced me to Dr. Joan Carson, who was the chair of
the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University,
in Atlanta. Both of them were on a mission in Abidjan for the Project Link
between the Republic of Ivory Coast and Georgia State University. They
told me about the program of Applied Linguistics and ESL. I told them my
wish to enter that program. I was then required to take the TOEFL and the
GRE in order to be accepted. Because I was having trouble taking the TOEFL
in Abidjan, I flied to Atlanta to take the test. Unfortunately, my scores
on both tests did not meet the requirements of the Department; so I was
required to take some additional English courses in the Intensive English
Program at Georgia State. I spent one semester in the IEP and was finally
accepted in the Applied Linguistics and ESL program. I then started the
program in Summer 2000. In December 2001, I will graduate from this program,
hopefully with a minimum GPA of 3.9.
Marital status In August 1997, I married a very pretty lady of the name of Amelie Kone.
We first met in high school and we happened to be in the same class for
three years. She failed the high school diploma and had to stay in Bouake
while I was leaving for Abidjan. Yet, our love remained strong as we finally
got married in 1997. We have a wonderful son, Paul-Marie, who is now 3
year old. We are a very happy family living in Decatur, GA with my nice
niece Patricia Lambin.
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