We’ve finally arrived at Spring Break. It was a long slog from Quebec and our ski trip with Tarik back in February as I was in full swing tennis season and students struggling to learn French with big projects and test taking time. After teaching 3 previous years I’m starting to recognize the patterns more and moments in the semester where things like this happen and everybody just seems to be trying to get through while the insurmountable mountains of papers to grade build for teachers. Preparing for France was also somewhat stressful and I probably did not do nearly enough to actually get ready. But here I am, writing once again in Sarreguemines where we jump straight from school to our semi-vacation and then back again. This time we are staying here until Sunday also and our new principal has rejected both my French colleague Jennifer and my request for a day off on Monday when we get back sadly.
It’s interesting to be back in France in the same place, staying with the same teacher for the second time where everything is a little more familiar and I am not quite as worried about the students. We have a little bit smaller of a group this time (16 students) and while young, they mostly seem pretty good. Still, I cross my fingers that nothing bad happens and there’s quite a bit of time when we aren’t with them and they stay with their host families. On the other hand, when they are together, singing songs on the bus in English, texting their friends on snap chat back home with their international plans, and eating McDonalds, I think about just how different their “immersion” experience is here. In fact, it’s not really an immersion experience and I think unless they are trying really hard to improve their French, mostly they are here to have fun, have an interesting cultural experience during their spring break, make surprisingly strong connections with their French hosts, and to bring back some good stories with them to the States. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this and perhaps, it’s too ambitious to think someone would have a life changing experience in 10 days, but in end I think I don’t think this type of trip is as meaningful as a true immersion experience.
I wish that we didn’t have all of the group time with our students but I know this is also what they look forward to the most and that staying with their host families for extended periods of time is also scary for them. I also realize that my perspective now on all of this is very different because I lived in Belgium for 9 months in high school and I’ve traveled so much since then. It’s hard for me to put myself in my students’ shoes and try to imagine how they are feeling right now; especially the students who’ve barely left the U.S. before. If I tailor my expectations so that this trip is meant to spark something inside of them instead, and not necessarily be life changing in it of itself, it’s much more likely that we’ll be successful.
I’ve also forgotten about how bad the service is in France at restaurants. We had an hour to eat a meal the other night and the two Marc’s (our French chaperone counterparts) didn’t think we had enough time for an appetizer and a desert in that span. The waiter surprisingly agreed - and this is where we see the difference of our tip culture. They don’t really have any incentive too get you to order more or expensive options.
The French are also very protective of their language and incredibly precise with their grammar. Punctuation is very important and teachers here may make it harder for Americans to want to learn their language. With most of the world speaking English now as a universal language there just isn't as much incentive for our students to learn French either.
