FARMINGTON – French teacher Sylvie Magri and a few students took a step toward realizing their dream to drink French coffee in Paris this February by raising money at Mt. Blue’s Christmas Craft Fair last Saturday.
The group sold packaged specialty coffee at the fair in order to afford the trip.
Twelve to 15 French students, along with teachers Magri and Gordon LePage, need to furnish about $1,300 per person to travel to the City of Light and to Dijon to learn about the French language and culture firsthand.
The idea is to begin with two days of sightseeing in Paris, although students will spend most of their time living with host families in Dijon, taking part in a well-established student exchange program, Magri said.
Magri, a native of Marseilles in the south of France, said that although she and LePage have not yet planned most of the trip details, students may travel to the Loire Valley to see a chateaux, visit museums in Paris, and take hikes with their host families in Dijon, which is “near the mountains” south of the French capital.
The students are excited about both the academic and the cultural aspects of the trip, according to third-year student Ophelia Hathaway.
“I’ve wanted to go to France my entire life,” she said. “I really want to go to Paris.” She is excited, she said, just to be able to “pretty much immerse myself in the culture. You’re less of a tourist when you’re actually staying with a French family.”
Magri said she hopes the students will not only improve their command of the French language while living with French-speaking host families, but get comfortable trying to communicate even though their language skills are not perfect.
She said students will learn that they can make themselves understood to their host families without perfect grammar skills.
“They are able to do that at this stage,” she said.
Magri said she also hopes the students will take away an “understanding that the world is a big place” from their French experience.
She said the idea that French people dislike Americans is a misconception.
“French people really like American people. They’re not really anti-American,” she said.
She added that “the popularity of Americans is still very strong” and that “many people are supportive of Americans.”
She said that in the past, students have learned important things about their own culture as well as French culture during their visits overseas.
The French educational system is very different from its American counterpart. Not only do French students have more homework than Americans, they also relate differently with their teachers, she said.
In the United States, the relationship between students and teachers is “very friendly,” Magri said.
“There is a big emphasis on personal contact. Over there it is more like you keep your distance between teachers and students. It’s not as friendly as here,” she said.
Comments are no longer available on this story