by Mac Olsen for
Spotlight
Learning English was daunting for two French exchange students, but they appreciated the opportunity to learn it while spending a month at Ecole Heritage in Falher.
Emma Bastien and Arthur Lang are Grade 11 students from the Lorraine region of France. Bastien lives near Metz and Lang lives near Lunéville. They very much enjoyed the opportunity to come to the Peace Country for a month.
“I really like Canada and always wanted to come here,” says Bastien.
“It’s important to learn about another part of the world,” says Lang.
To learn English, they received special time tables to attend English classes. Bastien also helped two classes learn English at the same time she was learning, and found it to be a very enjoyable experience.
For Lang, it was interesting to learn vocabulary in another language. The process of learning English is different in France, so he appreciated learning it through a different process in Canada.
Bastien found that Canada met her expectations, including the French culture of this area being much like that of France.
However, she was surprised to find some American influences here as well.
Lang found the cultural influences the same as Bastien did. Compared to the region they’re from, they found the Peace Country vast, but they also found some similarities like the mountainous terrain.
Both students felt very welcome at Ecole Heritage, commenting that it has a friendly atmosphere that feels like family. They also participated on the Lynx volleyball teams, which isn’t as popular in France. Lang helped coach the senior boys’ team, but he also learned more about the sport in the month of October than he learned his entire life.
The most important things Bastien will take home with her are learning the English language and the friends she has made.
For Lang, he will appreciate how Canadian culture met his expectations, and also how it is different from them.
Both students would like to return to Canada and explore its vastness and cultural diversity.
Bastien and Lang returned to France at the end of October. Their counterparts at Ecole Heritage, Cloé Maisonneuve and Oliver Roy, will go to their respective schools in France for a month, beginning in March 2016.
