When Bryan Adams was deciding where to take students for a French language-learning trip , a colleague from another state recommended Edu-inter, a French immersion school in Quebec City, Canada.
Adams, a French instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, took her advice. This summer, he took 11 ASMSA students for a three-week trip to Quebec City as part of the school’s Global Learning Program.
Edu-inter offers programs throughout the year that allow students to take French classes, participate in various activities and experience a home stay with a native-speaking family. Students take classes each morning with the afternoons and evenings open for planned excursions through the school, time with their homestay family and opportunities to explore the city on their own.
Students were tested for their French-speaking levels. Several of ASMSA’s students had never taken a French class before. They were placed in a class with a French-speaking teacher. Although the school is in Canada, it employs teachers from French-speaking countries all over the world, giving students the opportunity to learn dialects of French other than Canadian French. The students also are from across the globe, Adams said.
While the classes at the school were an excellent opportunity for the students to begin to learn the language, it was their stays with native speakers and independent time that was more vital to learning the language, Adams said.
“The most important thing was that they were immersed in the language,” Adams said. “One of the biggest benefits is they go to practice independence. They were allowed to go out on their own. They had to use the bus system to get to school and around town.
“The first day some of them may have been terrified, but how do you build self esteem if you don’t challenge yourself? By the end of the three weeks, they could take you on a tour of the city because they knew it. That’s exciting to me.”
Adams said it was easy to give the students such independence because Quebec City is a very safe city. Students could travel the city on their own without many concerns, he said.
“It was really rewarding to me to give those kids that freedom because the city is so safe. I didn’t have to worry about their safety. The most rewarding thing about it was they were able to get around a metropolitan area [whose residents spoke a different language] on their own,” he said.
The worst thing that happened during the three weeks? One student lost a phone, but it was found and returned, he said.
Nick Herring (’17) had little knowledge of French when the trip started. While the classes helped him begin to establish a base that he could use with his homestay family, it was his travels in town that helped his vocabulary grow more quickly he said.
“I like exploring the most,” he said. “I was allowed to go downtown on my own. The shopkeepers spoke French. It was difficult at first. Most assume you know French if you’re in public by yourself.
“One of the discouraging things is getting embarrassed if you mess up, but it’s also one of the key tools because it pushes you to not do certain things. You have to not focus on the mistakes because if you do you’re gonna be stuck on them.”
Lauren Lessenberry (’17) had little experience speaking French before the trip, and it was her first time to be outside the United States. Her host in Quebec City was a woman who spoke very little English.
At first the two communicated through a lot of hand signals. “It was hard to communicate, but what helped a lot was she was so willing to help me and understood my situation and how hard it was for me. She had hosted students before and dealt with the language barrier,” Lessenberry said.
Throughout her stay and in the classes, Lessenberry began to pick up the language quickly. By the end of the three weeks, she had learned to conjugate each family of verbs in French and could speak it well enough to stay in contact with her host after the trip.
“I connected with my host mom just like my mom. Her home felt like home. I made a friend for the rest of my life. All of the people in Quebec City were nice and polite. I truly go to see people who choose kindness and happiness over crime and politics,” she said.
She applauded the opportunity to have freedom to travel throughout the city as a learning experience as well.
“Having that freedom, I was able to do a lot of things I couldn’t do here because of how safe the city is. If I wanted to walk around by myself at 8 p.m., I could,” she said.
Some of the group activities included trips to museums, going whitewater rafting and a whale-watching trip. Perhaps the most exciting opportunity, however, was the chance to attend the city’s summer festival—Le Festival D’ete de Quebec—which included performances by popular acts such as Selena Gomez, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Brad Paisley, Flo Rida, Sheryl Crow, Sting and many others. The cost of the festival was included in the Edu-inter experience.
By the end of the trip, both Herring and Lessenberry decided they wanted to take French at ASMSA this year. Their experience at Edu-inter and in Quebec City allowed them to begin with French II.
“Nick blossomed,” Adams said. “It was really rewarding to me to see that. I’m really grateful that it was not just a trip but also had a classical academic component to it.”