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International School of Stuttgart > learning at ISS > the middle years > Grade 10 French exchange
These questions were also running in my head, but at least I didn’t have to worry about the language! Still, what will the family I was to spend a week with be like? Changing my habits, sharing their everyday life…and mine, spending so much time with…strangers. A week later, back on the train, the smiles, the stories and Gigabytes of photos would give us only positive answers to these fearful questions. This little town near Metz was to surprise us in many ways. They may have neither a cinema, nor a Starbucks and only a few bus connections…but they know how to give you the warmest welcome! The exchange students and their families became tourist guides, translators and chefs. On the very first day of school, le directeur, la principale et Monsieur le Maire himself invited us to a delicious breakfast. The last day was celebrated in the teachers’ room with cakes and drinks and the delivery of écussons/ escutcheon of Creutzwald. The fact that the mayor is also teaching there helped to gain more insight into the town , its history and its inhabitants. I brought back great stories of fun, joy, generosity, as well as a huge piece of ham and indeed a few new expressions (my favourite one: “entre midi” ,between noon, simply meaning between noon and 2). It even seems that our students won’t be able to wait until the 2nd week of March to see each other again, and you might meet a group of excited grade 10 walking about the Weihnachtsmarkt speaking French to their correspondants. Thanks to the success of such exchange programs, students can link what they have been learning in the classroom to positive experiences. They are directly connected to the taught subject, which subsequently changes the way they are learning. Let’s be prepared to welcome them as warmly as they did. I can’t wait to see our international community welcoming this fantastic group of students and teachers from Lorraine. And if you have never been there, I can now advise you to jump in the train to Metz and visit its surroundings. Here are the reactions of some of our students: I found the exchange program to be very educational because you were forced to improve your French. Now, we all speak more fluently! Elena Although it was often difficult to understand the French people, I was able to communicate with them anyway. All the students were very friendly and I had a lot of fun. Juliane 
The best part about the exchange was getting to know some French culture and drastically increasing my French speaking. Jan I liked going to France a lot because it was a very good opportunity to experience the culture with people who live with it everyday and not only those aspects open to tourism. Max  The exchange to France this year was one of the best field trips I've ever been on. I had the privilege to live with a great family and enlarge my French vocabulary. The French school system was an interesting contrast to our school, with their 800 students and nine and a half hours of school. I especially enjoyed our evening at the bowling alley, where we could get to know other exchange students and have fun with our friends. I hope that the class that's going next year will have just as much fun as I did. Sophia
For an aperçu of the beautiful lakes and forests: http://www.creutzwald.fr/site/presentation_diaporama.php |
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