Setting the Scene

Last week, I went on a trip to England with 44 students and 3 other profs from my lycée. Since this was a voyage pédagogique, my part was covered by the Académie (school district). My fellow chaperones were V, the English teacher who’s responsible for me; H, a French and History prof; and G, the director of the Printing Press program. As an American, I felt a bit left out of all of the English/French cultural comparisons, but I helped a lot with translation. All of the directions and chatting on the bus were in French, but at night, I spoke English slowly so that my colleagues could understand. H and G are bilingual in German and Italian respectively, and studied some English at school, but we had to do some creative phrasing to ensure comprehension. Towards the end of the week, I became more comfortable with this split existence. The trip seemed like more of a séjour linguistique for me than for the kids! However, no one suffered any irreparable harm and after the second day the students began chatting in English with their families and with each other.