By Faith Evans
Thirty-three French foreign exchange students will stay with Coronado families from April 17 to 29 to observe and experience American culture. Throughout the week, they will have the opportunity to explore popular sites in Las Vegas and shadow their host students as they go about their average school day.
Exchange students and host students are paired based off mock-facebook profile pages submitted by the exchange students, which disclose their likes, dislikes, interests, plans for the future, allergies, and other basic information.
During the trip, the exchange students will visit the Titanic Exhibit, CSI Experience, Bodies Exhibition, LINQ, Mob Museum, Neon Museum, Grand Canyon, and Springs Preserve. They will be on campus April 18, 20, 25, and 28.
“It’s my first time here, and it is just like in the movies. Everything is big…Americans are pretty cool,” Louis Forpin, seconde année (sophomore), said.
Grade levels are a bit different in France, for instance, students attend three years of lycée (high school); sophomores are the equivalent of étudiants de seconde année, juniors are étudiants de première année, and seniors are étudiants de terminale. Grades count down instead of up, so direct translations can sound misleading to up-counting Americans.
Jeanne Regnier, première année, described some of the other, dissimilar things she noticed as her day went on. “[Coronado] is very different from our high school. This is way bigger…We had to pack lunch with sandwiches with peanut butter and jelly, and protein bars; that’s not what we eat every single day,” Regnier said.
In France, all meals are taken very seriously, including school lunch. To eat a PB&J every day would be an atrocity. An article from 2010 on CBS news highlighted that most students are served a five-course meal with all the necessary nutritional benefits. Some school lunch menus even come with dinner suggestions to make sure all students consume a balanced diet when not at school.
Along with lunch, general day-to-day life in lycée is also quite unique in France. The school day is much longer than it is in America, and most students attend school Monday through Saturday with half days on Wednesday and Saturday. Lunch time is longer, usually around an hour, and classes run on a weekly schedule rather than daily schedule.
Host students have been kept busy asking and answering questions as they learn more about the average school day in France.
“They’re very cultural. They ask a ton of questions about our country, and they ask if we know anything about their country. It’s a cool experience so far,” Cody Sciabica, sophomore host, said.
Regardless of the curious little differences that host students and exchange students have found to be international oddities, both parties seem to agree that the next two weeks will be very enlightening.
“I think it’s awesome just to have someone of your own age range that you can keep in contact with that is abroad…Hopefully in the exchange in the fall they [can] stay with this person and continue to learn the language and the culture as well,” Madame King, French instructor, said. “I think one of the best ways to [learn] a foreign language is within the country. Getting that opportunity in high school is tremendous, [and] it will help each student significantly.”
