French Department 2017
Bonjour
The French department has been busy again this year with Mardi Gras festivities, the Paris exchange , Delf Examinations, French speaking competitions, Petanque competitions and visits to La Maison des Crêpes for our senior students.
Our Exchange students arrived back from Paris in January having spent six exciting weeks in Paris with their exchange partners. Max Mclachlan, Ashton Williams -Dallow and Elaine Hague experienced Christmas in Paris, attended classes at la Source school, visited many museums and travelled around France.
Here is Ashton’s impression of her exchange experience;
"To be completely honest, it is hard for me to put my exchange into words. All I can say that it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and without the exchange, I can strongly say I would not be the person who I am today. My exchange, where I spent 6 weeks living with a family in Paris, showed me the side of another culture that I had only dreamt of seeing one day. The people that I met were all welcoming, especially my host family, who I can happily say are my second family; my exchange partner my sister and my best friend.
Imagine yourself seeing tourist attractions and monuments you have only seen in movies. Imagine eating strange foods that you aren't sure what exactly they are. Imagine traveling from one side of France to another to visit family. Imagine a white Christmas. Imagine meeting amazing people of a different culture and language. Imagine having stories that you will keep with you for a lifetime. Imagine. With an exchange, you don't have to imagine. This happens. And it is an experience incroyable. You will visit these places and more that you did not even know about, you will experience eating strange foods, and decipher which ones you will eat again, and realize the ones to stay away from. You, if like me, could find yourself walking down the Champs Elysees on the evening of 23rd December, only to see specks of snow start to fall amongst Christmas lights.
There are so many stories that you will have to share after an exchange, and these may be related to the places you go, but for me, what makes an exchange special, is the people that you meet. On my travels, there was not one person who I wouldn't like to see again, in fact, almost a year since I left for Paris, there are all these people that let me into their lives, that I miss. A lot. But to be able to say that I have formed these lifelong friendships is definitely a valuable part of an exchange.
If you get the opportunity to do an exchange, whether it is during your years at school, or in further education, then I strongly suggest seizing that opportunity, and without sounding like a cliche, it is an indescribable experience, and in order for you to fully know, you must experience it for yourself."
In April we celebrated Mardi Gras with the students making crêpes and macarons to sell in the Languages Quad. The fine day and festive music proved a success with everything sold out within half an hour. Un grand merci to those crepe makers and sellers.
Our year 13 class was truly multi-cultural with Coline from Belgium, Felix from Germany , Thea, Clara and Mathilde from Paris. We loved hearing our international students’ opinions and experiences of life in their countries and they were sadly missed when they returned home.
It was a year for “La Politique “ and we watched the debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen from which stemmed some heated discussion in class.As the students were eligible to vote this year in NZ this seemed an appropriate theme to study. Despite the arguments in class, everyone seemed to finish the year still on good terms!.
We had record numbers of students sitting the DELF examination this year. Twenty one senior students sat for four hours completing listening, reading , writing and speaking exams and our students all passed with flying colours.! Two of them,Sophie Williams and Midori Lindeman received the top marks for Canterbury and were invited to participate in the national speaking competition. They both did very well but missed out on receiving the coveted free trip to Paris as National winner.
Everyone knows that the French love food and la bonne cuisine is an essential part of everyday life.So to discover La Maison des Crêpes was truly appreciated by the senior French classes. The waiters are French as are the menus so the students appreciated this authentic cultural experience and of course the delicious crêpes and glaces. No doubt there will be many more visits paid to this house of Crepes.
We finish the year saying Au Revoir to three more students leaving on their exchange to Paris ; Sarah Burton, Phoebe Thomson and Piper Dixon will leave on December 1 to spend six weeks with their exchange partners.
We wish them bon voyage, bonnes vacances et bon retour .