Bonjour les parents!
Many of you have probably been checking the blog religiously for updates. Fear not! Your children have safely arrived in France. After a beautiful day in Paris, where we briefly visited Notre Dame and the Place des Vosges, we caught an early train (nothing like a 5:00 AM wake up call to start the trip!) to Brest. We are currently situated in a wonderfully quaint town called Morgat no more than 100 meters from the ocean. As a matter of fact, two of our language lessons so far have somehow incorporated a visit to the lovely beach by our hotel.
It is early yet, but already the kids are beginning to make strides with their French by the sheer fact that they are actively using the language. I even have some math to prove that they are learning. Let’s say they have French class 4 to 5 times a week for an average of 1 hour each class. In an hour long class, each student speaks for approximately 3 to 5 minutes realistically. So if we estimate high, they are still only speaking a total of 25 minutes of French a week. They spoke nearly 4 times that much on the first day alone! The numbers don’t lie folks.
The language lessons have so far been very practical and pretty fun. Laura and I gave each student a small journal to write down new vocabulary that they find useful or interesting-- by the end of the program they should have a substantial log of words and phrases that they can comfortably use in conversation.
On the social side of things, the group seems to be getting along quite well, which was apparent especially on our boat tour this afternoon. Spirits are high and the language is improving, what more could we ask for?!
Until soon!Tim and Laura
