French Connections

CONNECTIONS FRENCH

During Terms 2 & 3 we had the pleasure of getting to know Leopold Camus and Thais Daney de Marcillac, two personality-filled exchange students from France, studying with us for 12 and 8 weeks respectively .

So how did they find life in Australia and here at Eynesbury?

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

T: My name is Thais. I come from France, near Paris - Chatou - 10km from the city. I'm here to improve my English. In France, it's really useful to know how to speak English. If you want to go to 'school' (the equivalent of University) you need to be fluent. I have two older brothers, one little sister and a pet turtle.

L: My name is Leo. I live in Bordeaux in the South West of France. I have three sisters. They are 19, 15 and 11. I have one dog. I practise tennis, surfing and rugby. I'm very sociable - I love my friends. I want to do exchange because I want to become a firefighter and it's very important to speak English fluently. The best fire stations need you to speak English to speak to tourists.

Why Australia?

L: Because before me, my cousin went to Australia for one year and he said to me that Australian people are very welcoming, very friendly, very nice and the country is beautiful! I agree!

T: I didn't have a choice but I would have chosen Australia definitely because I have a relation who lived in Australia - now back in France. It's a country famous for being welcoming, people are really nice, relaxed and cosy. Is this your first time overseas alone? T: Yes! L: My first time in Australia. Before, I did an exchange in Ireland for two weeks. It was good because I practised rugby but it was not very good for my English. When I went to Ireland I was only 11 so my English was not very good so it was very difficult. What was it like leaving France and heading here? L: It was not very difficult to leave my family because I'm in boarding school so I see them 2 days a week. It was difficut to say goodbye to my friends. T: I had a preconception and I was a bit afraid because I never did that before. But I was not alone and my host family are really nice and I am comfortable with them and now I'm used to being in Australia. I was pretty surprised by the attitude of Australians but in a good way. You are more relaxed. If you went to France you wouldn't be so welcomed. Tell us about your host family. T: I live in Athelstone with two parents and one daughter who is 16 and they are really kind. L: In my host family I have eight brothers - the youngest is three, the oldest is 16 - one dog and two parents. The house is not very big. I have a bedroom with two brothers. Bit it is good fun. It's a good ambience all the time. It's very good for my English.

What have you enjoyed most about your time in Australia? T: I think it's just living in general, because I love the nature around. You can find big forests and big hills and it is really preserved. You have some parks and lots of natural beauty and that's good. I'm just glad to be part of normal daily life. L: Being with my family because they are very fun and it's the best family for me because everyone plays rugby! They are very sympathetic and nice. What are the main differences between coming to school here and your school in France? T: Here at school we are not in a usual Australian school. It's very cool at Eynesbury. In France it's less cool and teachers don't talk individually with us. L: School is very different but not crazy! Here we can listen to music on your phone. In France, if I use my phone they will take it away for a week! T: Yes, they are very strict in France. L: I love this school, it's very fun. We are always in school together with friends. In France it is very spread out and you just see your friends. Here you all mix. What activities have you done in Australia besides school? L: I have practised surfing and rugby. I want to practise tennis but my family do not practise tennis. When it was the test week, we went to they gym because there is no sport here at Eynesbury but in France I do sport as a subject, In the evening we went to Adelaide city to buy presents and stay in the Botanic Gardens. When I was in France I wanted to buy an Australian flag and an Australian rugby jumper for the World Cup, but it's too expensive! $160 for one shirt! T: I went to Sydney - it was amazing! I loved the Opera House and Bridge but I think there's not much to do in Sydney. I went surfing at Seaford. It was cold but we had wetsuits but it was good. We went to a few zoos at the beginning and I held a koala. They are soft and heavy and kangaroos were really close. It was amazing for me! L: I went on a cruise to see whales, but I saw dolphins, not whales. Leo also later visited Sydney with his host family. Are there any funny things about Australia or Australians? T: We absolutely don't have the same trucks! They are very big and disturbing! And it's really weird to drive on the other side of the road! I go to the wrong door! It's dangerous when you look the wrong way to see if cars are coming - it's dangerous because we're not used to it. L: I think food is less expensive than in France. It's definitely cheaper here for food. Clothes are expensive here. Shoes in France are the equivalent amount in dollars here. T: I think Australians are less ordinary! French people will always dress the same - same pants, shirt etc. Sometimes we see weird things like clothes or hair. Australians can have green hair! In France, people will judge you! L: Breakfast! In France we have bread with butter, jam, Nutella, hot chocolate, juice, cup of coffee, cup of tea, sugar Here we eat eggs, bacon, bread and sometimes yoghurt with cereal! T: It's really fattening! L: It's good food but it's crazy in the beginning. When I took my first breakfast I think it's very crazy! T: Australian people call lots of things French - like French Fancies! And French Fries are definitely not French! There are some cliches - like we eat frogs legs - we eat them maybe once. We don't really eat them! What have you missed most about France? T: Meat and cheese! And baguettes! It is the same cheese everywhere here - even French cheese! Mozzarella, Cheddar, Emmental all taste the same. When I go back, I'm going to eat cheese! Otherwise the food here is good. And what will you miss most about Australia? T: I will miss people most and the ambience of the place. L: I still have one month left. I want to stay more but I can't. The age for a firefighter is 21 and after school I need to study for 2 years before being a firefighter. And Thais, what is your future career plan? T: Engineer because I want to help create something. I want to be useful.

Current Year 10 student, Luka Jessep, is doing a reverse exchange, heading over to spend 5 months immersed in French culture at the start of 2020.

Luka approached Southern Cross Cultural Exchange mid-way through Term 4 and they were able to speed things up and make what is usually a fairly lengthy process happen quickly, thanks to Luka having European citizenship. She also credits her mum for being very proactive and working hard to get all the ‘red tape’ completed in a short amount of time.

Luka, who is studying French Continuers under the tuition of French-born teacher, Jackie Robinson, says the decision to go was a spontaneous one. “Jackie did suggest I consider an exchange earlier on in the year, but I dismissed it as I was loving my time at Eynesbury so much,” she says.

However, as Year 11 rapidly approached, Luka and her mum realised that this may be the last opportunity to do so before the allimportant final year of school.

“As I have European citizenship, when I graduate from Eynesbury, I want to go to university in France, so this is the perfect opportunity and an obvious choice,” Luka says, “I want to be fluent in French by the time I get back.” As Luka hopes to study in French, rather than through an English speaking program, this is particularly important to her.

23 January is the date Luka departs Australia for her new life, landing in Paris with enough time to freshen up before making the journey to her host family in the Champagne wine region.

Apart from developing her French language skills to fluency, Luka is looking forward to experiencing the French culture by spending 5 months completely immersed in it.

“ “ "I’m excited to join in family life, attend school with my brother, explore the town and just experience daily life,” Luka says. I’m going to take every day as it comes and enjoy the incredible experience I have been afforded.

She also hopes to form lifelong friendships and have a new, second family on the other side of the world. Luka’s host family live in a tiny village of about 300 people, just outside of Chalons en Champagne, and comprises a mum, dad and three siblings – two of whom are adults, the other, her new, slightly older ‘brother’, with whom Luka will be going to school. He is a keen soccer player and Luka is looking forward to going to his games and joining in family celebrations – her brother will be having a birthday, as will Luka herself! Being an agricultural area, Luka’s dad is a farm manager, her mum has a corporate role.

“I’ve heard the first couple of months are the hardest,” Luka says, when asked about potential challenges she will face, “There is only so much you can learn in a class and the first couple of months highlights how much you don’t know! However, after this first couple of months, you apparently just start speaking the language without even thinking about it anymore.”

There is a very distinct difference between formal and informal speech in the French language and getting this right is one of Luka’s concerns. “I’m worried about being inadvertently disrespectful, so it’s very important to me that I focus on getting that right,” she says.

She is also worried about how she will deal with the homesickness and will miss her mum and friends, with whom she is very close. ‘FOMO’ is a big issue too; Luka loves her life in Australia and her friends and is not looking forward to seeing and hearing about what everyone else is doing back home and not being part of it, especially as she will be missing all of her friends birthdays, and won’t be spending her own with them. “It would be great if I could just teleport myself back and be with them for a while,” Luka jokes.

“The hardest part of an exchange though is setting off to return home,” Luka tells us she has heard. “When you’re there you know any hard times are temporary and all the good times are new and exciting. When you set off to return home, it’s not like when you set off on your exchange. It’s a different state of mind – it’s not exciting and new back home.”

And what is Luka’s over-riding attitude heading into this experience? “It’s just a short part of my life so I’m going to take every day as it comes and enjoy the incredible experience I have been afforded.”

Luka joined us straight from finishing Year 8, heading into Year 10 at the beginning of 2019 on the early Entry Program. She is set to graduate in 2021, following which she hopes to take a gap year and travel around Europe, before studying Forensic Psychology in France.

Your life bio in a snapshot! I was born in the South of France, Nice, on the Riviera, “La Côte d’Azur”. My family migrated by ship to Australia when I was 6 years old, settling in Adelaide. I studied Languages (Spanish and French, of course) and Visual Arts at Flinders University and then completed a Diploma in Education. I taught for a few years before I had my 2 children and took some time off work to spend with them. I worked part time when they started going to school and became involved in our family business before I went back to teaching. Teaching - when & why? My mother was a primary school teacher in France in a little village called St Jeannet where we lived in the South of France. She was the only teacher in the village and taught all the village’s children in the same classroom from 4 year olds to 12 year olds before they went off to High School. I started school when I was 3 (we lived in an apartment above the school which was basically a small classroom) and was in the same class as my sister who was a year older than me. My mum continued teaching in Australia and became a French language teacher. I have very fond memories of my early childhood at school, my mum being the only teacher and being my mum at the same time, and this made me so proud. I think those memories have a lot to do with me wanting to be a teacher. My specialities are French, PLP and Research Practices, but I have taught Spanish and Art too. How long have you been at ESC? My mum (Madame Lazonde) was working at Eynesbury part time as the French teacher and left at the end of 2003, when I applied for the position. I started working here in January 2004 and have not looked back. In 2013 I took on the role of International Student Coordinator, and Cross Disciplinary School Manager the year after. In 2017 I became Co-Acting Associate Principal and last year I took on the position as Associate Principal; Wellbeing and Engagement. Why French? I am a strong believer in learning another language as it not only provides a competitive edge in career choices when one is able to communicate in a second language but it enhances listening skills and memory. The study of a foreign tongue improves the knowledge of one's own language as well. Studies have shown that it boosts brain power, improves memory, enhances the ability to multi-task, sharpens the mind (and keeps it sharper for longer), enhances decision-making, and improves performance in other academic areas as well. Plus there is a certain charm to being able to communicate in another language and I may be bias but French is such a beautiful language to listen to. My parents forced me to speak French as I was growing up here in Australia and although at the time I could not see the advantage, I am so grateful to them for allowing me to keep this gift. With my French background it was very easy for me to pick up Spanish and I can also understand some Italian although I have never studied it before. Why wouldn’t you learn French? Most rewarding teacher moment? There are too many rewarding moments in my 30+ year career to pick one! The best thing about being a teacher and the most rewarding thing overall is that I can make a difference to my students’ lives in so many ways. I like being a mentor and I love to see where all my students end up in their career and lives after school and university. So many of my students have gone on to use their French in one way or another, through travelling and work. Many past students have gone on exchange trips to France and come back almost fluent and having developed life-long friendships with their host families and the friends they made when they stayed there. What do you enjoy most about working at Eynesbury? I love the community feel to our school, the inclusivity and the warmth that both teachers and students share. I enjoy the respect and the close rapport that we, as teachers, are able to develop with our students. I have taught in many schools before I came to Eynesbury and I can honestly say that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It is a truly wonderful place for all. Fun fact! I am a champion target shooter and won many State and National Championships when I was in my early 20s. I am also a keen sailor and also used to race competitively and have won many races. My highlight in sailing was when I won the State sailing championships for Farr 750s when my son was just 6 months old. Favourite words of advice I love this quote by Maya Angelou “When you learn, teach, when you get, give” and I guess that is what I do every day at school and that is my advice to all my students. TEACHER FRENCH TEACHER ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL: WELLBEING & ENGAGEMENT JACKIE ROBINSON FEATURE