French students prepare for trip

Summertime brings heat, green scenery, sleeping in and for some CFHS world language students, a trip to France.

“I’m very excited to go to a different country and get the full cultural experience. It’ll be nice to use the language I’ve practiced for so long and use it in real life situations. It’ll be a good time with friends, and I’ll be able to meet new people,” sophomore Ben Dagit said.

This trip also includes staying at a host family’s home for most of the time.

“Interacting with the host family will be a huge learning experience, because basically, you’ll be talking to people you’ve never met in a language you’ve only had around two years to learn,” Dagit said.

Along with meeting people from different cultural backgrounds, there are many other learning experiences when it comes to France.

“A large part of the French culture is the food. You’ll be able to experience dining and eating at restaurants where different food than American food is served. It’ll be interesting to compare France to America,” Dagit said.

However, there are also some challenges to this trip.

“We have to travel to three different cities in three different nights, staying in three different hotels with huge bags and suitcases. With a decent group of Americans, we’ll definitely stick out as tourists. Along with this, fitting everybody on the Metro will be hard to do. There’s also a language barrier,” French teacher Brittan Lawrence said.

But the positives far outweigh the negatives.

“On the last night in Paris, we’re all going to go on a boat ride and have dinner at a fondue restaurant. It’ll be fun to reconnect after the host families and see how far we’ve come with learning about the culture,” Lawrence said.

As Lawrence said, learning about different cultures is a great experience.

“I would recommend this trip to everyone. Everyone needs to encounter these experiences in life and realize that there’s a world out there besides our own with diversity, culture and good people,” Dagit said.