Monique Schoenfeld/Town Crier
Helen Aston, a fifth grader at Montclaire School in Los Altos, welcomes her French friend, Hanneke Van Dermose, with a gift bag. Hanneke will live with Helen until the end of this month.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Students at Montclaire School got a unique peek at French culture this month when 22 fifth graders and three teachers from Crepyen Valois, France, arrived at the Los Altos school March 9 as part of the school's French-American exchange program.
"The program has been really successful," said Carol Evans, a French teacher at Montclaire School. "It really motivates my students to learn (French) when they hear and see a reason to learn the language." Evans said she knows of many students from previous exchanges who became good friends with their French partners and are still in contact with them today.
Through the Association of French-American Classes, French exchange students attend Montclaire once every two years during a three-week stay with local families. In return, Montclaire students travel to France to stay with their French friends.
This year's French students will stay for three weeks at the homes of 25 Montclaire families and attend classes in French at the school before returning home March 30. About 21 of the host families live Los Altos.
Program organizers say the exchange provides both American and French students a different perspective of each other's cultures through home stays, school programs and community events.
Montclaire students began participating in the exchange program more than a decade ago after a parent launched optional French language lessons, Evans said. She said about six students enrolled in the classes the first year.
The program just took off from there, she said. About 80 students in grades 2-6 currently meet two to three times a week before the regular school day to learn French, she said. The Parent-Teacher Association sponsors the program, Evans said.
For 10-year-old Helen Aston of Los Altos, the experience was more than she expected. During a welcome party for the French students, Helen met her French friend, Hanneke Van Dermose, for the first time. Helen said she wasn't nervous, but admitted that she couldn't remember how to say anything she had learned in her French classes. She said she would probably have to use a lot of sign language with her friend, who will be staying at her house until the end of the month.
"I think it's going to be fun," Helen said. "I like to ski, and she likes to ski. We're both athletic."
Helen said this would be the first time that she has had her own exchange student, although her family has housed two students in previous years as part of her brothers' classes.
Helen said she planned to take Hanneke to Yosemite.
Helen is among the 12 Montclaire students who are scheduled to go to France this June for two weeks to visit their French friends.
"I'm excited," she said.
For more information about the French-American exchange program, go to www.persistent-address.com.