To learn a language, or at least to become truly fluent, you must in essence redefine your identity. You must accept the new language as being a part of who you are, as opposed to just something you can speak.  In this light, it seems that part of running a successful immersion program becomes giving students a moment to connect directly with the culture and country of the target language.  So many of our students stay at LILA for years without setting foot in France, it seems like a waste - especially when we see just how positive the effect of going to France has on a child’s linguistic ability.

This year, the LILA pedagogical team decided it was time to start taking kids to France.     We thus put together a project to have 5^th grade students spend 10 days in France visiting the major historical, cultural, and tourist attractions they had merely seen in pictures or read about, as well as having them spend time in a local French school to get a feel for the real life situations of childhood in France. 

The goal is that this will be an annual trip that all 5^th graders at LILA will participate in. We presented the project to all 5^th grade parents in September.  Parents were both excited and a little apprehensive at the idea of seeing their little ones go off on their own for 10 days and be thousands of miles away…  and yet 37 brave little 5^th graders from West Valley and Los Feliz took the plane on Friday night and launched into a big adventure… 

Julie Higounet, Pedagogical Director, and I were already in France for our annual trip to recruit new teachers and we greeted the 37 students and their 6 teachers at the student dorms last night. We are pleased to say that the trip has gotten off to a tremendously successful start.  Tired but excited, the group was pleased with their surroundings, enthusiastic about the trip, and the teachers said that they had been angels during the flight!  They were all very excited about the prospect of going to Paris today and visiting Montmartre and the Champs Elysees.  We got them settled, made sure everyone was fed, showered, and in bed before we headed back to Paris. 

You can follow their adventures day by day on the lilaschool website... follow the link below:

http://www.lilaschool.com/triptofrance/blog/