Head of School Blog

Our Orange County campus does not have a secondary program.  Last June, one family who had reached the end of the LILA-Orange County road decided to do something very courageous. They picked up and took off to live a year in France where they enrolled their 3 kids in a local French school to benefit from further immersion and thus anchor the French language and culture even more.

I was very happy to get news from Deborah Elias this fall letting me know how the family was adapting to their new environment.  I thought I would share her letter to me with all our LILA families! 

"Dear Elizabeth,
 

Today George & I had a RDV with Georgie's teacher (he's now in CE2).  As a reminder all 3 kids are going to St Seurin Ecole/College (I will write my glowing recommendations later).  Figured you would all get a kick out of this.

 

Well, this was the 1st time we met the teacher (she was on maternity leave, came back about 1+ months ago & now only teaches part time 3 days/week).  There are 3 "English" kids in his class - 1 whose parents are from Seattle WA (but they've been living in Bordeaux for 6 years), 1 who is from England (not sure how long they've been here but I know it's been more than 1 year) and then Georgie (side bar - Georgie is only 7 and won't be 8 until January...youngest in his class).

 

Well, his teacher knew she had 3 "English" kids but when Georgie was speaking with her, she asked him to come up to the front for a "private" moment.  She asked him to verify where he was from (California of course).  She swore that he was a French native - she thought the school records had a mistake.  She could not believe, given his accent, that he was American.  The other 2 "English" kids have some kind of an accent (pardon me but I cannot tell the difference - but apparently "true" French people can).  Even the 1 kid who has been in France 6 years (basically did all of école maternelle here) has a very slight accent to their ears.

 

So she could not believe Georgie had the tongue of a French person without being French!  We explained they were at LILA and that all teachers were from France.  She was very impressed. 

 

I will be writing a letter addressing how the kids are progressing in French school - just off the top Kathy is 4th in her class of 19 kids - of which 17 are native "Frenchies" and 2 are "English" (Kathy and 1 other girl); Sophie is doing work she had already covered last year (she just took a French geography test & got 18.5 out of 20 - still working on her dictées but the teacher says she is doing excellently) and Georgie, according to his teacher today, is the best student in her class of some 25 students (give or take) of which 3 are "English". 

 

This is just my informal note to let you all know they are doing great!

 

Hope all is going well for you guys!!!!

 

Debbie Elias"