This week, a dozen exchange students from France finished two-week homestay visits with Inland Northwest families.
We met 16-year-old Thomas Roger and 15-year-old Mila Wermuth at Ferris High School.
"We're both in the same high school and one day they just, like, sent us a message like, oh, there's a trip to the U.S. and are you interested? Just text us if you're interested," Wermuth said.
Turning to Roger, she said, "I don't know about you, but, immediately I was, like, I want to go. I want to go. And I immediately sent the answer. I was, like, yes, yes, just tell me about it. Just send me the documents. I can fill up everything. And I didn't care where I would go or with who. I just wanted to go. I just wanted to go to discover new things."
I asked them if Ferris is different than the high school they attend in Paris.
"Oh, yeah. There is a big difference," Roger said. "The first thing is we can finish earlier here, because in France, most of the time, we finish at four and a half p.m. And also, the teachers are very friendly here. But in France, they are strict. And there is a difference also with subjects."
"I think everything is different here because, well, everybody can express themselves without like getting judged or anything," Wermuth said. "We see people in the hallways. We're seeing different styles, dyed hair. And it feels like it's normal in here. But in France, it's not. And if you're a little bit different than other people, there's most chance that you will, like, get bullied or something. But here, it just seems so normal. And for different people, like as me, I feel so accepted and so welcomed here."
This week, Wermuth and Roger and about 10 other students boarded a plane to go back to France. I asked what they would tell their families about their experience.
"First of all, I'm going to say how grateful I am to be part of this trip. And I'm going to say all the differences that I saw. And I'm going to say how welcomed I was and how bad I want to return," Wermuth said.
"For me, I will tell them that I will go back here in Paris High School because that's very, very good," Roger said.
Roger stayed with the family of his French teacher at Ferris, Rachael Simmons.
"It's been really cool for me because I've gotten to share another French speaker in my home with my family," Simmons said. "I have two little boys, so they've really enjoyed having a big brother and getting to learn from him."
They had a week of spring break together and a week of school. Wermuth and Roger sat in on her French classes.
"My students personally still speak a lot of English, but it's been fun for them to practice their French with the students. And they can both understand each other," Simmons said.
"Thomas and Mila are learning English and my students are learning French. They can both understand that experience of language learning and kind of laugh and compare differences. And even when they make mistakes, it's fun for both of them because they can kind of understand and relate. My kids were a little nervous to ask the French students things. They would keep looking at me and like, do they like this? Do they do this? And I asked them, so I think it's been fun for them to be brave and step outside of their box a little bit."
Simmons says exchanges like this are more than just fun. They are opportunities for students to learn about the world outside their communities.
"Statewide, our world languages are struggling to stay. And so I just want our community to see that language is always relevant. And it's a great opportunity for our kids to learn skills that they can transfer to any of their careers or areas of interest. And aside from that, it's just fun to have new people," Simmons said.
The exchange program that brought Roger and Wermuth to Spokane is based in Oregon. Robert Zink, who directs Andego Internships Abroad, says visits from foreign students send ripples through host communities.
"Obviously, there's a special relationship when you host someone and you get to spend the entire two weeks with them and exploring. But even the students that are exposed to them because their classmates and outside of the language classroom as well, right?" Zink said.
"Getting to hear their perspectives in social studies classrooms, even in math and science. Hearing the different ways that that education is structured and what they learn and enjoy and we've heard that from teachers and other subject areas, which is really, really validating, I think, is not just for language teachers. It's for the entire community to have that exposure and appreciation for other other cultures, other people, which we talk about consistently. And so we we get to be the vehicle that that brings that to communities."
Zink says the positive benefits aren’t limited to the host communities. The students take them home too.
"There are things that the French students are going to come back and be like, wow, you know, I think our French culture or our French system really has this figured out better than the Americans. Yeah, totally," he said.
"But at the same time, I hear from the French students that come, how much they really just love and appreciate the relational aspect of high school, how your high school teachers really can be mentors and not just academic instructors. And so they find that to be a really positive thing."
Zink and Rachael Simmons hope to bring another group of French high school students to the Inland Northwest sometime in the future.
