Lynn Grove, from Seattle, is currently participating in CHI’s World Explorers program in northern France for two months. Lynn is living with the Pastissier family and teaching them conversational English for 15 hours a week.
Local French paper featured an article on Lynn and her host family titled, A Family in France Welcomes an American. It has been translated below.
A Family in France Welcomes an American
Thanks to the Wep association, a family from Gauchy, France has been hosting an American for one month.
It is Wep association’s mission to exchange different cultures and languages. For the past month, a family in northern France has hosted an American, Lynn Grove. In exchange for living for two months with the family, this visitor from across the Atlantic taught 10 to 15 hours of English per week to Victor, who was a 5th grade student at Jules Ferry School.
Rediscovering the region
“Our daughter, who is coordinator for the Wep association, has always enjoyed traveling,” says Corinne Pastissier, 53, who has hosted the American since April 4. “She did an Erasmus student exchange and studied in Chile. She was the one who motivated us to host someone because the best way to learn a language fluently is to communicate with a native speaker.” As a result, the family began to play Scrabble in English, the language of Shakespeare. But that said, “exchange” also implies a rediscovery for this linguistic tourist.
“We try to take her to visit different places in France. We have been living in the area for a long time, and showing it to Lynn makes us rediscover it too. We went to the Familistere de Guise, the Somme Bay, Amiens, etc. This gives us a different vision of ourselves. Even almost trivial things, such as getting a medical insurance card, reminds us that in other countries, particularly in the United States, things are not as simple.”
For Lynn Grove, 62, originally from Vietnam before arriving in the United States in 1975, this exchange “is a chance to learn French.” With already 19 countries visited, she devours travel. “I really like the scenery and the nature here,” she explains, talking about rapeseed fields. This Seattle resident will spend an afternoon at Jules Ferry School to share her experience of America with the students. In the meantime, she is welcomed as a member of the family. This has been a positive experience that is already pushing Corinne Pastissier to want to re-experience it, and Lynn Grove to invite her guests to Seattle.
Association Wep on www.wep.fr or Manon Favereaux in 06 76 22 63 28 or manon.favereaux@hotmail.fr
