EASTHAMPTON — For a 16-year-old from France, everything in the United States, from schools to cars, can look big.
Exchange student Valentine Huault said the size of everything is much different in western Massachusetts than in France. Overseas, Huault said people have meals at specific times: breakfast at 7 a.m., lunch at 12:30 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. But in America, Huault said people eat when they are hungry.
Huault is one of 15 exchange students from Lycee Saint-Louis School in Chateaulin, France, getting a taste of what the United States is like through an exchange program with Easthampton High School.
From Oct. 16-26, the French students are attending class at the high school and are each staying with a host family in Easthampton. In April 2018, participating Easthampton students will travel to Chateaulin and Paris for 12 days.
Along with improving her English, Huault said she came to Easthampton to “discover a new culture and new people.”
“Americans are very open-minded … very cool,” she said.
And she’s tried some new food. Huault said she never had nachos before.
EHS French teacher Gerald Benoit brought the exchange program to the high school in 2015. Prior to Easthampton, Benoit worked at a school in the Boston area for 10 years, holding the French exchange every other year. He said he wants to start a Spain exchange program at the school as well.
“Thank you for bringing these programs to our school,” Superintendent Nancy Follansbee told Benoit at a reception on Wednesday welcoming the students. She added that the program is “life-changing” for students involved.
Benoit has been partnering with Magali Ropert, an English teacher at Lycee Saint-Louis School, for the past decade.
Ropert said her students in the past have always been impressed by the size of things in America, and she’s taken them to New York City. This year, she’ll take the students to Boston.
During their visit, the French students shadowed EHS students to get a sense of what is it like to be high school students in the United States. Part of the program includes a trip to the University of Massachusetts Amherst so the students can see what an American university is like.
EHS senior Paul Borowski, 17, went on the trip to France two years ago. This year his family is hosting an exchange student.
The trip to France expanded his vocabulary, Borowski said, adding that language needs to be taught more in the local schools.
“Their English is better than my French,” he said of the exchange students. Borowski said the trip to France helped him learn common phrases in the language, such as sentences used to order food and asking where the bathroom is.
He also bonded with his host family and said he plans to visit them after he graduates high school.
Benoit said in a statement that that the program transforms the lives of both the hosts and the guests.
“Such bridges between our cultures often create life-long friendships, erase negative stereotypes, and even bring a deeper understanding of oneself and of our responsibility to become global citizens,” Benoit said in a statement.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.