Starting school again after the summer holidays is a tall order when you are not used to the French school system. Two young Britons told us what it was like when they started in a French school.
Ruairidh Wynne-McHardy, 19, came to France when he was 14, after school in Cumbria, England. Not long after learning of his parents’ plans to move to France, he joined the troisième (last year before lycée) in a village in south-west France.
He said his first day was "very confusing" and he didn’t understand a word. "Though the teachers were pretty nice to me, I didn’t get much out of it."
French school was "a fairly traumatic experience" at first, he said. "Everything was barked at you in rapid French and, while they understood that I wasn’t proficient with the language, no prisoners were taken and there was a sink-or-swim attitude."
At first, his French was "virtually non-existent" and he coped by trying to copy his classmates. "I became friends with a few people on the first day and they helped me get from class to class and showed me how the lunch system worked. They also tried speaking a bit of English and, with that and my attempts at French, we had the basis of a conversation."
However the school offered extra language support. "On the first day, it was decided that I would be put in for part-time French classes to try to get me up to speed. I still went to most of my normal classes, but I would miss an occasional subject such as biology. That continued for about four months until I could understand what was happening in class."
Ruairidh said the pupils were very welcoming: "They helped me get to grips with slang. When you have no choice but to learn the language, you catch on pretty quickly."
Longer school days came as quite a shock, as did the level of work expected and the strictness of the teachers.
"It was not as easy to get away with sub-standard work as in the UK. It is better for your education, but as a child in class it wasn’t as much fun."
He added: "I didn’t ever feel completely at home in French school, and it took me about a year or so before I was understanding fully what was going on in class, the level of work expected and having a proper social life where I understood what my friends were saying."
His advice: "Make a conscious effort to learn French and hang out with people rather than cutting yourself off. Take time to adjust to being in a new country. Stay in contact with your friends at home, and carry a pocket dictionary."
He is glad of having been to school in France, as he believes his French and experience of another culture will be "a huge advantage" in finding work. He is now at Edinburgh University, studying law.
He has also started a social networking website to help others who find themselves in the situation he was in: www. teenxpats.com "I noticed a lot of expat teens going through the same problems," he said.
Ben Phillips, 20, moved to France with his mother when he was 12, after attending school in the London suburbs. His first French school was in a small town in the Gers, a mainly rural department.
After one year (in the sixième), he changed to a bigger school which had more English-speaking pupils, from cinquième to terminale. He said: "I don’t remember my first day, but my first year was boring because I didn’t understand anything and it was irritating when my teachers would yell at me and I wouldn’t understand anything they said. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong."
"My French was terrible. My mum taught French in London, but never taught me anything. The other pupils were OK, but they paid me no attention after the novelty of an English guy wore off.
"The students were into out-of-date fashions and liked music from the 1990s and the countryside was really different from London, but that didn’t bother me."
Ben said he felt at home at school in France from the quatrième, though he was able to speak fairly good French before then. One thing he liked about his French school was time set aside for personal work, which he sometimes used to draw.
He said learning the language quickly was key. "The language barrier is the only thing stopping you from making it in school and making new friends.
"I know other English children who couldn’t cope and their parents moved them back to England. A lot of English families break up in France because the parents have financial troubles and their children aren’t doing well in school. My parents were already divorced and my mum had a job, so that didn’t affect me, but for children to whom it happens, it's hard on them, on top of trying to fit in."
Ben is now going to King’s College, London to do European Studies and French. "I am really glad that I speak French, because my course involves a year in Paris and I made some great friends," he said.
