On Tuesday, April 30th two french classes met to learn from eachother, except one was across the ocean. Madame Boudart’s Honors 3 French class had the oppurtunity to have a Zoom meeting with a similar class, except they live in France.

While Madame Boudart’s class had been learning French for the past three years, these French students had been learning English. Madame Boudart has been working and speaking with Madame Dufour, the French classes’ teacher, for three years now. This was the first year they were able to coordinate a video call between the two countries. Over the call, they were able to see each other’s faces  and spoke to each other with a mix of English and French. “They were able to interact directly with the people that they had already been writing to and communicating, and be able to ask questions face-to-face and see reactions and hear the voices behind the project,” said Madame Boudart about the motivation behind the Q&A.

Each of the Parkland students had pre-written questions in French that they asked the french students. The questions ranged from American vs. French stereotypes, to differing classes offered in each country, and even favorite ice cream flavors. The focus seemed to be learning more about French or American experience, and how life might differ between the two. 

It took them about 45 minutes to go through all the written questions from each side; they then moved onto spontaneous ones, asking whatever came to mind in order to learn more. This also included a large range of questions; although, the most popular one was asked to the French students, “Where would you want to visit in America?” There was a plethora of answers from regular places like New York City or the Grand Canyon, to more unique ones, like Silicon Valley.

Overall, this experience brought a fantastic oppurtunity to Parkland’s french classes to gain a greater understanding of the French world and society as a whole. Madame Boudart had a final thought on the event, “We learn all these things about the country, about the people, and so I really wanted them to have an opportunity to interact directly with the people.”