Exchange Student in Paris

Context

My school organised a program where 30 students from my grade were selected to host a French student in their home for a week — taking them to school and back, organising plans for them, and being completely responsible for them — before switching roles the next week, when our correspondents hosted us in Paris. I was lucky enough to be one of the students chosen.

The first week was in Spain, in my school's hometown, when we had to try to include our correspondents in our daily life. The next was in Paris, where we stayed with our correspondents the whole time and attended a French lycée.

Speaking only French in Paris and Spanish in Spain, while living with a host family and going to a local school, pushed everybody to communicate in ways they never had before. It was a real immersion, for both Spanish and French students, not just in language, but in adapting to a completely different daily life.

What I learned

I learned to deduce what words meant or what conversations were about even when I didn't understand everything, just by relying on context or by comparing similarities with English or Spanish. Since most of the time I couldn't reach for a translation, I had to stay patient and piece things together naturally.

On a social level, I picked up a lot of everyday expressions like how people greet each other, how they start and end conversations, little phrases that you can only learn if you're around other native speakers, unlike in class. I noticed so many differences compared to other places I've visited around the world.

And since I've spent long periods in different parts of France where people speak with different accents, I was able to compare them with the Parisian French I heard during the exchange. It was also fascinating to hear the real rhythm and pronunciation of native speakers in everyday life, not the slowed-down version you get in a classroom.

In the end, this experience, along with studying in the French Alps, really shaped my path to learning French. It was a big step in learning part of the language that I could have never learned in class, no matter how many classes I took.