Lila Cheval, a AYUSA exchange student, visited middle school French students last week.
Lila, who is 15-years-old, is from Montagne, France, in the Rhone Valley. She pointed out her hometown on the map of France posted on the Smart Board at the front of the classroom.
Betsy Ruotolo, the French teacher at the middle school, introduced her to the class.
“I invited her to come speak to my French students to give them a chance to interact with a native speaker of the language,” said Ruotolo. “It’s also a good way to motivate them to use their conversational French and to learn more about French culture through a conversation with someone from France close to their own ages.”
“We mostly learn to read English,” Lila explained of her studies in France, “but rarely actually speak English in class. Prior to coming to the United States, I spent a short time in England, which helped me become more conversational in English.”
Many of the French students questioned Lila about France’s national soccer team. She answered them as well as she could. The RMS students also wanted to know her favorite musician or musical group. She responded that her musical interests varied depending on her mood. She noted that she had been in the orchestra in her high school in France, but that it was easier for her to be in chorus here.
Lila is spending the school year with her host family, the Harris’, as a sophomore-level student at Riverhead High School.
“It’s going to be really difficult to say goodbye to her at the end of the school year,” shared Mrs. Harris. “It’s been wonderful having her with us and it’s nice that she and my daughter are the same age and have become such good friends.”
When asked if she would encourage the Riverhead students to spend time with an exchange family, she highly recommended it. “It has been a wonderful experience,” she said. “Of course, I miss my family, but the time has gone really quickly and I haven’t really been homesick.” Her mom and dad, an older sister and a younger brother are scheduled to come to New York at the end of the school year to spend a few days on Long Island and then tour New York City and drive down the coast to Florida to visit Disney World.
After the bell rang, the class began to exit and one young man quietly and shyly said as he passed Lila, “Tres jolie.”
This young lady is “tres jolie” indeed!
Check out the AYUSA organization online at: www.ayusa.org
Source: Press release issued by Riverhead Central School District, Mar. 16.
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