Ossining High School’s French USA Club Welcomes Friends from France

In today’s world, people converse across continents on a regular basis, but it is not every day that they get to meet their far-off colleagues or friends in person. At Ossining High School, third year French students had the opportunity to come face-to-face with their French counterparts last week when 35 English language learning students and three teachers from Collége Jean Noulin in Tomblaine, (located just outside the city of Nancy, France) visited OHS during their school’s trip to New York.

The two groups of students and teachers have been communicating with each other since January via a Google community page. Ossining teacher Oumar Sarr initiated the collaboration to encourage his students to engage in real-life conversations with foreign students to help them build their own French speaking skills while learning about French culture.

“Both groups of students have been working with each other on different projects over the internet,” Sarr said. “They have been introducing themselves, talking about their towns and their schools, and really getting to know each other. They even worked on a PowerPoint presentation together.”

The day’s events included a meet and greet in the OHS library, where members of Ossining’s French USA Club welcomed their school’s visitors and broke into groups to tour the school with them. Afterwards, students played traditional American games, including football and capture the flag. The visit concluded with a group lunch where students sat together and discussed staying in touch with each other in the future.

Ossining students played an active role in preparing for the day by printing out club tee shirts, setting up lunch and organizing word games that helped to make their visitors comfortable despite their language barrier.

“We thought it’d be good to have activities that were ice breakers since we don’t speak each other’s languages well,” said OHS sophomore Olivia Beiden. “Everything about today has been absolutely amazing. It makes the connection all so much more real for all of us. It’s been such a great experience to have made friends in another country and now get to meet them.”

Ossining’s visitors agreed that the day was an extraordinary experience that they will not soon forget.

“Today was such a great opportunity and I didn’t think we could ever do something like this,” said Crystal Aubry, a teacher from Collége Jean Noulin. “I was hoping for it, I was dreaming of it, but I never thought it would come. I feel like we have something good going and it is very authentic. I hope we can keep it going and that these students will come visit us in France.”