Can I send my British kid to a French summer camp? To help them learn French?

[DandelionDahlia]

DC is 15 and keen to improve their French.

They'd like to spend a week or fortnight away at a summer camp this year.

I'm thinking about a colonie de vacances in France - UCPA for example?

Something like PGL but in France, with French kids.

To give an idea of their current French level, at the moment they can read an Agatha Christie type book (slowly) or chat to a tutor for an hour without strain.

What do you think?

And if this is a terrible idea, what would be better?

I have looked into this (my kids aren’t really old enough yet) and there are camps where e.g. you do intensive French lessons in the morning and then sailing / tennis in the afternoon.

https://www.cia-france.com/

Good call, thank you.

I've taken them to language schools with activities when they were younger - two Spanish and one French. Could do that again.

They'd love to be socialising with French kids though, I think

A friend of mine has kids who are almost bilingual and they spend their summers in France in French holiday clubs. It seems to work well.

Oh that's really encouraging, thank you

@DandelionDahlia what language schools did you try please if you don’t mind sharing? DS12 is obsessed with learning French and has been asking about similar, but he’s too young to go alone and didn’t know I could go too!

They'll learn but depends how shy they are and if they'll fit in. If they're up for it, then yes, let them do it. It's better for conversational French rather than reading/writing.

My DM went with her French au pairs on holiday to their home towns in France and became fluent, but she wanted to go and they invited her with them.

Hi Mugshot,

We've been to three language schools in different years. All were a success in different ways and I'd happily do all of them again.

1st was Alpine French School in Morzine. Gorgeous town and amazing for a family holiday while they're in class. One of my kids learnt loads and the other one just made some English friends...

Next was Spanish at Don Quijote in Castelldefels near Barcelona. Again, lovely place to spend time as a family. Loads to do. Nice teachers at the school. My kids just attended during the day (9 till 7...) but most kids were staying there. Not perfect but would recommend.

Best was a Spanish one called Intercultura in Costa Rica. We'd be back there in a flash if I could afford it.

Just shout if you have any questions :)

What a lovely opportunity for your DM. Would love that.

How about a language stay organised by a travel agency or a French school?
I'm a native French speaker and did one at 18 to improve my English. A group of us (11 to 19 yo) flew to London and stayed in a student accommodation at the University of Greenwich. Our days consisted of English glasses in the morning and excursions across England in the afternoon. We got to interact with native speakers while being around other French speaking kids we felt comfortable with.
It's still to this day one of my fondest memories!

I'd worry that sending him directly to a summer camp might make him feel a bit excluded.

OISE are good for France.

I think it’s a great idea. I used to go to summer camp in the US and there were always some non-native English speaking kids looking to improve their English.

Not sure if your daughter has a specific interest outside learning French, but there are plenty of ‘chantiers’ which are more like projects / apprenticeships than fun summer camps.

I did one years ago in-between GCSE and A Levels, and spent almost a month in the Ardeche as part of a team helping to restore an old chateau as a Chantier Archeologique. It was dirt cheap 😁, very independent and helpful for my future studies.

Worth considering?

This is a great idea, thank you.

I worry about that too @PurpleDragonz - feeling excluded would be really hard

This sounds much better.

I mean the children will either sink or swim and be included or excluded. I do recall on one occasion, I was about 16, a French girl of the same age was staying with the consultant's family near us for a month. The wife of the consultant didn't know what to do with her and it was the school holidays so I ended up taking her out and doing things with her. Once we were at Madame Tussauds on the staircase waiting to go into the Chamber of Horrors and I heard some French girls behind us saying a few rude things about English people including me (my French was fairly good so I understood it), the French girl with me immediately launched into French about how rude they were, here she was with her English friend (me!) and how nice I was and how they should apologise. They were shocked to hear her speak to them!

Just updating (I'm the OP) in case it helps any other language learners.

We went ahead with this and sent our 15 year old to France for a fortnight's stay with UCPA.

It was a success, they had fun and learnt French, and I would happily organise it again. If it's useful:

• UCPA were easy to deal with, the camp was well-organised (the centre we chose had 244 young people in groups of around 12), food/activities/staff all very good

• DC is quite fit and sporty but the standard of fitness required was higher than expected. We went for a camp with an advertised low level of physical activity and it required surprisingly high levels of competence both with general fitness and with specific sports (particularly biking). Maybe it's a cultural difference.

• UCPA can organise transport to and from the camp with drop-offs and pick-ups around France but, oddly, these are often between 2am and 4am. Info about timings is hard to find before you book. Apparently most people are fine waiting by the side of the road at 2am to pop their kid on a coach as it passes through town.

• There was a lot of paperwork listed as essential (vaccination records, swimming certificate...) In our case, none of this was checked.

• The other young people were welcoming and inclusive.

• Staff were on the look out for kids who were shy/ needed support to integrate/looked lost. For example, if you felt a bit left out during evening activities, there'd be a moniteur suggesting an UNO game

• With the French, I thought the big issue would be speaking - making yourself understood. In fact the skill that was really needed was listening. There was a big gap between the French DC has learnt in class and how young people actually talk.

• As anticipated, it was really tiring functioning in a second language all day. There was more flexibility than I had thought if a kid needed an afternoon in bed or to skip an activity.

• They didn't meet any other English kids. There were a few kids with excellent English but not many. They spoke in French throughout.

• DC's level is around top GCSE. They say it would have been harder but doable earlier.

So YES I would recommend this.