Alors! C'est le dreaded French Exchange coming up soon. Any tips?

[TawnyPippit]

As you can see, I am virtually fluent in French so no problems there

I am assuming that we will acquire a monosyllabic 15 year old French boy to sit alongside our very own one which we already have at home. They will either barely interact or spend most of their free time playing x-box (actually, no problem with that). I also have a DD who is one year younger, and, erm, growing up, so I'm hoping we do not get a handsome, charming one to further add to the mix.

Anyone got any tips on things that have gone well/things to avoid?

Thanks seeline.
3 weeks til the exchange but still don't know who we are getting yet.

This thread has made me laugh, we did fab German exchanges when we were teenagers and we've been friends for years with our partners. My little sister did a French exchange and had told school that our mum would take in an extra child for the return visit - a boy, alongside her girl partner. My mum only found out when they arrived and they got off the coach - that was quite funny and she had to quickly pretend that the boy was very welcome whilst panicking about where he has going to sleep lol !!

Ready this thread brings back lots of memories.

I went on 2.

1 was a disaster I was an innocent 12 year old and my French exchange girl wanted to smoke and snob. We had nothing in common. They took me sking .... Gave me 1 lesson then told me to ski alone for the rest of the week. I did not have a piste map and ended up on a red slope ... Face planted into a tree with legs and arms wrapped round said tree! I also tore à ligament so that was the end of that.
Spent the rest of the week alone in the appartment whilst they skied. Was very homesick.

2nd time was fab. Lovely family - dropped me and my exchange girl at the grandmas beach house in the south of France and she let us have total freedom! We would travel to nightclubs on a moped and snog handsome Parisien boys on the beach at midnight. Good times.

It's a bit poor that you don't know who you are getting. We've survived a German exchange (one week here, one week there a couple of months later). They matched the students really well and DD had her partner's details for several weeks before the actual exchange took place. So they already knew quite a bit about each other via the medium of Whatsapp!

We also rarely have people to stay, so I found it quite intense being responsible for someone else's child. However, she was perfectly charming and significantly better mannered and more helpful than my own children! We dragged her round Windsor Castle at the weekend and they ate a lot of pizza at the homes of the other exchange families. There is safety in numbers.

Good luck!

Our Spanish visitor is here, as of this evening. Later night then normal for us as Dd is sat watching TBH with our Spanish boy - going to have to send them to bed soon as I'm shattered!

We ended up finding out who was coming a couple of days after I posted. 14y boy. Him and Dd did get in tough via snapchat etc and have 'chat' online since then.

His English seems very good and he chatted during dinner. Seems a nice lad.

Good luck Hulababy - hope all goes well. Post any tips that you discover

Generally they will be micro-managed by the school, there is such a lot of emphasis placed on safeguarding etc these days it's rare to find them left to the family's devices for very long at all.

Don't worry about the language, the whole point of an exchange is that the student speaks English, even monosyllabically!

I'd imagine nearer the time there would be meetings galore, there were when I did the German one a million years ago (and that was before DBS checks etc, but no stone was left unturned)

My (ex) friend who had arranged to have a boy stay with her decided on the bus back from Gatwick she didn't fancy him, so left him on the bus station. The police came knocking on our door at midnight saying "er, we've found your German" Our German was actually tucked up in bed. They'd taken laddo to this girl's house, her parents knew nothing (they hadn't been to the meetings because they were busy/working/ill, and as I said, back in the day, safeguarding was unheard of) and her brother had said "oh, he must belong to ThenLater, she's having a German to stay"

That was a fun night.

Now I find myself organising this sort of thing and I'd say just be a normal family. The important thing is that they feel part of the family, they'll complain about the food whatever you cook, as will the British kids over there. It's part of the whole experience to say "it was fantastic, I loved it but the food was SHIT!"

Oops, just seen it's an old thread!

ThenLater - it's not that old, and some of us are still anticipating the whole event with dread (my unknown French person arrives mid-January which is such a good time of year to show Britain at its best...) so any info/tips etc are welcome!!

lol- well, our aforementioned Germans came at Easter, and it was one of those Easters at the end of April.....and there was 6 ft of snow on the ground.

When I went over to Germany the thing I definitely appreciated the most was when the family got together with other families, so the pressure wasn't all on me. They did that a few times which was nice.

What we also know tell our exchange kids is not to be afraid to be honest- if you don't like something say so. If you eat something you don't like on the first night, and say it was nice, guess what you're going to get every night! (though they'll all buy MacDonalds every time they hit town anyway, and then tell everyone in Paris/Berlin/Rome that the Brits only eat in MaccyDs!)

Yes, it is next week for us and I'm just trying to get my head around what I need to do. The school have given us a v clear timetable showing where they need to be at any given time, and what they need to have with them, so its all pretty clear. DH speaks good French, so I think he will have a chat with him on the first night just to check he is ok and understands what our plans are, and from then on its 'parle en Anglais' all the way. DS said they were told the exchange school are generally at a higher level of English than their French as apparently the exchange school are learning English by an immersion method, whereby they learn a couple of subjects in English, which will be interesting.

Thenlater - we had only one very short meeting last week where the Spanish teacher went through the itinerary. About half the parents attended I reckon.

Our visitor is with us each evening - 3:30 today and Monday, 5:30 Thursday/Friday. All weekend with us.

He's been lovely so far. Wants to just see what we do, wants to watch the type of tv Dd normally watches, etc. He's been a bit chatty, asking us about things we do etc.

He is finding it very cold here - got a headache from the cold today, bless him!

A lot of them went to Nando's this evening. The Spanish children went to the city today. Tomorrow they go to York and Friday Lincoln. Monday they visit Bakewell and then Tuesday they spend the morning in class wth Dd.

I did think they'd do more within the school day together - but reality is dd is in normal lessons (with tests?!!! You'd think they would be better planned!) all the time and the Spanish visitors are out and about. I've told Dd not to worry about the tests this week and to enjoy her exchange week instead. They're only internal subject tests, not reportable Ines, after all.

On Friday evening one girl has a big get together for all the exchange group. Saturday Dd and our visitor are out with friends on a walk, then Dd has a birthday party (not linked to school) and he is invited too. Sunday we are driving Dd and the visitor plus a friend and her male student too to Alton Towers for the day.

And yes, his English is wat better than dd's soanish.

But Dd started Spanish is y7 and does a couple of hours a week, a bit more since this September and GCSEs.

However he's done English since being small and at secondary he also does some of his other subjects in English (geography, geology, physics and another one I can't remember) so it's no wonder really!

We had a French boy a few years ago. He was very sweet, if a little odd. This year it's dd's turn...

Last year a friend had the French exchange boy turn up and in the evening he came down, all duded up and announced he was off out to meet a girl he'd met online who lived locally. "Oh, no you don't," said friend and dh, trying to explain in Franglais that the local girl could be a 50-year-old bloke, upon which the French boy stormed up his room and didn't speak to them for the whole of the rest of the trip, shutting himself in his room every evening and refusing to sit at the dining table and also not going on the weekend activities they'd planned. Friend said it was the longest week of her life!

Tawney - has he arrived?

Our Spanish boy left today. He was lovely - chatty with v good English, polite, not fussy re food, left his room tidy, nice to have around. Was a really positive experience for us all, not least Dd who really enjoyed him being here. Think she's missing having her new friend around this evening.

He even left Dd a present in his room for her to find this evening - nicely thought out gift linked to tv they'd been watching together this past week. He'd already brought gifts for us all when he arrived so this was extra.

Yes, all going well here. He's a nice kid and speaks really good English. He and DS have got on very well (and DS has been a really thoughtful host, which has been very nice to see). They have played industrial amounts of Xbox, which I have overlooked, because it genuinely is a bonding experience and its actually quite nice to hear them jabbering away to each other while doing it. I can see in my OP I was worried I was going to get a monosyllabic boy - SO not the case . He is a bit exhausting, in that he is like a talkative puppy, but that's not really a problem.

Also, re my previous concerns about a young Johnny Halliday turning up, he feels like quite a young 15 and DD doesn't seem to fancy him, so that's a bonus.