Iimagine that the film A we the little English girls was filmed in Charente-Maritime, that the two heroes were not sent on a language study trip to the south of England, but a few hours from home, forced to learn the French Kiss with natives. To us little French women, this comedy would perhaps have been called if Michel Lang had written it after the Covid-19.
It is England without the “jelly” and the mint leg of lamb, the United States without the price of the plane ticket or the cost of calls abroad.
Since the pandemic, more and more language travel companies are expanding their catalog with proposals for stays to learn English in summer camp in France. They display formulas “Brittany camp junior” or “English in the country side”, with accommodation in an agricultural school in Touraine. Thanks to this, this summer, French children will be able to go on an English-speaking immersion in a castle or a former convent. “Half an hour from Lyon” or “In the heart of Drôme Provençale”.
They will be greeted, for the American Village camps, by a fake immigration stand before attacking their total immersion in Burgundy or Vendée. It’s England without the jelly and the leg of mint (“Local and seasonal products are favored”, promises a brochure), the United States without the price of the plane ticket or the costs of calls abroad (“In order to ensure maximum initiation, children will only have access to their mobile phones for one hour a day”, another said). Going to learn English in France, why hadn’t we thought about it earlier?
How do we recognize them?
They offer brochures with pictures of Indian teepees or teenagers wearing sunglasses adorned with the stars of the American flag. There are workshops “Life in the USA” or “American Dream”, or the promise to eat fish and chips at lunch and playing Sherlock Holmes. Children will be able to participate in “Team building”, learn about baseball, cheerleading and hold a “Camp diary”. There will be a brunch with pancakes, skewers of marshmallows around the fire, a graduation ceremony with throwing of “Graduation hats” and one “Prom” … No, not like in summer camps American, but as in the series in which teens have already been immersed for a long time.
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