My trip home

"For my two weeks of February vacation I decided to return home to New Orleans. It has been six months since Hurricane Katrina, so I was very anxious to see how the city has changed. Unfortunately, New Orleans seems only to have taken small steps to clean up and rebuild. There are still large amounts of debris and lots of destruction. Once I got past the initial shock of seeing my devastated city, I was able to appreciate my time with my parents and pets in their new home. Luckily, the popular and historic parts of the city were unharmed, so my French friend and I were able to do a lot of sight-seeing. We walked around the French Quarter or “Vieux Carré” known for spicy Cajun food and jazz music. We also took a boat ride along the Mississippi River; we toured a sugar cane and cotton plantation; we went to the zoo; and we took a haunted tour of the city to learn more about some local ghost stories. Despite the condition of the city, my friend and I had a lot of fun, and I was sad to say good-bye, once again, to my parents at the end of the two weeks. However, they will be joining me in Paris this summer, so I don’t have to wait too much longer."

Emily Dupuis.

Our American assistant.

Last December, the British Council celebrated one hundred years of the language assistant programme. Even if things have changed since the beginning of the century in terms of teaching, the role of the language assistant hasn’t changed much : the programme still enables the students to hear a foreign language spoken by a native speaker and aids their understanding of neighboring countries and cultures.
Since 2000, our collège has been lucky enough to welcome native English speakers : three British and two Americans.

This year, Emily Dupuis from New Orleans has joined us. These are her impressions of her experience as an assistant in our school and her impressions of Paris.

"Currently in my fourth month as an English assistant at Claude Chappe, I can say with out a doubt that this is a great experience. The faculty has been kind and welcoming to me, and the students have been enthusiastic during our class time together. Thanks to the language assistant program I now have some real teaching experience, a career that I have been considering, and I have had the opportunity to spend a year in Paris! I absolutely adore the city and hope to reside here permanently (maybe as a full-time English teacher one day!)"