Petites villes hospitality
Will Canada’s oldest French immersion program survive?
Western University’s French immersion homestay program, founded in 1933 in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, is the oldest in Canada. Yet it’s in trouble. Western has started a review of their French immersion program after it was paused in 2024 due to a decline in homestay families. Many households involved before 2020 are approaching retirement and, when the pandemic hit, they decided that this would be a good moment to end their participation. Also, as reported by CBC, some host families thought there was not enough compensation, especially considering the higher cost of living and the demands made on them. Research shows that other Canadian programs right across the country that host international students have also had trouble finding homes for them since the pandemic.
Dr. William Sherwood Fox, a professor of classics and President of Western, founded the program because he wanted anglophones to learn French and to become acquainted with Quebec culture. His vision was inspired by a trip he’d taken to Quebec more than three decades prior as a 22-year-old.
In the decades since, many students like Dr. Fox have had transformative experiences while studying in Quebec through his program. Although they have classes in the morning at a nearby high school, much of the learning comes from being involved in activities with their host families and relating to people in the town of about 3,000 people.
A personal connection
The news of Western pausing this historic program immediately brought me back to my own French immersion experience. I closed my eyes, smiled and remembered that exhilarating moment (many years ago) when I stood on the deck of a ship in New York harbor waving to my family. It was a ship with a thousand students, Canadians and Americans, Europe-bound for a year of studies. My destination was historic Strasbourg, France where I would study to complete the third year of my bachelor’s degree in French.
That year was not all wine and roses but, looking back, I can see how formative it was in determining my life path. Now, as I reflect on this headline, I wonder what the fate of Western University’s French Immersion School will be.
Mutually beneficial
Former students said this experience encouraged them to speak French since the people there didn’t speak English. It was valuable knowledge that they wouldn’t have received from merely studying or reading a book in the language. Another benefit was a deeper knowledge of Quebec culture.
Western University’s immersion program has also had tremendous benefits for the town of Trois-Pistoles. Philippe Guilbert, the town’s mayor, has launched an all-out effort to save the program since, in his words, this school “generates important economic and social consequences for our community.” The committee he formed in response to this situation has garnered a petition with over 700 signatures and a document with testimonies of the program’s benefits from many of the host families. The document will likely be sent to Western for consideration before the final decision is made. The town of Trois-Pistoles is also doing all it can to find more families that will accept students.
French immersion benefits
Immersion is the best way to learn a language. Textbook knowledge can never replace the experience of real conversations. When I arrived in France, I could read advanced texts in French but my pronunciation was null. On the first Sunday in Strasbourg, my landlady took me out to lunch, but it was a one-way conversation! I could understand some of what she said but she couldn’t understand me. Clearly, I had a long way to go.
Cross-cultural encounters enrich our lives. From my own experience, I know that it was sometimes difficult to establish in-depth relationships with French people. I had a lucky break, in a sense. Before I went to France, a family from Philadelphia moved close to my parents’ farm in Pennsylvania. The husband, originally from Strasbourg, gave me the names of some of his relatives there. As it turned out, I was billeted in the apartment of a couturiere (seamstress) which was just a block away from his cousin’s bakery! Sometimes, after classes, I would stop in there and his cousin’s wife would tell me to choose two pastries from the display window. She would then seat me at the dining room table with the pastries and a shot of liqueur! They had a son around my age and we occasionally did sports and cultural activities together. We remain in contact to this day.
Knowledge of both official languages can open up more job opportunities for young people. Careers with the federal government often require proficiency in French.
As Christians, we are called to be reconcilers. I’ve listened to inflammatory discourses on both sides of the linguistic fence. But we need to promote peace and understanding between the two main language groups of Canada. It saddens me when I travel to other parts of our beautiful country and hear negative, sometimes even hateful, comments made about the French language and people from Quebec. We must do better than that.
The independent organization that is conducting the review for Western will submit its report to the university in May, at which time it will be given to the provost for consideration. What will the response be? I, for one, am hoping the decision will be affirmative!
