Eymet (France): The avalanche of English people moving to the southwest Dordogne region of France each year is having an unexpected benefit on rural French schools once in danger of closing.
“The current political will is to close down schools and services in small rural areas and centralise them in towns. Happily, the English like to live in small, rural areas and send their children to local schools,” said Bruno Arfeuille, a roving teacher who gives French lessons to new arrivals.
Because not only do the schools welcome the children with open arms, they also provide them with French lessons.
Arfeuille is one of two such teachers and currently has more than 100 students in different schools around the area, which counts between 5,000 and 10,000 Britons. They have been drawn by the laidback lifestyle, warm climate and the lower cost of living. “The girls are always faster than the boys, but it takes about three months to a year for the children to learn French, depending on their level when they arrive,” Arfeuille said.
At the local school in Eymet, a village of 2,600 inhabitants with such a high population of English speakers that one was recently elected as a town councillor, Arfeuille has a class of six.
Arfeuille, who is paid by the state, also gives French lessons to other new arrivals: from Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, Russia, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. He started in 1999 when he was asked to teach children of refugees who had fled the fighting in Kosovo.
According to his figures, between 200 and 300 new children arrive every year to start school in the Dordogne area. Over the last three years the figures have tapered off somewhat from 336 new foreign children in 2005, to 203 this year.
Asked if there is any resentment at so many new arrivals, Arfeuille says not at all. “They bring life to the area, and to the schools.” AFP
“The current political will is to close down schools and services in small rural areas and centralise them in towns. Happily, the English like to live in small, rural areas and send their children to local schools,” said Bruno Arfeuille, a roving teacher who gives French lessons to new arrivals.
Because not only do the schools welcome the children with open arms, they also provide them with French lessons.
Arfeuille is one of two such teachers and currently has more than 100 students in different schools around the area, which counts between 5,000 and 10,000 Britons. They have been drawn by the laidback lifestyle, warm climate and the lower cost of living. “The girls are always faster than the boys, but it takes about three months to a year for the children to learn French, depending on their level when they arrive,” Arfeuille said.
At the local school in Eymet, a village of 2,600 inhabitants with such a high population of English speakers that one was recently elected as a town councillor, Arfeuille has a class of six.
Arfeuille, who is paid by the state, also gives French lessons to other new arrivals: from Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, Russia, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. He started in 1999 when he was asked to teach children of refugees who had fled the fighting in Kosovo.
According to his figures, between 200 and 300 new children arrive every year to start school in the Dordogne area. Over the last three years the figures have tapered off somewhat from 336 new foreign children in 2005, to 203 this year.
Asked if there is any resentment at so many new arrivals, Arfeuille says not at all. “They bring life to the area, and to the schools.” AFP
LEARNING CURVE: Bruno Arfeuille, a roving teacher, gives French lessons to new arrivals at a school in France
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