Experience hosting Corsica students, smaller world! Welcome students into YOUR home!

 Introduction

Courtesy of our local email lists, we learned of a program actually hatched by our Montgomery County schools for an exchange program of high school students from France and Spain.   

The above image is a chatGPT generated image so no real people here!  

Anyway, below is a quick synopsis of the program from the organization website of the program. 

The International Friendship Foundation, (TIFF) is an organization created by Montgomery County Maryland educators for families who wish to experience the cultural and educational benefits of hosting a student from France or Spain.

This particular February trip were students from Corsica, the French island in the Mediterranean.  This was a week long program so we signed up for it.  The program director, Steven Hancock, is a prince of a man, who sent us a sheaf of papers including thick packets from each of the students that would be staying with us.  One of the students didn't like fish - my wife and I laughed about a boy growing up on an island with so much fish that he decided not to like it!  Also, one of the points swaying us to participate was that the pickup place for students early each week day morning turned out to be just around the corner from us.  

The Corse language - exchange about

Once we had signed up for the week student hosting, we read about the Corse (Corsu) language in Corsica.  Corsica had a rich history featuring Neolithic cultures, Greek, Roman, and Genoese rule before French annexation in 1769. My wife got in touch with her nephew in Hong Kong, who studies languages.  He was very interested, having studied the recent resurgence of indigenous languages and asked for a report about how live the Corsu language was with our students.  

Welcome of the Students, the Gifts, and the Routine

Anyway, we met the boys getting off a large bus that had picked them up at Dulles Airport.   Our house has a comfortable lower level room where the boys decamped with their substantial luggage.  Only when they came up after unpacking did we realize the gifts they'd brought with them!  These included tins of wonderful local Corsican biscotti like cookies, and several jars of wonderful local fruit preserves.  During the week, the pickup for the boys turned out to be just around the corner from us, which had helped sway our decision to participate.  So this meant an early rise to make a much larger breakfast than we are accustomed to plus pack the boys a bagged lunch.  Because of the proximity, I always walked with the boys to the pickup spot - where other families pulled up in the their cars.  

Whats App - the essential communication tool. 

Coming as no surprise that the preferred mode of communication was Whats App.  So before long, I'm in several new Whats App groups, the largest for Steven to message all the host families, plus one for me with the two boys, and as it developed, separate whats app chats with the Corsican moms of the two boys!  The daily chats with the two mothers reminded us that being a mother of young boys was a recognizable dynamic, regardless of place or culture!  The moms were so appreciative and thoughtful.  Getting to know the families of the students we hosted was another rich layer of the experience, and one we weren't expecting.  

The Experience

Throughout the week, the teachers who accompanied the young people were unfailingly helpful.  One of the boys spoke English better than his partner, and the other fellow so constantly asked for help that we joked that the helper was the "google translate" for the other!  

As it happened our next door neighbors had two young women as part of the exchange group, so our boys spent a good part of their free time over there.  

Our meals for the boys were a combination of effort by my wife and I.  Because I have been a bread baker since the pandemic, the boys seemed to greatly enjoy one of my fresh loaves. Oh, the boys were impressed that we had grey poupon mustard in our fridge.  Hard to explain to them how ubiquitous that is these days here. 

During the week, we visited neighbors in the community that we've known for years but not socialized with for far too long.  While our boys enjoyed the two boys they were hosting, we so enjoyed interacting with the neighbor couple.  Thus, a sideline of this exchange visit, also unexpected, gave us an opportunity to meet and talk with other community members who were also hosts of students.  For example, while waiting one evening for the return of the students after a long DC day, I started speaking to a fellow in the car next to me.  Turns out, he'd never gotten on the local civic email list that I help to moderate, so with the info he gave me that evening, I direct added him using the groups.io back end!

Bread Baking

Finally, the two boys we hosted could not have been more thoughtful.  One evening, the second fellow baked a loaf of French bread for us!  We enjoyed that for several lunches.  By the time of their departure, I baked two small loaves of bread that each of them could fit in their overburdened luggage.  Upon their return to their home, I got a lovely message back from one of the boys:  "My whole family and I loved your bread. A delight of Jonathan in Corsica!"

Our Report about the Corsican language

Well, our report to my wife's nephew turned out to be a rich report indeed.  The clear message we got from the students was that Corse was important to them and their families and they often speak it at home.  They even told us their Corse names, and were so happy when we addressed them that way.  In fact, we got the impression that this language was closely connected to the nationalism movement awake in the country, where the young people feel less French and more Corsican.They speak in French to one another, but switch to Corse with no effort.  Indeed, at the potluck dinner at week's end, the students all sang, not the French national anthem, but the funereal dirge like Corsican national anthem!

Conclusion

We greatly enjoyed the experience.  If you would like to participate, contact Steve via their  contact page,   Per Steven, they actually took over the Corsican students after another group bowed out, so their the TIFF 2026 exchanges are March 6-15th, and April 18-23rd.