Foreign Language Department

Welcome to the home page of the ConVal High School foreign language department.

Conval French students and their new Senegalese pen pales:

Conval French Program has started a very exciting project this semester. Thanks to a parent we have created a letter exchange with Senegal. Hannah Wilder, a former French student, has a cousin who is in Senegal working as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ruth Wilder sent me an e-mail looking for my help in starting an exchange with a small school near Sonoke where this young lady resides.
We very enthusiastically accepted the challenge and have already sent our second set of letters. French is the language we use since the Senegalese students learn it when they go to school. They come to their school knowing different dialects and all of their subjects are taught in French.
It is an incredible experience for our students who are learning about another culture through a language they are learning in school. It is a real-life activity that is motivating. It was a pleasure to see our students so excited when we opened our new friends’ letters. We decided to create a bulletin board with all the information we gathered while reading their letters. Each of our students picked a pen pale. We have received pictures of the young 5th graders who are writing to us.
So far we have learned that they do not have electricity; malaria is the number one killer; that they cultivate vegetables; that they have very little. It is very humbling for our students; we have had some very interesting conversation when it was time to take pictures: what would they be interested in knowing? What are they going to think when they see all what we have?
So our students are reading French letters, writing in French. They asked what we could send to help but because there is no electricity and the mail is very slow we have had to put our fund raising ideas to rest until we learn more about what we can do. In the meantime our students have found another way to use what they are learning and hopefully it will help another community far away on another continent.

Department Staff