Martinique Students Visit Irvington High School

Students at Irvington High School got a true lesson in francophone culture this week with a visit from exchange students from Lycée Bellevue in Martinique, a French speaking Caribbean island.   

Irvington’s French class students organized the welcome for Monday’s visit, including breakfast, lunch, icebreaker activities and a sharing experience talk at the end of the day. Though the students live miles apart, they were already acquainted since they have been writing each other, in both French and English, via e-mail and Facebook since this winter.   

However, this was the first time the Martinique students and the IHS students were able to directly speak to one another.  

The Martinique students are staying with host families in New Jersey, are studying English and are accompanied by their English teachers Corinne Vally and Valerie Sidoine. IHS French teacher Elizabeta Dukalskaya made the international connection possible by working with the French Embassy and mytransatlanticschool.com, platform that promotes cultural exchanges between schools in the U.S. France and other French-speaking regions.   

IHS students, who hosted Russian high school students and teachers last year, plan to continue corresponding with the students from Martinique.