Senior Sophie Lenart watched with anticipation as golden slices of galette, an almond custard pastry, were passed around. Every year on La Galette des Rois, she hoped to receive the slice with a hidden porcelain figurine and be crowned queen for the day — a fun tradition she loved celebrating with her friends during her time at her French immersion school.
Because she attended an immersion school incorporating aspects of both French and American culture, Lenart was able to share her love of this French holiday with her classmates. Lenart has always been fond of French culture, growing up in a French-American household with annual visits to France. Her dad, who grew up there, enrolled her in a French immersion program at Silicon Valley International School when she was just entering kindergarten. “My parents tried to make [the experience] as French as possible because that was the whole point of the school,” Lenart said.
The school offers Mandarin, French and German immersion programs, with all classes besides English taught in the target language during elementary school. In middle school, half the classes are taught in French and the remaining half are taught in English. Lenart, who already spoke French at home, learned how to read and write in French.
Because many of Lenart’s classmates had been raised in France and were not yet fluent in English, Lenart and her friends would speak a mix of French and English outside the classroom. “It was really cool how everyone had learned French from a young age, and so everyone was really bilingual,” Lenart said.
However, while Lenart loved speaking French and honing her skills in the language, she ultimately wanted a traditional American high school experience. During her freshman year at Menlo, Lenart found it difficult to transition into classes taught in English at first, often translating English math terms into French. Lenart also came into Menlo with little prior knowledge of US History, as her previous school focused more on global history.
Lenart took AP French for three years and continues to maintain her French skills by reading French novels in her spare time and speaking the language at home.“I feel like reading is honestly the best way to keep a language,” Lenart said.
While Lenart already spoke French at home, sophomores Ethan Blaydes-Greenberg and Laila Young were completely new to Mandarin and Spanish, respectively, when they enrolled in a language immersion school. Their families wanted them to attend an immersion program to master a second language and connect with another culture.
While Blaydes-Greenberg also attended Silicon Valley International School, albeit for Mandarin, Young attended Escondido Elementary School. At Escondido, all classes besides English were taught in Spanish during elementary school. While learning another language was certainly challenging for both at first, they found that the language started to come naturally after one year of immersion school.
“It’s better to learn a language when you’re younger since you pick up certain things you won’t be able to pick up when you’re older,” Blaydes-Greenberg said.
Young believes her experience has made her more open-minded and exposed her to an entire culture she otherwise wouldn’t have known. She was able to experience Latin American holidays with her friends’ families and grow her cultural awareness. “[The immersion program] is very special to me since not a lot of people get this opportunity,” Young said.
Looking back, Lenart, Young and Blaydes-Greenberg all value their unique experiences in language immersion schools and, if given the opportunity, would not change their decision to enroll in such programs for elementary or middle school.
“From the beginning at Menlo, I’ve always looked at things from a more global perspective. And while my peers [have adjusted] to this perspective, [seeing things from a global view] is definitely a strength of mine,” Lenart said.
