Zoe Zwecher is a testament to the power of immersion language education. While her family is not French or francophone, she grew up with the French American Academy from Pre-K2 to eighth grade. She’s now preparing to continue her French studies at the Ohio State University. It was interesting to hear what she had to say about being raised within our bilingual education system.
Attended FAA: Pre-K2 to 8th Grade
Current School: Ohio State University
“At the FAA, we learned using the French and American school curriculums, and I feel that it definitely gave me a better understanding of the world as a whole and enriched my education, always giving me two perspectives on grammar, math, history, or any other subject. “
Q: Tell me about your background and educational journey thus far.
I went to the FAA from preschool to 8th grade. It was the only school I had been to until high school. Now, I go to Northern Valley Demarest High School. I was never interested in sports, so I didn’t participate in any sports in high school or middle school. During my childhood summers until 5th grade, I attended the FAA summer camp with all my friends. I’m going to OSU as a French major, but I haven’t decided yet what I want to do after college.
Q: What was it like to be educated in a francophone environment, coming from a non-French-speaking family?
I am the only person in my family who speaks French. When I was younger, my parents would tell people that I spoke French, and I would get so embarrassed! I didn’t want to let anyone hear me speak French. But now, as I get older, I realize it’s cool that I am the only person in my family who speaks it. I am so glad I had a bilingual upbringing. I never knew what a monolingual upbringing was like until I went to high school. I used to speak English at home and mostly French at school, but now I speak only English at school, which was a pretty weird adjustment.
Q: Did you find that growing up with a bilingual education affected your worldview, your development, or your life in any particular ways?
At the FAA, we learned using the French and American school curriculums, and I feel that it definitely gave me a better understanding of the world as a whole and enriched my education, always giving me two perspectives on grammar, math, history, or any other subject. I currently have friends who never learned geography and other subjects/information that I did in school because their school did not use the French curriculum.
Q: Have you got any specific memories or anecdotes that you treasure from your time at the FAA? Are there any teachers that stand out in your memory?
All my memories at the FAA are really fun and I genuinely never had a bad experience that I could think of. One of my favorite memories was in 7th grade when we went on a field trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island for five days. At the time, we all thought it was so random going there but we had a great time! Every day we laughed so much with each other and even with the teachers. So many memories were made there.
Another fun memory was in 8th grade before COVID happened, it was in French class with Levie, Daria, Chantal, and me. Mme Venturelli was teaching a lesson and looked at the 4 of us dozing off. When she looked at us she said even she was bored teaching this stuff today, so for the rest of the period, we played music and danced in the class. I liked most of my teachers at the FAA, but the ones I connected with the most were the ones I had in middle school. Teachers such as Mrs. Karam, Mme Venturelli, Mr. Tourais, Cathy, and Ms Meena knew me so well and were like family to me.
