Speaking the same language

ST ANNE'S schoolchildren finally made video contact with their counterparts at Le Collège Hague-Dike in Normandy this week.

The project has been three years in the making and plagued with technical difficulties.

Five teenagers from Years 9, 10 and 11 gathered in front of a whiteboard screen in the IT room to chat to six teens from their twin town, Beaumont-Hague in France, in a two-way video conference.

At their first meeting the class listened to their counterparts speak French and spoke to them in English, with French teacher Sally Pond on hand to smooth out any conversational snags.

During the half-hour chat the students agreed they would construct a fresco when they go over to meet on 9 June at the Festival of Arts in Beaumont-Hague and create a montage of photos for it.

Sally said they planned to repeat the exercise every two weeks until the trip.

'The pupils have got an awful lot from it so far,' she said. 'They are excited; they've met real French people. They haven't actually spoken any French yet because that wasn't the purpose of today, but they've listened to some real French and they've started to understand real French as it's spoken, not just as it's spoken in the classroom.'

Any lulls in the dialogue proved that teenagers are the same everywhere, she said.

'Typical teenagers, they couldn't think of what to say,' she commented. 'I'm sure they've got lots of ideas but they were all a bit tongue-tied. But it was interesting to see that their teenagers are just the same as ours. But apart from that it's worked really well.'

Jamie Blackham, 14, explained: 'It was a lot trickier than I thought it would be. When they spoke fast it was really difficult to understand – I think they were a little bit nervous, like us.'

Alderney States President Stuart Trought, pictured, said the event was one of a string of initiatives aimed at getting the island working more closely with their nearest neighbour.

'Ever since I've been in this job I've been working hard to improve relationships with France,' he said.

'We've had meetings with the Conseil General de la Manche in St Lo, meeting the Chamber of Commerce in Cherbourg, and some really fantastic opportunities have come out of this. I've been absolutely delighted with the warmth with which we have been met by our French counterparts.'