Annalisa Tacchi, a Grade 11 student at Central Collegiate, found inspiration to learn more about the French language after taking part in a language exchange program last year. 

The program has a student from Quebec live with a Saskatchewan student and their family for three months and then the Saskatchewan student goes to Quebec and lives with the Quebec student’s family for three months. 

Tacchi first heard about the exchange program in Grade 4 when she was taking French immersion at Palliser Heights Elementary School and immediately wanted to go, but her mom said no because she was too young. 

During her Grade 9 year at Central, Tacchi applied for the program and was accepted for her Grade 10 year. 

She moved out to Granby, Que. at the end of January 2020 and the program was only supposed to last until March of 2020. That was extended, however, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

At first, the program wanted to send the students home after two weeks but decided against it as the students wouldn’t give gotten anything out of the program in such a small timeframe. 

Both families and Tacchi decided that she would stay in Quebec until the end of May before returning home. 

Going to Quebec was a bit of a culture shock when Tacchi first arrived as she started to learn some of the nuances of the French language. She said her host family would pre-record TV shows and gave her the remote to pause the show if there was anything she didn’t understand and she could ask questions. 

“The family is what really makes or breaks it. If you have a really great family, you get along well with your exchange partner and the other children in the house it'll be amazing,” Tacchi said.  

“Of course, we didn't get to do all the things that we wanted to and we had to rush to do everything right from the start because no one could have guessed what would happen last spring.” 

There were also differences at school as teachers were referred to by their first name and cell phones were strictly prohibited on campus. 

The program re-affirmed her love for French and Quebec. Since Grade 5 her dream has been to attend McGill University in Montreal, and she is still working towards that goal. 

“The French language aspect I would be more comfortable with now because I feel more confident in my skills after staying there for a couple of months instead of, say, if I've never done this program and all I had was my immersion education. I would have been a bit lost,” she said. 

Tacchi’s experience has recently been featured in “Storytelling”, an online publication put out by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.