In La Grande-Motte, intensive French courses for Ukrainian refugees

Operation “open school” in La Grande Motte during these spring holidays. Teachers have agreed to provide French lessons to Ukrainian women and children who have found refuge in the seaside resort of Hérault. Intensive courses to quickly erase the language barrier and allow them to integrate.

Even if learning our language is not easy. The alphabet is not the same, nor is the syntax, so you have to go straight to the point, as explained by Elodie Garcia, French teacher: “During “Learning Holidays”, I had them for a week for three hours every day, so they made great progress. Now they are able to say the first sentences, their needs, the town hall, the prefecture, go to the doctor“.

These thirty-five women, men, children and teenagers have been integrated into the “Learning Holidays” system, which already exists to help students in difficulty during school holidays, thanks to a partnership between the National Education Department which puts available to teachers, and the Town Hall of La Grande-Motte, which accommodates them in a holiday residence by the sea. Everyone here wants to integrate as quickly as possible and become independent, even if they keep hoping to find their country quickly.

“I don’t know what awaits us, I don’t know what our destiny will be for the future, and therefore learning and speaking French will allow me to integrate into French society, to find work, to integrate my child and therefore to be able to build a life here. Even if we don’t know if it’s short term or longer term, but at least build something“, testifies Anastazia Maltseva, resident of kyiv and lawyer by profession.