My French and Ski Adventures in Verbier, Switzerland

Hi, My name is Sadhbh Monaghan. I am a 16-year-old Transition Year student, I live in Meath. From the 9th of March to the 24th of March, I attended the French & Ski Winter Camp programme in Verbier Switzerland. I chose to attend this camp because I have an interest in improving my French and I love to ski. I’ve been studying French for 4 years and wanted to build up on my understanding of the language to hopefully benefit from it by scoring a high grade in the Leaving Certificate in two years time. I have been skiing since I was 2 years old and it is one of my favourite hobbies. 

Arriving in Verbier

Arriving on the first day, I had mixed feelings. I was quite nervous as I was on my own but extremely excited to meet new people from around the world. As I was introduced to everyone I felt really welcomed which made me feel a lot better.  

My first week went really well, I got on with everyone in my ski group and liked my instructor. The French classes are small which I found really beneficial as the teacher is more focused on your ability to understand the language. The classes were 2 hours long and were 3 days a week.  I really enjoyed the food the first week, my favourite meal I had was the fondue. It was cultural and delicious! 

Skiing and Making Friends

The thing I enjoyed the most was, of course skiing. All of the instructors were really accommodating by skiing at the level you were at. Over the 2 weeks, I completed the skiing course and received a certificate! The hardest obstacle I came across was saying goodbye to the friends I made the first week I was there as I got along with them really well. Most of these students came a week before me and also attended for 2 weeks. However as new people came the same day, I got to know them and became really good friends with them by the end of the week.  

Excursion to Bern

Every Wednesday we went on an excursion, the first week we went to the capital of Switzerland, Bern. We visited a museum and then went shopping. I enjoyed this because we got some free time to ourselves to do what we wanted around the town.  

Tip for Future Students

My best tip to any students thinking about doing a camp like this is to go with an open mind, have a positive attitude, be yourself, make new friends and of course, have fun! From this camp, I have noticed an improvement in understanding someone speaking French better. I believe this will be beneficial for me in the future and I hope that my French will continue to improve.  Thank you for reading !