Hmm

On 3/5/2014 at 4:51 AM, gubernaculum said:

When I was 10 years of age my asthma had become such a life-threatening problem that my chest specialist in the UK gave my parents a radical option in terms of treating my illness. I was sent to the Eastern Pyrenees area of France, to a small ski resort town called Font Romeu, for 9 months of high altitude treatment. They say that beyond a certain altitude, the dust mites that cause problems for so many asthma sufferers can no longer survive and at 1800m, Font Romeu was of sufficient altitude as to be an effective location for just such a purpose.

Being one of only two English speakers at the residential clinic and with all the other kids being barely able to speak one word of my native tongue, I was put in the position of needing to learn French quickly if I was to have any kind of a life over there.

Happily, the language came to me quite rapidly and, due to the immersive nature of the experience, I was able to retain it right up until the present moment. It is definitely true that a young brain is able to learn a foreign language much better than an old one!

I also learnt French the same way as gubernaculum.....I may have been the 'other' kid they did not get on with aside from the fact that the other kid I was with appeared alot younger than me. The teacher at Le Nid Soleil was awful at teaching English from a Larousse Dictionary...far worse than our school text book French and if you were caught gum chewing in class they would demand you take it out and they would put it in your hair. The copier was a hand operated one on which worksheets would be printed. You would do weaving for art. The childrens home did not speak English to you even if they could. I felt isolated and lonely. They used their language and your lack of understanding it as a way to bully you. The bedrooms were 70s dorm throwbacks and the food at times was inedible. This place frightened me...there was another child leaving called Donna Aseltine who looked very relieved to be going...

On 3/5/2014 at 5:10 AM, gubernaculum said:

As I have mentioned in a previous reply to another topic, I have a bit of an interesting reason for learning a second language. Being a lifelong chronic asthmatic and living on a farm where every harvest season would result in a wave of life-threatening asthma attacks, my parents and health specialist were forced to consider an unusual course of action to deal with my condition. At the time (around 1982/83), in my home area of the UK, there was a charity run by a local newspaper which raised money to send kids like me with asthma and cystic fibrosis to Switzerland and France for high altitude treatment. Basically, they would be sent to a residential clinic for a period of time -- anywhere from a month to a year -- where they could breathe easier due to the better air quality and lack of allergens.

In this manner I was sent to a clinic called 'Le Nid Soleil' in a small ski resort town called Font Romeu. Nestled in the French Pyrenees close to the Spanish border and the tiny country of Andorra, Font Romeu at 1800m was of sufficient altitude to be considered effective for patients with breathing difficulties like mine.

I was sent there with one other English kid (with whom I did not get along) and no family members. All the other children at the clinic were Francophone with no knowledge of English; indeed even my school teacher there was barely able to string together a sentence in my mother tongue. In this immersive situation and needing to make friends, I soon began to acquire French as my second language.