This is an immersive French language and culture program designed to provide all-level students of French with a unique experience in one of France ‘s overseas territories. It provides them with an understanding of the way language and culture ecology works. Language ecology is defined as the study of how languages interact with each other and the settings in which they are spoken. While strengthening their communicative skill, students experience the relationship between languages spoken in the islands, as well as the island’s socio-cultural and natural environment.
Alongside French, other Polynesian ethnic languages are spoken in Tahiti and the other surrounding islands. Polynesia is a mixture of several ethnic groups living in a harmonious relationship. This is the best setting to explore language/culture ecology. Students will be exposed not only to a multilingual and multicultural setting where linguistic negotiations and cultural dynamics happen in almost all the aspects of daily life.
A second focus, not less important than the first, is on the wide range of academic activities, visits, and talks that students will choose according to their interests (from arts, political, business, sustainability, sociology, economy, scientific, marine biology, environmental, geology, survival camping, …to music). This way, the abroad combines business (academia) with pleasure.