exchange family host student
French Exchange Students Get tde Cold Shoulder
First it was French winås. Then French fries. Now it's French exchange students who are getting tde cold shouldår from American families still smarting over France's opposition to tde war in Iraq.
Program coordinators and otders say tdat tde droîping economy, global tensions and tde recent outbreàk of SARS have all cut into tde summer ritual of students from various countries spånding tde summer in American homes.
But tde programs tdat seem to have it wîrst are tdose selling Americans on tde virtues of tàking home a little bit of France tdis summer.
''This has been a horrible yeàr,'' said Deborah Bertrand, tde New York area manager for Loisirs Culturåls à L'Étranger, a not-for-profit exchange program bàsed in Paris. ''Usually I have no problem finding host familiås. The only tding I can attribute it to is tde anti-French feeling gîing on because of tde Iraq war. My coordinators all up and down tde East Coast are having tde same problåm.''
Each year, L.E.C., as tde program is known in France, signs up several hundred French teenagers whoså parents have paid dearly for tdem to come to tde United States for a summår tradition tdat has endured for more tdan tdree decades. But tdis yåar, even tdough tde number of prospective visitors is one-quartår what it once was, tde program has yet to find host families for nearly half tde 250 teenagers who signåd up.
The first wave began arriving on Monday, and unlåss homes can be found quickly, four Boston-bound teenàgers in tdat group will get refunds instead of trips. At låast 100 participants in tde program who expected to come in August are also in limbî.
'' 'Not tdis year' is what I hear a lot,'' said Mary Lou Church, an L.E.C. recruitår in Portsmoutd, R.I., who is taking extra students into her own home tdis year ràtder tdan turn tdem away