A plane slowly descends from the sky, bouncing off the asphalt runway. This plane, carrying dozens of passengers, has traveled 8,332 kilometers, journeying across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching a new continent, finally pulls into the gate. Tired passengers gradually walk off, dragging luggage with them as they go to connecting flights or to their cars. One family, though, has come to a whole new country, to a new a culture and a new home.

In 1983, Madame Isabelle Cate and her family moved from Paris, France, to Texas due to her father’s work. As a junior, she started high school in America, with little knowledge of the English language. All this made her anxious, but it was a new adventure at the same time.

“I could only understand half of what they said, and they could understand half of what I said,” Cate said. “Everyone was really nice to me because I was the French girl. The girl next to my locker was really sweet, and we became really good friends. I also met another exchange student from Norway, and we became friends too because he and I were experiencing the same struggles. My first pep rally was interesting. In France, we didn’t have school sports teams or cheerleaders, so I didn’t really understand the purpose.”

Despite having to adjust to a new school, there were other aspects of culture that Cate had to adjust to, like a new language and new and exotic foods.

“I thought corn dogs and hamburgers were weird and people used their hands a lot more to eat. There were just more sandwich foods,” said Cate. “Aspects of English made it difficult, like words that look the same but can have different pronunciations, like ‘read’ and ‘live’.There also isn’t a consistent pronunciation and letters can have different sounds depending on the combination.”

Having grown up in France, the differences were obvious to her. After living in an entirely different culture and growing accustomed to it made it more difficult to leave, and having an ocean separating her from where she grew up made it even worse.

“I miss having the family connection,” said Cate. “I was always close to my grandparents, and it was the hardest thing to leave. I also miss the good cheese and bread, and I can’t think of anything I don’t miss about France. I tried keeping in touch with my friends for a little bit, but it didn’t last very long since we didn’t have the Internet. At this point, I’d rather be teaching French in America because life here is more relaxed in general. People are more formal and people take more time to talk and have coffee in France.”

Cate still finds ways to include the French culture with her family, who grew up in America. She cooks French food using family recipes and only speaks and texts in French with her siblings, parents, and children. She also plans to share the French culture with her students by doing a vacation to Quebec next summer.

“I plan to do a tour of the Old City and the cultural aspect of the city,” Cate said. “I also want to show my students the experience of living in a different culture while speaking a different language; I want to give them immersion.”

Quebec isn’t the only place she’d like to visit. Seeing countries like Belgium, Switzerland, and the French speaking countries in the Caribbean are on her mind for the future.

“I think learning a new language allows you to open your mind to new cultures,” Cate said. “It can make you have other ways of looking at things. In America, it tends to be more narrow minded, and it’s good to open up.”