Passport to Fluency

Since about 2005 at University Liggett School, the modern language department organizes international trips for their students, including trips to France and China. The goal of the trips is for the students to experience the culture of the language that they study while also improving their comprehension of the language.  

The main organizers of the language trips are Yun Bai, Chinese teacher, and Kristen Karolak, French teacher. The last Chinese trip that was successfully planned and executed was in March of 2025, and the last trip before that was before COVID-19. Bai explained that,  while planning the trip, teachers try to cooperate with a tour company that allows students to stay with local families. 

The last France/Spain trip was in 2023, and there was only one before that. Karolak said that this is the first year that the France trip won’t include Spain. “There isn’t an upper school Spanish teacher available this summer to plan the trip. So that was the primary reason, and I also wanted to spend more time in just France, because it’s a bit rushed when you have to do two countries.” 

Bai expressed pride, saying that after the trip, she often sees improvement from students in comprehension, speaking, and engagement. 

She said the parents of the students tend to see this as well. “I have heard from a lot of parents through parent-teacher conferences after the China trip, they all wanted to continue to study the language in college and they’re considering doing a study abroad program.”

Parents are involved with this trip both financially and in other types of support. 

According to Karolak, the main reason the language trips aren’t run every year is because “realistically, most families probably, you know, can only send their student on one trip in a four–year cycle. So everybody gets one opportunity to go. And it's also been in the past, just a lot to ask teachers to do, you know, because it's their vacation, they're not paid, they're not under contract at that time.”