After fleeing Kyiv, 15-year-old twins cram to catch up at school in Paris
By Yiming Woo
PARIS (Reuters) – Weeks after fleeing Kyiv with their mom and arriving in Paris, 15-year-old twins Masha and Sasha Litkovska have already began highschool within the French capital and are cramming to familiarize yourself with the language.
They’re amongst almost 90 Ukrainians who’ve transferred to excessive faculties in Paris and the remainder of the Ile-de-France area in latest weeks.
There are 700 spots obtainable within the Ile-de-France for overseas college students in want and most of them this yr are anticipated to be allotted to folks fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, in line with Christophe Kerrero, Paris’s chief educational officer.
To date, the ladies have spent most of their time in a French as a second language class, the place they’re being helped by two different college students, initially from Russia and Kazakhstan, who translate for them.
“The target – since these two college students are actually newbies within the French language – is to get them to grasp the language as quickly as doable, to allow them to pursue their research in France in the event that they keep,” stated their instructor Sarah Czarnobroda.
Whereas the twins are adapting to their new life, they continue to be anxious about their father, a police officer, who has stayed at dwelling in Kyiv to battle.
“We’re very fearful about our father,” Sasha stated. “Although we’re secure now, we’re nonetheless very fearful about Ukraine, as a result of you do not know in case your relations are alive. When you possibly can’t attain them over the cellphone, you begin considering one thing went mistaken.”
Moscow calls its motion in Ukraine a “particular operation”.
The twins and their mom travelled by way of Slovakia earlier than arriving in Paris on March 5 and are staying at an condo within the southwest of the French capital that belongs to a pal of their mom.
Masha stated she preferred their new college and the ladies had already made some mates.
“I’m completely happy that I’m not in Kyiv, and never in Ukraine … and am not fascinated about whether or not I’ll make it to tomorrow morning,” she stated.
(Reporting by Yiming Woo; Writing by Makini Brice; Modifying by Susan Fenton)
