Learning Without Walls: Carmel College Students Thrive in Moorea’s Natural Classrooms

From October 5 to 13, 2025, Fare Om in Moorea welcomed a group of teenage students from Carmel College, New Zealand, for a week-long French language and cultural immersion experience. But unlike traditional classroom learning, these students swapped desks and fluorescent lights for sunshine, salt air, and green backdrops. Their time in Tahiti became a living, breathing classroom—one where language came alive through experience.

At Fare Om, we believe that education thrives when it's rooted in real-life environments. For the Carmel College students, this philosophy translated into morning French lessons held in our tranquil garden surrounded by palms and flowers, interactive exercises under shady trees.

Learning also continued far from the Fare Om campus—on hikes through Moorea’s majestic mountains, where vocabulary about nature and local geography was absorbed firsthand;

or on a trip to Motu Ahi, a small nearby island, where students practiced French while participating in team-building games and environmental preservation.

This kind of “education without walls” empowers students to connect the language to context, which reinforces retention, builds confidence, and sparks curiosity. Students often remarked that they didn’t even realize how much French they were absorbing—it simply became part of their experience.

“I loved how every moment became an opportunity to speak French—on a hike, while cooking, even playing games on the motu,” shared one Carmel student. “It didn’t feel like school—it felt like real life.”

Why Native Speakers Make the Difference

Another key aspect of the Carmel group’s experience was our team of native French-speaking teachers from France and French Polynesia. Their presence offered not only authentic pronunciation and cultural nuance but also a deeper emotional connection to the language.

Our native speakers offered a natural flow, idiomatic expressions, and cultural depth that is often difficult for non-native speakers to replicate. Their storytelling, humour, and subtle corrections helped students fine-tune their comprehension and speaking skills with greater confidence.

At the same time, having non-native assistant facilitators (who had learned French themselves) added another layer—empathy and relatability for students who were just starting their French journey. This balanced teaching approach combined the inspiration of native fluency with the support of experienced language learners, creating a truly inclusive and empowering learning environment.

More Than Just Language

Of course, the Carmel College students also enjoyed a wide range of cultural immersion activities—from Polynesian drumming and dance workshops to flower weaving, cooking local dishes like poisson cru. These experiences deepened their understanding of French Polynesia and brought meaning to the vocabulary they were learning.

By the end of their stay, the Carmel students had not only improved their French, but they also left Moorea with new perspectives and a sense of connection to the people and culture of this island paradise.