Témoignages de maîtres de stage

- Canada - Production céréalière.

Hello - this is Mary Ann. Just to let you know that Vincent is well, he has

extended his stay in Canada by approximpately 2 weeks as he wants to see portions of the USA and Canada to the West that he has not travelled to yet. He left last Friday on his journey (by car) and will plan on being back to our home on November 12. I believe his new flight date is November 15.

Our farming year is over, all of our crops are harvested and we have had time to do some work in the fields also. We were very happy to have Vincent on our farm this year. He was a very good addition to our farm and was always happy to do anything we asked of him. We sincerely hope he has enjoyed our family and farm.

We will be seeing him for only a few days before he flies out. Thank you for arranging his travel and helping him come to Canada.

– Anthony - USA - Vinification - Napa Valley

Justine is adjusting very well and is becoming more comfortable with her position as each day passes. She is presently staying with my wife and myself and we thoroughly enjoy her company. She has already been exposed to many different aspects of winemaking and next week we will begin to visit the vineyards. At this time I have no reason to doubt the contribution she will make to this years vintage.

– Alistair - Australie - Production laitière 2015.

Anne Cecile is a delight to have around. she works very hard. She is keen to learn and try anything we ask her to do. She has been working unsupervised for many weeks now. She is good at visualizing a problem and letting us know. In the next few weeks, we will be oversewing paddocks. She will get some more tractor experience. She is good with the cows and in the dairy in April we will be calving cows so she will get some experience there. We are both very happy with her. She has a lovely bubbly personality.

– Lesley - Nouvelle Zélande - Production céréalière 2014 - 2015

Mathieu has settled in well and is in a four bedroomed new small house with a Swiss boy, David who is 33 years old and also an Exchangee. They get along well together but Mathieu is making better use of his time off to meet people and see the country. He takes part in the Wednesday night social times and that is how all the trainees get to know what is going on. He had Christmas with our family the Saturday prior to Christmas day as this year all our children ( 38-41 Years ) and their families go to the in laws. Mathieu has met up with another six French workers and they were going to the beach for New Year’s Eve. His friend Mathieu who is working at Fairlie often comes for the weekends. He purchased a car on arrival in Christchurch and has paid for it. I feel he is mature and pray he will be safe on the roads as many accidents in NZ are caused by foreigners moving onto the wrong side of the road. I also keep reinforcing the virtual zero tolerance of alcohol for drivers of his age.

Mathieu is polite and will always ask if he needs help or does not understand. He is managing the task of moving the Roto Rainer irrigators on his own and he and David kept a watch over the farm when we were in Auckland for our son’s wedding in late November. He drives the trucks, and the loaders, loading the bales when we are making balage. He has feed calves and helped with them although he is not working on the dairy farm. Today he resumes work after the Holiday break which has been very hot with temperatures over 30 degrees and has certainly changed the colour of the wheat crops. The grass seed crops appear to be later this year, but the windrower is out and will soon be in use and the busy time will begin.

We are happy with Matieu as an employee and I think his English is improving slowly but they do complain that we speak too quickly.

– Michael and Joyce - Irlande - Bed and Breakfast 2014

The three students, Sarah, Justine & Milena were three excellent workers , of wonderful character and applied themselves very well to their work. They were very happy here and this was very evident with the “tears” in their eyes and the presents they gave to both Joyce and I when they were leaving.

Sarah was here from Mid May to the 3rd week in August . She was a excellent worker and was very good when meeting the guests on arrival and organising their accommodation, providing them with Tea/Coffee and taking their breakfast orders. Sarah’s parents visited the Lodge and stayed several days here. They were very pleased with their daughter’s work and that she was happy here.

Justine was a very pleasant girl with an open personality and she also enjoyed her time with us. Justine’s parents came here also, Justine having returned home, and stayed for 4 days and brought lovely presents from France and thanked us for looking after her so well.

Milena, was a very accomplished worker and an experienced waitress. She is a fantastic cook and prepared some wonderful meals for us during her term. Milema’s mother stayed here also for the last week before Milena returned home. They both gave us lovely flowers & presents before they returned and Milena was very emotional when saying good bye and vowed to return.

So Jean-Marie you can see from above the Students were happy here and we were so lucky to have them.

– Tad and Donna - Canada anglophone - céréales 2014.

We have found over the last 2 months that Aurelien is a very willing employee. He has done everything we have asked him to do and done it well. He operates all the machinery that we have used this season , ( tractor , stonepicker , sprayer , tandem trucks , swather and baler).
Socially he fits in well with the rest of our family and friends. He presents himself well when he is with us out in the community at different social functions.
He is always asking the right way to talk in English and the translation of English to French.The French to English ,English to French Dictionary comes in handy and is always on our kitchen table.
He seems to be enjoying his stay here in Sask. and there are a few dreams of his to come true yet.

– Conor and Bridget - Ireland - Bed and Breakfast 2013.

Cecilia was and is a wonderful trainee. She is very polite, pleasant and a good worker. Friendly towards guests and very good with her duties. We were very happy with her and also enjoyed her company.

She told me that she wants to enter the hotel industry and service, for example restaurant because she wants to travel the world. I feel she is very capable of much more and should consider Hotel Management as a career. Her sister visited us and I spoke with her regarding Cecila and her ability to do so much more with her future. Perhaps its confidence and immaturity at this stage of her life.

On the day of her departure I told Cecilia that she must start to think bigger – greater things are possible for her with her life. I told her to put all her energy into her final year at school – study and work hard for her exams and get into a good University or world recognised Catering Collage where she can study for a degree in Hotel Management.

I sincerely hope that someone talks to her and gives her that PUSH.

–  Mary - Ireland - Dairy production 2013

Alexandre seems to be enjoying himself - the work is not hard and he seems to take instruction well.
Any place we go he comes with us and I do think he is getting more confident with English.
There is a French family who play music in one of the pubs in the village and he goes with Piaras’s mother to see them play and has a game of pool with the boy and girl who are about his age after they have finished playing. He seems happy enough. It is a pleasure to feed him - probably the sea air or just being a young man.

– Pierre - Québec - Canada - Exploitation laitière 2013

Tout se passe bien avec Jean Eudes. Il démontre un vif intérêt pour tout ce qui concerne l’élevage, la conduite d’un troupeau et en particulier la génétique.
Sur le plan personnel, il est très gentil, poli ,fiable.
Aujourd’hui, il est allé visiter 3 ou 4 autres élevages dans la région.
Au début d’août, il participera à notre exposition locale.
Pour tout dire, ça va très bien avec Jean Eudes.

– Richard - Canada - Arable farm 2013

Sorry that I have not been able to answer you sooner. We have been very busy here at the farm this week. Emeric LeClair has been doing very well here. He is a very polite and likeable young man who has been willing to do any job that is asked of him. We do not ask anyone to do anything we are unwilling to do ourselves, but have appreciated the help he has given us since he arrived. Our winter was very long, therefore our spring was late and our seeding was very hard.
Emeric did not complain and was a good helper. He is a safe and conscientious worker and respectful of us and our equipment.
If there is one negative it is that we must be sure that we understand each other correctly. English has many slang expressions and we have told Emeric to ask if he is unsure what we have meant. (Our French is not so good). This is the first time we have had a trainee from IRE and it has been a real positive experience. Because our crop is late we may not have much harvested before he returns to France and back to University. We are very sorry about that as we know he would like to be here for harvest and we could certainly use his help.

– Pierre - Québec - Canada Stage en production laitière - 2013

Tout se passe bien avec Jean Eudes. Il démontre un vif intérêt pour tout ce qui concerne l’élevage, la conduite d’un troupeau et en particulier la génétique.
Sur le plan personnel,il est très gentil,poli ,fiable.
Aujourd’hui, il est allé visiter 3 ou 4 autres élevages dans la région.
Au début d’août, il participera à notre exposition locale.
Pour tout dire ,ça va très bien avec Jean Eudes.

– Eileen - Ireland - Bed and Breakfast 2013
Just to say Kelly is super
She is a very pleasant & helpful young lady ,with great ambition to improve her English .
She has a very good command of English & has got very used to the Kerry accent .
Each day she spends a few hours on her computor learning vocabularies & pronunciations .
Her parents were here for 10 days, as we were not very busy we allowed her to travel with them so she has been on all the tours . I am thrilled because it is important for her to have this experience too . We get along just great , so it is a pleasure for us too .

– Luc - USA in California - vinifications - 2012

Elodie has been doing very well. She has been a delight to host. She has been working very hard and has done a great job.

Our place is small and this year’s crop happened to be fairly large which made harvest and fermentation challenging. She has helped us a lot, never complaining about anything.

Elodie is going to take some time off to visit the country, with our mutual agreement, starting with Thanksgiving. We are planning to reward her by a harvest bonus, reimbursing a large part of her airfare ticket.

Thank you very much for your help selecting an excellent intern ; it made a huge difference to our organization !

– Robert - Australia - Farm contractor - 2012

Sylvain is going well ! Some of his English understanding needs a little work but all is well. I sent him with the caravan for a 680 km drive with map and he got where he was supposed to end up. I have him doing roughly 12 hr shifts on the header and he is coping well. He is very quiet and eats like a horse but that’s okay. He has a header as signed to drive and is looking after it well. (Sylvain did some intensive english courses with Odyssée Agri before leaving).

– Karine - Québec - research center in viticulture oenology - 2012

Pauline va bien. Je pense qu’elle s’est bien adaptée à son nouvel environnement de travail, malgré le fait que nous sommes rapidement tombés dans les récoltes, peu de temps après son arrivée. Nous avons tous hâte de terminer cette période intense mais je crois que Pauline s’en sort très bien jusqu’ici. Elle a déjà démarré plus de 70 microvinifications. Il en reste une quarantaine. Les vins sont bien réussis et nous n’avons rencontré aucun problème majeur. Pauline prend généralement de bonnes décisions pour les vinifications, ce qui est très apprécié. Je crois qu’elle connaît bien son domaine et jusqu’ici, je suis satisfaite du travail qu’elle fait.

2ème correspondance :
Enfin, tout se passe bien avec Pauline. Elle a fait du très bon boulot. Je devrais être en mesure de prolonger son contrat à temps partiel pour le printemps (jusqu’à l’embouteillage des quelques 115 vins qu’elle a fait cet automne). Nous regardons également pour lui trouver un emploi dans un chai commercial au Québec. Elle a de très bonnes chances d’être engagée à mon avis, car elle a pris beaucoup d’expérience avec nous.

– Sean - Ireland - Backpackers - 2012

Remi is well . He has fitted in to our team here and is of valuable assistance to me , he mixes well with our customers and is having a varied social life . He has become good friends with an Italian Girl that we have working here and has spent a lot of his spare time visiting local places of interest .

– Dan - USA - Horticulture - 2012

Simon is perfect. He and his roommate Geraldo are getting along very well and the three of us very much enjoy spending time together at work and leisure. Simon is particularly comfortable here as he is familiar with much of our work and has become so proficient in speaking English that I am amazed. He also has a sense of humor that keeps us all laughing all day.

We are very, very pleased to have Simon for this growing season. I feel like I will have to visit France someday to see for myself all that Simon has told us of life there.

– Glen - Australie - Production en viande caprine - 2012

We are pleased to report that Thibaut was a remarkable agriculture student.
As a person, he was polite, thoughtful, considerate. He quickly became part of our family and we were very sad when he had to return after such a short stay.

As a worker he was intelligent and showed initiative. He quickly learned how things were done on our farm and he was very soon able to make good decisions for himself. While some people stand and watch me do things, Thibaut would step in quickly and help.
And he also improved his english a great deal while he was here. He soon became able to carry on a good conservation.

So you must give him an A+++ for his practical in Australia.
We really grew to love him and we miss him very much. I you ever have another student as good as Thibaut, we would be happy to have him on our farm !

– Damien - Australie - Production laitière - 2012

Thomas is still doing really well. He is a fast learner with great common
sense and all his work is done at a high quality. He has had a lot of
responsibility on the farm as I was overseas when we started calving. I
think we had about 20 calves born by the time I returned on May 1st. Thomas will be looking after grazing management, cow health, calving
management as well as urea applications. He will basically be filling a
senior management position while I am away for 1 month.

It has not all been work we have taken him to some farmer information nights held in the area, we have visited a friends farm where he houses his cows over winter (very rare in Australia). He has been away on a overnight hunting trip with our neighbours and is heading off on another one tonight. Last Saturday night we took Thomas down to Melbourne to watch a game of Australian Rules Football.

So ------ Myself and all of my family are very happy to have Thomas here. He is a great young man with a very bright future.

– Del and Monica - USA - Céréales - 2011

I wanted to send you a e-mail to inform you that Romain left for his home in France on 12/2/11. Thank you, for the opportunity for or family to have a intern like Romain @ our farm, he is a very professional young man. His parents should be very proud of him. Romains work performance would be rated as excellent he is very fast learner, understands farm equipment, motor vehicle operation and equipment operating. He is a all around fast learner. Romain operated several different tractors, trucks and farm implements on our operation this season with no difficulties. Romain work was top quality.

After Romains arrival in April we worked in the farm shop on machine maintenance than into the fields, we had record snow melt and very heavy rains this season that left our fields flooded. Farming conditions in 2011 where very difficult .

Romain has left our farm, and will be missed dearly, Our family has made a friend and he will be in our hearts and prays for life.

– Hayley - Australia - Moisson - 2011

Renaud is great. He is still driving the header (combine harvester) and is friendly with our other staff and settling into all communication well. He is showing us some humour too, which is great. Mark is still impressed with his skills and workmanship. There has been talk of Renaud coming back or staying for seeding in the winter.

– Mary - Ireland - Production laitière avec transformation - 2011

Gaetan is just amazing. He is one of the nicest lads to ever reside with us and it is pleasure to have him here. Derek and Packie get on so well with him. He’s been to the market in Dublin for the last 2 Saturdays and it is great for his english. He is now fully capable of milk processing and yogurt making. Every Sunday he is a tourist. All is well. His English is improving and we have many discussions about farming and processing and he is quite capable of taking part in same.
As my Dad said "He is a super guy"

– Shiraz - Canada en Ontario - viticulture - oenology - 2011

Geoffrey is doing very well. He is working very hard and working well with
the rest of the staff. He appears to be enjoying himself and always works
with a pleasant demeanor. I also think he likes his accommodation and the
family whose home he is in.

We have harvested over half of the fruit so far. The vintage has been up and
down with poor, rainy weather and warm, sunny weather, not necessarily good
for the grapes.

– Hugh - Australia - Arable farm with sheep - 2011

So far everything is wonderful.

Bert had the flu for the first few days but gave it to us all and then he improved.

We all get on well and we are trying to get some friends of his own age. All seems good.

He is interested and interesting and makes an effort with English.[A huge effort really]

He is good around the house. All in all so far it is great.

I am having trouble in convincing Bert on the benefits of GM Foods.

So I think Bert is happy and Jenny and I are.

Bert has an excellent work ethic we have mostly been tailing and vaccinating sheep and he has picked up sheep work well.

One of our tractors is the same as one his father has so he immediately went on it.

He has been fencing a couple of days and handled it well.

and some more :

Bert is going very well, he is fantastic in his work ethic and fitting in
with family life here in Cootamundra.
His English is improving every day. This is mainly due to the amount of
study he is doing.
We have been able to arrange social events that also helps with his English.
Hugh and I will be away till 19th October and Bert will be looking after our
house and working each day with son Justin.
I think he is happy and he has a wonderful sense of humour.

– Geraldine - Irlande - 2011 - Bed and Breakfast with young students from a network MFR

Amandine is fine and is also her friend Marine who is living in
another B&B. Amandine is learning more English words
everyday. Sometimes, they get lonely but that is understandable as
they are away from their families and they are very young. Amandine
is a good help to me but I try not to make her work more than 3 hours
a day as they are not being paid. Amandine likes me and my husband and
we are good friends. The two girls are gone to Limerick for the
weekend to see another French girl called Pauline so I hope they will
have a nice time together.

– Margaret - Australia - 2011 - Beef cattle and poultry

Today I have a day off as Francois is at the chicken farm today and for the rest of the week. We have been busy doing many jobs including maintenance on farm and halter breaking bulls and a cow with the possibility of taking animals to the Adelaide show. Next week I hope to have the heifers home and they will be halter broken expecting to take at least two to the SA Heifer EXPO (see on internet).

I enjoy having Francois about the house and he has had a chance to meet with my family particularly my grandchildren. He has spent one weekend with his friend and is planning another this weekend. He spends most nights talking over mobile or internet and this may mean that his learning of English (or rather Australia) is maybe a bit slow. We do have a few misunderstandings.

He is a good worker and quick to learn with lots of initiative and a pleasant manner and I hope he is enjoying his stay. Is it probably a bit difference from being a horse rider rounding up cattle in the outback, which is a bit rare these days where mostly it is motorbikes and helicopters. The EXPO is in July and has a strong learning component to it with young people up to 23 years.

– Roma - Australie - 2011 - Dairy production.

I wanted to write to let you know how great Jennifer is going. We are very happy with her. She is a bright and happy girl who is fitting very well into our home and she is fantastic on the farm too. It is great to have such a good experience like this. Please keep us on the program we would love to host a student all the time if we can.

– Andrew et Louise - Australie - 2011 - Cereals.

Just wanted to send a quick follow up to let you know that Quentin is adjusting well to Australian life and is working well with us here on the farm. He is very hard working and we are very impressed with him.

– Andrew - Sud Ouest de l’Angleterre - 2011 - Organic farm - Dairy production with processing. Course provided to public about cheesemaking process.

Julie is doing very well and is I hope very happy as she seems to be. She is advancing in her english and as well as the farm work is learning how to make cheese etc as well as spending 3 days last weekend selling it at a food fair. We ave also taught her how to shear a sheep, milk cows feed animals etc. She is a lovely girl, who interacts with the family very well and also wants to work hard and get as much out of her placement as possible. She will go a long way in the future and if they are all as good as her we will consider another placement.

– Mary - Irlande - 2010 - Dairy farm and vegetable growing -

GREAT Anne Laure is a super worker and catches on quickly. Her English
has really improved but this is because she works hard at it.
She helps with the milking morning and evening - I even got a few
mornings in bed and I cannot remember the last time that happened.
Piaras has found life easier as she has helped change the electric fence
on the heifers and cows with him each day - she can drive a tractor now
also.

We took her to see Muckross House’s old style farm in Killarney where
they make bread and butter the old fashioned way - she has only seen the
larger industrial way, she has also made some Pottery at Louis Mulcahy’s
Pottery where I work, helped a child with his first ride on a pony, gone
fishing with both of our nephews on different occasions and caught our
dinner and our neighbor has taken her to the Skellig island by boat and
swimming in Comeenole, she has gone to Puck fair the day of the horse
fair, she ran the Dingle marathon last weekend (1/2)in 2 hours 14 min.,
gone to visited a goat farmer and helped round up some sheep, learned to
use a sewing machine and made her first pair a trousers from scratch -
cutting out pattern etc, And that’s only 1/2 of it. Claire her friend
from college who is working in Mitchelstown milking 300 cows came for a
night.

Tue. when she collect her hired car Piaras first took her to The South
Pole Inn where she learned all about Tom Crean the Antarctic explorer.

Anne Laure is now going to travel Ireland with her sister Charlotte who
has just arrived in Ireland last night. They will spend the last few
nights in Dublin with the neighbor I spoke of earlier.