This paper gives account of a project involving Year Abroad students of French at Warwick University challenged to select "realia" from their host countries in order to stimulate enthusiasm for language learning in local schools. It considers the cognitive and affective processes informing the "culture gathering" that took place: how did the responsibility to act as the interface between a foreign culture and their own inform these students' own intercultural and linguistic journeys? Assessing outcomes, the paper goes on to describe the implementation of a more ambitious second stage project involving the Routes into Languages Adopt a Class scheme, Warwick PGCE MFL students and staff, and students on the British Council assistantship and Erasmus programmes. [For the complete volume, "Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: Enhancing Participation and Collaboration," see ED565011.]