CHILDREN'S SUMMER CAMPS:The long-established Alliance Française offers small classes and teachers who are native speakers
EVEN THE casual observer passing by the remarkable red- brick building at no 1 Kildare St will notice the animated comings and goings at the Alliance Française, the French cultural institute that has had its Dublin base here for more than 50 years.
Walk up the stone steps and into the building and you can enjoy French cuisine, French cinema, a library of French books and, of course, French language classes for all ages at all levels.
The summer courses include one-week summer camps for 5-12 year olds and Fun French for Teens for 2nd Year to Transition Year students, as well as more curriculum-focused classes for those going into Fifth Year and Leaving Cert.
We caught up with some of the teenagers coming to the end of their two weeks of French classes to see how they’d got on.
“It’s my second time to come. I’m going into 5th year and I want to keep my grades up and get an A in French in the Leaving Certificate,” said Sean (16). “I came to improve my French. It’s one of my weakest subjects,” said Feilim (15) who’s just finished Transition Year.
“I came so that I could gain more confidence at speaking French,” said Susan (16). “Our teacher in school doesn’t speak much French so I have found I could understand more here because I was listening to more French.”
Perhaps the biggest difference between the French teachers in school and those at the Alliance is that the latter are all native French speakers so their pronunciation is impeccable – in fact, some of them joke about how their students are learning French with regional accents while at the Alliance.
On the whole, the older teenagers – those going into 5th and 6th year – have quite a serious approach to these summer classes and some of them even travelled from different parts of the country to take them. The younger teenagers – those going into 2nd and 3rd year – have a more relaxed approach as do their teachers.
“In the higher classes, we are working on the Leaving Certificate curriculum but with the younger groups, we do more project work and games,” said Mickaël Lenglet, the children and teenagers’ programme co-ordinator at the Alliance.
From next year, the students will be streamed into classes according to ability rather than age or school year.
Some of the younger group also shared their views on why they came. “I came to keep my knowledge of French fresh during the summer,” said Anna (13). “It was difficult at first but I’ve got used to it, and listening to the teacher has helped my vocabulary grow.” Naoise (15), a student who has gone to the Irish-language day summer courses compared the experiences. “I like the lessons here more than the Irish language ones but the sports in the afternoon at the Irish summer course were great,” she said.
Alex (14), a keen summer camper, said that this summer he will do two weeks of French, three weeks of Irish and two weeks at a sailing camp. “It’s really good. It gives me something to do. Both my parents are working, and a lot of my friends are doing summer camps too.”
The teachers at the Alliance Française seem a happy bunch, engaging with their students in a friendly, informal manner. With only eight to 10 students per class, the atmosphere is quite different from school.
Before we left, we dropped in on the youngest group of all – the five to 12 year olds whose French summer camp involves arts and crafts, songs, drama and outdoor games through French. They also take an imaginary whistle-stop tour of France with views from the top of the Eiffel Tower, trips across the causeway to Mont St Michel and climbing Mont Blanc (using the climbing wall in Trinity College Dublin as proxy Alps).
“We learnt the names of the stars in French today,” said Selina (9). Her mum, Thecla Handoll, who arrived to pick her up, added, “I think we start children learning languages too late in this country. I want her to be at ease with the French language at an early age.”
“Irish people love France. They go on holidays there. They have holiday houses there,” said Mickaël Lenglet. And, the fact that the Alliance Française in Dublin is the biggest of the non-profit-making cultural institutes in a non-Francophone country in Europe is testament to that love of all things French in this country.
There are still some places available on the Fun French for Teens courses (for 2nd Year to Transition Year students), from August 2nd-11th and August 15th-25th, and the daytime classes for students going into their Leaving Certificate year, from August 2nd-11th and 15th-25th. Each course costs €350 for two weeks.
Alliance Française, 1 Kildare St, Dublin 2 will hold an information day on September 17th, from 10am-2pm. Tel 01-6761732 or see alliance-francaise.ie
