French

The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “City as Public Forum” sessions, students are introduced to French history and culture through a series of lectures and site visits. Students discover some of the fascinating ways the core principles of social justice were tested in theory and practice on the streets of Paris in the past and explore how they evolved into the pillars of French society today. The course focuses on just how an ideal society should be forged, where all are free individuals and members of a cohesive community at the same time. Trying to make individuals believe—as religions do—in the primacy of the collective, and in its concomitant goal of protecting human rights, is at the core of social justice in France. From 52 B.C.E to today, France has been an exemplar of how—and how not—to construct a just society. To render these values visible, and therefore legible, to all by adding a physical dimension—whether constructive or destructive—to the usual means of establishing laws or setting policies, is what distinguishes the history of France's capital city of Paris. Those who control Paris—be they monarchs, revolutionaries, or presidents, past and present—believe that erecting all kinds of physical structures will render their values concrete and immutable. The ideal French society did not always necessarily mean a democratic or inclusive one. Since the French Revolution, however, institutionalizing the concept of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” has been France's greatest universal achievement and a source of constant upheaval, eliciting a unique form of secular activism that has led to targeting buildings and monuments that no longer reflect the collective's values. Students discuss how the diverse social actors, who constitute “the French,” continue to thrust their bodies and minds into the physical spaces of the public sphere in the pursuit of social justice. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students learn targeted language skills through situational communication, so they have the opportunity to use everything they learn as they go about their daily activities. Advanced French students will participate in conversation courses on the program’s theme.

This course discovers various representations of India through the cross-study of literary and cinematographic works of the twentieth century. Students read works including A BARBARIAN IN ASIA by Henri Michaux and A CERTAIN IDEA OF ​​INDIA by Alberto Moravia; and view works including ABOARD THE DARJEELING LIMITED by Wes Anderson and the documentary by Louis Malle, GHOST INDIA.

This is a beginner level French language course for students who have previously completed one or two semesters of French. The course focuses on understanding commonly used vocabulary words and very frequent expressions concerning oneself, the family, and the concrete environment, provided that people speak slowly and distinctly. It covers common names and words as well as very simple sentences, for example those in advertisements, posters, and catalogs. The course builds skills to communicate in a simple way, ask and answer simple questions about familiar subjects or objects of immediate need, use expressions and simple sentences to describe where one lives and the people one knows; and write short, simple postcards and provide personal details on a questionnaire or hotel registration form. Topics include adjectives, possessive and demonstrative pronouns, recent past, past tense, and imperfect past; expressions of time, start, end, intervals, length, interrogative, imperative, present conditional, comparative and superlative, future, near, and simple.

This workshop is for students at the C1/C2 level of French. It improves written, oral, listening, and text skills through studies of specific themes. The course looks first at traditional notions of culture and civilization, then redefines the new societal challenges which are crucial and omnipresent, looking at social and political events to analyze their trajectories in today's world. Students learn to understand critical texts, analyze societal questions, present on varying viewpoints, and debate on diverse subjects.

This course, the sixth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its continuous course FR60, is roughly equivalent to the sixth quarter of lower-division French language instruction and an upper-division French composition course on students’ home campuses. FR6 and FR170 provide students who have completed the better part of a university-level second-year French course or its equivalent the opportunity to expand and improve their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as expand their cultural knowledge of the French and Francophone world. The course is based on a presentation of advanced intermediate-level forms of grammar, an expansion of students’ working vocabulary, and practice of oral and written communicative skills, with a particular emphasis on their writing skills. Placement in this course is determined by students’ previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Textbook and Course Materials for the course include: RÉSEAU: COMMUNICATION, INTEGRATION, INTERSECTIONS, by J.M. Schultz and M.P. Tranvouez,. The FR170 course reader includes : LE CODE NOIR; Louis de Jacourt, TRAITE DES NÈGRES ; DÉCRET D’ABOLITION DE L’ESCLAVE ; Assia Djebar, L’AMOUR, LA FANTASIA ; Mohammed Dib, L’ARBRE À PAROLES; Andrée Chédid; Rimbaud, LE DORMEUR DU VAL; MC Solaar, LA CONCUBINE DE L’HÉMOGLOBINE. Grammar, vocabulary, and cultural topics are discussed, including art, literature, cinema, vernacular French, multicultural society, Francophilia and Francophobia, and France’s role in the European Union. Students engage in class discussions, write summaries, dialogues and essays, in addition to group and individual oral presentations.

This workshop studies how to read and analyze journalistic content on economic and social themes in a professional manner. It provides an opportunity to question journalistic expression by analyzing the facts and data it provides, the credibility of the information transmitted, and the meaning of their publication on certain dates and distribution platforms. The course examines quality, balance, and relevance of the sources; tone, rigor, and atmosphere of the expression; precision of the information; point of view of the narration; identification of the news; typology of the publications; analysis of the formats; and platforms of distribution.

This translation course is taught at the second-year level. The course focuses on training students how to translate both the tone and grammar of Francophone and Anglophone literature and/or journalistic texts. Students first translate from English to French, and then from French to English. Students are given abstracts from English and French writers, mostly from the latter half of the twentieth century.