Les Amis de la France

Classes had already started and for three weeks now, I have been attending french classes at Les Amis de la France at the QC Pavillion, Cebu City. For the past 18 months, I’ve been trying to go back to learning the language. But since I relocated to Cebu, I hadn’t had the time to check out the available foreign language schools here.

Only until I bumped into their displayed tarps last month in one of the malls. I immediately called up their accueil and inquired about their schedule of activities. The second session would start in August and so I was able to enrol in the Saturday class.

The organization has been existing for almost a year now, having started in November 2007, they were established basically as a center for french culture and language. It is relatively new and different from other foreign language schools.

I wasn’t able to continue my french classes at Alliance Francaise de Manille. I stopped 3 years ago. Letting my self return to the french school gave me the chance to compare the approaches and methods of Alliance Francaise from LesAmisdelaFrance. At Alliance Francaise, the focus is more on the grammar and the structure with the module basically traditional and a bit difficult.

The approach of Les Amis de la France is a bit on the conversational, with the focus on the student’s ability to learn the language through constant use of French in any conversation. Les Amis uses a different set of books. They used the ’Alter Ego’ Series over than that of Alliance’s ’Forum’ series.  My teachers at Alliance were all Filipinos. All the teachers at Les Amis are french. Currently My teacher is Mademoiselle Perrine.

I think the objectives of both French institutions are similar. And I am happy that I got back to learning French again. I needed to finish what I have already started. And this would be a very long process.

Le Blanc Tableau

Dans le photo: Cesar, Mlle Perrine, John et Stacey

Ma camarade de classe: Melanie, Leslie, Harry et Ariane

To be very good in speaking the language, one must have to practice speaking the language. For me, getting a French petite ami is not an option. J’ai ma petite chou chou already. So I am banking on my classmates in Les Amis to at least improve our confidence in the language.

But for now, I wanted to ask Mademoiselle Perrine: “What’s the french word for ‘nosebleed’? Comment dit NOSEBLEED en francaise?

Good luck na lang.