Weeklong activities promote culture, words from Francophone countries

AMMAN — Although Nadine Karadsheh has an excellent command of the French language, she still finds a chance to improve her language skills during the Francophonie Week, which started on Sunday. 

The 11th grader, who has been studying French since the age of three, said she learns new words from the 10 internationally selected words every year and puts them into practice through activities held by Institut Français.

“La Francophonie” is an international organisation of French-speaking countries and governments, as well as the community of French speakers. 

Every year, 10 words are picked that invite French language learners to explore the language of different Francophonie countries. 

Karadsheh was among a group of students at the French School of Amman who participated in the opening activities of the international Francophonie Week at the institute. The activities will continue until March 20. 

The students practised putting the selected words into meaningful sentences to create texts and pieces of poetry or to visually represent the indications of the words in drawings.

Over 2,000 students in Jordan are preparing to obtain an official certification of practising the French language, in addition to some 1,500 students from over 30 nationalities enrolled in the institute every year, its director, Stéphane Delaporte, said.

French is the official language in 32 countries scattered across five continents, with around 300 million speakers and 150 million students studying French around the world, he said, adding that French is the second most studied language in Jordan after English.  

Activities of the week, which is held in partnership with the French, Lebanese, Swiss, Egyptian, Romanian and Tunisian embassies, celebrate the cultural diversity of French-speaking countries.

The week includes film screenings, culinary workshops, musical performances and field visits to private and public schools and universities that teach the French language.

Delaporte highlighted educational opportunities for Jordanians in France. On the other hand, he noted that the number of French people studying Arabic in France is very little and  stands at some 6,000 individuals.