Moving Forward, Time to Reengage
As we enter into a brand new year of linguistic and cultural sharing, there is no better time to get ourselves reinvested in the things that we enjoy…or thought we enjoyed. It is only too easy to let the goals we make - to enjoy ourselves more or engage in fun, cultural, interesting activities - become a...
La poésie en série: Santa Fe
As a compliment to the traditional grammatical exercises and pronunciation practice, some of our French 103 students got outside the box with a lesson in writing poetry in French. In addition to helping students learn to put together simple phrases, writing poetry in a new language can help inspire students to think of new vocabulary...
La poésie en série: Paris, un été chaud
As a compliment to the traditional grammatical exercises and pronunciation practice, some of our French 103 students got outside the box with a lesson in writing poetry in French. In addition to helping students learn to put together simple phrases, writing poetry in a new language can help inspire students to think of new vocabulary...
Delacroix: The Quintessential Romantic
At the CaixaForum Madrid, located in the heart of Spain’s capital, an impressive retrospective exhibit of Eugène Delacroix is currently on display. Considered one of the greatest French Romantic painters, Baudelaire once said of Delacroix: “Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.” And it is...
From a European Culture to a Europe of Culture
Despite political tribulations, we can’t deny that an economic community has emerged in Europe thanks to a common currency and the free circulation of goods and people between European Union members. Nonetheless, a European identity through which all individuals could relate to each other on the same cultural ideals has yet to appear. Endorsing a...
The Eternal Lure of French Fashion
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” - Coco Chanel In an increasingly globalized world that seems to revolve much faster than we can keep track, the task of identifying...
Toasting to the dwindling days of summer
With this year’s fall just around the corner, the last summer days in the District are calling for one last pool session or simply an afternoon relaxing at an open-air restaurant. And what better accompaniment to those times of leisure than a drink à la française ? Here are simple recipes to three...
The (Dis)Covered Passages
For those of you who read my thoughts on Midnight in Paris, you may remember that I wanted to explore new neighborhoods here in Washington. I was inspired by that movie to revisit the walks that I took on Thursdays while I was living in Paris. Well, last Thursday, I took such a walk in...
D’être faite d’or….
I am good at French. I can say that with certainty. I took French, I excelled at it, and I was marvelous. I wanted to learn outside the classroom. I applied for a highly rigorous Full-Immersion French Academy the summer before my senior year, and I got it. I was accepted. This academy wanted my...
Les Chiens Courtois
I spent the fall of 2008 and the Spring of 2009 teaching English in Lyon, France. When I first arrived, I kept seeing dogs running down the sidewalk, and I would think, “Oh how awful, a lost dog, how will it ever survive in this nasty old city?” Most of these dogs were French bulldogs*,...
Unlocking the Secrets of the French Language
During the year that I worked as an assistante d’anglaise near Lyon, France, I overcame a number of challenges (managing to rent an apartment without French papers in a sea of “déjà loué” responses, miraculously locating some approximation of Neosporin on a Sunday when all of France shuts down, semi-successfully sharing my English skills with...
From Freedom Fries to Frantz Fanon
As a kid, my mind bubbled over with dreams of the places and people that existed beyond the borders of my small town. This dreaming manifested itself in an insatiable appetite for learning about the world in any way I could. Looking back, it seems silly to think that, while folding origami cranes or breathing...
