vendredi 1er août 2008, par Thierry Leterre
As always, at the moment of addressing the seven week program students for a few words of welcome as the director associate of Middlebury French School, I have the sense of a deep complicity. For the next seven weeks you will speak, write, exchange, chat, joke in a foreign language – pardon me : in the most beautiful foreign language- French. And what am I doing right now if not exactly the same in the other way round ? If I may say so, your French is my English. What you will feel developing your proficiency in the language and mastering new skills through the learning of my mother tongue, I experience it right now addressing you in your mother tongue, which has become for me the most beautiful foreign language over the years.
Of course, the parallel is not exactly fair. Guess what ? You are the lucky guys. After all nobody will ask you to deliver a speech in French in front of 132 Francophones.
I do not complain though. Another language is not another life, but a prodigious extension of one’s life, the discovery of so many other realities beyond language acquisition. That is why it is such a privilege to teach languages. In the more than two decades of my academic career, I have taught French, philosophy and now political science. All that I learn teaching the language has served the development of my personality as a teacher, but also far more broadly as a person and an academic and a researcher. Research is about understanding what is not at first naturally understood and about discovering new ways of thinking and expressing the world. There is here some sort of parallel with learning a language.
For this very reason, I will encourage you to experience fully all the possibilities offered by our School, and they are so many. Learning a language also includes befriending with people we meet, sharing daily life, playing games, doing sports. There is also a way to run in French, to eat in French, to drive in French ; to play soccer and theater in French. And it is both extremely rewarding and fun.
I will not have the honor this summer to teach in the 7 weeks program since I give a course at the graduate level and am particularly in charge of the superior programs, more specifically the Doctoral program. I have truly enjoyed teaching at the 4th level for years—a magnificent program among our all magnificent programs ! However I have had my utility this morning, since I saved a few of you whose badges did not work from getting stuck outside. Should it be the case again, please report to public safety. You have naturally access to all the buildings of the French school.
As Aline said it, it is the last time you hear us speak English. And we hope so since English is the language of emergency. There is certainly a certain chic to die in French, but we do not want anything like that to happen. So—and this will be my conclusion—not only have we pledged to speak French for the next weeks ; not only is French the most beautiful foreign language : it is also, for the weeks to come, the safest one.
Enjoy your summer !
Thierry Leterre Associate director.