Saying 'Ooh la la' to the language of love in China

Culture and job prospects drive French language learning

The 20th Francophonie Festival is sparking the enthusiasm of French learners in Shanghai. From March 10 to 30, members of the public met authors and directors such as Tahar Ben Jelloun and Dominique Othenin-Girard while also enjoying concerts and other cultural activities.

There are about 100,000 French learners in China, of which 37,000 learn French as a major and a minor language, says the General Consulate of France in Shanghai. According to Hujiang.com, an online platform for foreign language learning, the number of users who have paid for its online French courses reached 210,000 people in the past three years, making it the second largest European language learners' group after English on the site.

More people are taking up French out of pure love for French culture and the language itself. Xie Xue works for Vale of Brazil in Shanghai. Her work has nothing to do with France, but she has been to the country three times in the past four years at her own expense. Two of the trips were solely to study French.

In 2012, she spent four weeks at a language school in Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France, attending classes all day long expect on weekends. Last year, she stayed at a private language tutor's home for three weeks in Semur-en-Auxois of Burgundy.

She enrolled in French courses at the Alliance Francaise de Shanghai. And, when there's no class, she watches French television online to keep learning.

Many Chinese have the impression of French being the most beautiful language in the world because Alphonse Daudet's The Last Lesson was included in their Chinese textbooks.

And French-speaking countries and regions hold enough interest to motivate Chinese learners, be they the lavender fields in Provence, Claude Monet's Water Lilies, the lakes of Geneva or Celine Dion, who comes from Quebec, Canada.

Approximately 45 percent of the students at Shanghai's Alliance Francaise are learning the language because they are interested in French culture. The figure is higher with Hujiang, at 60 percent, among learners from Shanghai, as online courses provide more flexibility and lower prices, says Hu Xiantao, director of Hujiang's minority languages department. The students can learn at their own pace and avoid having to spend time and money on public transport.

Hu also says that about 30 percent of Hujiang's students are from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. "These cities have large populations and lots of job opportunities at foreign firms and institutions. There are more activities related to the Francophone culture, too."

Apart from the annual Francophonie Festival, which takes place in major Chinese cities, the Alliance Francaise holds up to 130 cultural activities a year. Shanghai 7th Art, a joint project by Shanghai Normal University and the Division of Culture at the General Consulate of France in Shanghai, is drawing fans from neighboring cities.

Hu says the comparatively high education and income level contributes to the popularity of French courses in first-tier cities. "Learning French is not a necessity for them."

Xie decided to learn the language in 2008 because she wanted to travel to France and the French people were known for their unwillingness to speak English. She also thought it might be useful to learn one of the major working languages of the United Nations.

Xie has now been exposed to stories about Louis XIV and speeches by French president Francois Hollande. "Learning the language forces me to know more about something I'm not interested in. That's good," says Xie. She is fascinated by her French teachers' fondness in arts and literature. She was once shown a video of a French philosopher talking about the phrase "I love you". "How do you define 'I' and 'you'? Will 'I' remain the same after twenty years? The French train their children to think philosophically."

"The language gives you another way of understanding the world," says Wang Yan, a 26-year-old trade marketing professional at L'Oreal's Shanghai branch. He's been learning French since September, mainly out of his love for French movies. "Only the French can make a movie like Love Me if You Dare (Jeux d'enfants)," says Wang. "The French live a life simpler than ours. They love for love. But our romantic movies talk a lot about pressures from society or patriotism." The movies also provide him with other possibilities of living life. "The first time I watched Amlie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amlie Poulain), I thought it was strange, but I gradually understand that way of life."

It's not only the differences between the Chinese and French cultures that attract the Chinese, but the similarities too, such as a shared love for food. "I like French culture because it is the most similar to ours in the Western world. The French value tradition and family. French parents worry about their children's jobs and marriages even after the children turn 18. This makes me feel close to it," says Jin Huan, a college student in Chongqing. She took up French as her second foreign language because there are a number of French companies in Chongqing and learning the language may help her to get a job.

For learners like Xie and Wang, how to keep learning when there is already so much to do at work presents a major challenge. Wang goes to classes at the Alliance Francaise every Saturday for a full day of classes, with only a one-hour break. "For four months, I could not take Saturdays off. I only skipped the class once - during a national holiday," says Wang.

Xie finished the B2 courses at the Alliance Francaise last year, which means she is an advanced intermediate French learner and scores between 541 and 698 points in the Test d'Evaluation de Francais. She has been waiting months for the course at the next level to open, but the required 20 seats have yet to be filled. It takes too long for beginners to reach Xie's level and a lot of learners stop somewhere in the middle, says Hu Liyan of the Alliance Francaise.

"Finishing the B2 (advanced intermediate) level is enough for those who want to study or emigrate to French speaking countries, let alone people who are learning out of interest," Hu says.

lixueqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/24/2015 page28)