French Embassy inks MOA with language center to promote French culture

CEBU, Philippines - The Embassy of France and a language and cultural center in Cebu have forged a memorandum of agreement to promote French culture, language and education in Cebu City and the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao.

The MOA formalizes the inclusion of Alliance Francaise Center in the worldwide network of AFCs.

French Ambassador Thierry Borja de Mozota said that the signing of the MOA will give a new impetus to the cooperation between AFC and the French Embassy.

“The Alliance Francaise de Cebu is a privileged operator, a relay vis-à-vis local partners in academic, cultural, and artistic in Cebu and the Visayas and in the fulfillment of our extensive mission which is the promotion of the French language and Franco-Philippine cultural exchanges and the assistance to Filipino students,” he said.

Part of the objectives of the alliance, he said is to promote French language in other countries who are members of the French-speaking community and to encourage intellectual exchange and debate.

He said that AFC will provide French lessons not only in their premises but also in partner institutions and assures the continuous training of language professors in the framework of the teaching of French in secondary schools.

Christian Merer, counselor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs of the French Embassy said that secretary Jeslie Lapus of the Department of Education has signed an agreement last September 2009 to include French lessons in the curriculum of 13 science high schools in the National Capital Region and the Visayas.

Science high schools are specialized public high school system in the Philippines that operate as an attached agency of the Philippine Department of Science and Technology.

“Last year, we gave 83 scholarship grants to 83 Filipino students who flew to France to study the language,” he said adding that students must be “quite good” in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

The French lessons for science high schools, he said will take effect by June 2010.

He added that they have at least 50 active agreements with universities and is now working with Commission of Higher Education to select college students who want to pursue their studies in France.

“So far, we have University of San Carlos (USC), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) and a university in Dumaguete offering French lessons in their curriculum,” he said.

He said that they are training 15 public school teachers and language teachers here in Cebu and plans to send teachers for a one-month free training of the language in France.

Rev. Fr. Dionisio Miranda, USC president said that USC just started to offer French as a “language course” under the Department of Hospitality and Management.

He said that the lessons are purely introductory because students need to familiarize the language “on certain levels”.

“It’s new to us and I think it is a viable course,” he said adding that he can not yet assess USC students as to their reception of French subject as part of the curriculum.

Together with Mozota and Merer in signing the MOA in QC Pavilion Building, Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City yesterday were Louis Thevenin, director of AFC and Jaime Picornell, Honorary Consul of Spain.

Honorary Consul of France in Cebu Michel Lhuillier who founded AFC in November 2007 with its former name “Les Amis de la France” (The Friends of France) was also present in the ceremony.

Other officials present during the signing ceremonies were Marie Aurousseau, academic exchanges attaché; Flora Geley, cultural and artistic affairs attaché; Isabele Epaillard, scientific and Development attaché; judge Romulo Senining, AFC secretary-treasurer; and The FREEMAN Lifestyle editor Marlinda Angbetic Tan, who is in AFC’s board of directors. — Marjun A. Baguio, University of Cebu intern/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)