Episode 41 — French Immersion at Université Sainte-Anne: A Bubble of Joy
This is the fifth episode in the America the Bilingual podcast series on some of the finest summer language immersion programs. It takes us to Université Sainte-Anne in the tiny village of Church Point, Nova Scotia. A French immersion summer program, it is Canada’s most popular and attracts many students from the United States as well. Hear how its small size works to its advantage, and why many students claim to learn more in five weeks here than in five years of classes elsewhere.
THE FRENCH HEARD ROUND THE WORLD
Sainte-Anne holds two five-week immersion sessions. We visited the second session, held in July and August. Director Luc Tardif told us that the 182 students were mostly native English-speaking Canadians, but also included more than 30 students from the United States. Students earn six university credits, which almost every university in North America recognizes.
The school also runs a program for French teachers who want to improve their own French as well as their teaching methods.
As at other immersion camps, students at Sainte-Anne sign a contract pledging to speak only French during the five weeks. If they violate their contract, they will be asked to leave. Luc says students self-select and are serious about wanting to be immersed. “Our students are interesting and interested,” he says.
The program is now more than 40 years old. Its founder, Jean Douglas, was inspired after visiting the Middlebury Language Schools, which we covered in Episode 35. In fact, he recruited a couple of language teachers from Middlebury to help start the program at Sainte-Anne. Today Jean Douglas is retired, but he still lives on campus in the summers and participates in speaking French with the students.
Although the school is in Canada, Luc explained that it is not Québécois French that is taught. “We recruit teachers from all over the French-speaking world. We don’t teach French from Canada, or France, or West Africa. We teach all of it. We want you to hear different accents from all around the world and to be able to express yourself everywhere.”
HEAR THE STORY
Listen on iTunes by clicking here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen on iTunes. Or on SoundCloud here. Steve comments on Twitter as well.
