They are teenagers and have just arrived in New York with their family, coming from Haiti or from African countries, they speak French but they absolutely have to learn English. It is to help them maintain a link with the French language that the “French Heritage Language Program” was set up in 2005. This program offers academic French courses and cultural activities. Above all, it also allows these young people to develop precious bonds with each other and to form… like a new family. Reportage.
It was an American teacher who, when she retired from the Lycée français in New York, set up this program. Jane Ross wanted to offer these immigrant families of French-speaking origin a free alternative to very expensive private establishments so that the children could continue to learn and speak French.
“The first difficulty was to offer a program that could suit students whose levels of French were different, remembers the former teacher, we are always faced with groups of students who are very heterogeneous, we have to therefore be flexible in our teaching and adapt to language levels but also cultures that are different. It’s not always easy, there is no manual and there is no miracle recipe”.
Jane Ross surrounded herself with an important partner to set up this program: the cultural services of the French Embassy, which notably welcomes the program staff in its offices, and which also made it possible to structure the steps to go seek funding from private donors (about US$100,000 per year), in addition to also participating financially in the program by paying the salary of its coordinator.
The program is offered in the network of New York public high schools that specialize in welcoming immigrants. This year, for example, it was set up in seven of these establishments and welcomed some 200 young people. Three assistants and four teachers ensured the academic teaching but also the supervision of cultural activities such as theatre.
I signed up to connect with more Africans and people who speak French.
Aïcha Cissé, high school student from Guinea.
This is the case of Nassira Hamdi, a Moroccan of origin who has lived in New York for more than 20 years and who has been teaching in this program for 10 years: “I really like this program because being a teacher is not just about teaching, I feel like a mother because the French Heritage Language Program is for young immigrants who have just arrived and who have to adapt to a new country, which is difficult. So yes, we learn French but it is also the reunion of Francspeakers in a school, it’s like a small family, a community”.
Belong to a community
Beyond academic education, one of the great merits of this program is indeed to offer these uprooted young people a community in which they will be able to anchor themselves.
“Our program’s mission is to help these young Francophone immigrants make French an asset in the United States. French allows them to stay connected with the community, to build a community here,” underlines Agnès Tounkara, the coordinator of the program for 4 years.
This is confirmed by the young Aïcha Cissé, who has just completed her last year in an international high school in the Bronx and who is about to return to university in September. Arriving in 2021 with her family from her native Guinea, the young girl loved her experience in the program: “French Heritage, for me, the definition is to help us connect and not feel isolated when we come from another country and speak French. I signed up to connect with more Africans and people who speak French”.
Aïcha says that this program has also helped her improve her French. You should have seen her, on June 7, attending the program’s end-of-year party with her friends, with the awarding of diplomas and awards of excellence, she has also won several. Many young people who have completed the program have also testified to what it has brought them: “The FHLP was like family to me when I arrived in the United States” writes Bénédicte Goundo, originally from Togo. This young Senegalese, Sirandou Drame, who arrived in New York four years ago, adds: “The FHLP allowed me to remember my French”. “FHLP helped me make new friends and learn from them” testifies for his part Roukiatou Kaboré, from Burkina Faso.
This end-of-year party, Agnès the coordinator cherishes it in her heart, because it is an opportunity for all these young people from different schools to meet and highlight their efforts throughout the school year. : “I often hear them say, we have found a family. Those are really the two things that I would emphasize, the community aspect which really goes well beyond the language and then the production, despite the fact that they are in an English-speaking environment where you have the impression that the English is the key to success and the American dream, we realize that speaking French is an asset”.
Agnès is completing her mandate as coordinator of this program to which she is very attached: “I was born in Senegal, I studied in France, I arrived in the United States at 20, I raise children born in the US but French-speaking and therefore for me, this fight to continue to speak a language which allows them to talk to their grandparents and to be able to return to the country without feeling like a foreigner, it’s really something very personal”.
A program that can be exported, an expertise that can be shared
Agnès and Jane do not hide their pride in the success of this program and the success of the young people who follow it, since the vast majority of them continue their studies at university. In almost 20 years of activity, some 5,000 young people, the vast majority of African and Haitian origin, have been able to take advantage of the French Heritage Language Program, which has also been exported elsewhere in the United States, Maine and Miami. notably.
“The schools of New York have served as a bit of a laboratory,” says Jane Ross. We also participated in many conferences and we made links with other heritage language programs such as Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, we work a lot with colleagues who are in similar programs but with other languages, we share our experience, our programs etc. Our expertise is appreciated by many people and we hope to continue in the coming years”.
“This program is intended to grow, adds Agnès, because we realize that in the United States, the French-speaking community, African immigration, is exploding and we are contacted regularly by schools who want the program offered to their students.
Preserving the French language when they immigrate to the United States is also an asset of choice for these young people when they enter the labor market later. They have everything to gain from it…” We are here to convince them that they can be Americans but still remain French-speaking and keep this language as an asset” concludes Agnes.
2023-06-22 07:00:00
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