Semple, Kirk. “A Big Advocate of French in New York’s Schools: France.” New York Times, January 30, 2014.
French has never been one of the dominant languages in New York, a city where Spanish and Chinese immigrants are plenty. The idea of learning French seems out of place. However, French dual-language programs in NYC public schools are thriving. At the publication of this article, eight public schools offer classes that are half in French, half in English to about 1,000 students. It is the third largest dual-language program in New York, after Spanish and Chinese. Demand continues to grow: two more schools were set to join this year and at least seven groups of parents in different parts of the cities are lobbying for their schools to participate.
An interesting note is the role of the French government in this campaign, which started this year. The French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, the Senate, and the National Assembly have all given seed money (money allocated for a project) and grants to individual schools in New York and have paid for teacher training in France and course books for students. The French Embassy’s cultural division has been actively fundraising, specifically to French corporations, French expatriate parents, and American parents whose children use the program, to raise $2.8 million in five years for the expansion of the program to new schools. According to Fabrice Jaumont, a program officer at the French American Cultural Exchange, government assistance, direct and indirect, is estimated to have totaled $100,000 to $200,000. Since French identity is tied to its language, this is one of the ways France is trying to assert its importance worldwide. They are “reinforcing and building” economic, political, and cultural ties with other countries.
Success of the French programs may be attributed to the desire of multinational families to be able to move freely among languages and cultures and the advantages of speaking multiple languages, specifically in regards to career prospects. ALso, bilingualism has been shown in recent studies to improve “cognitive skill and the brain’s health.” The goal of the campaign is to create a seamless program from kindergarten to 12th grade and increase enrollment to 7,000 students in the next five years.
The French dual-language program began in New York City in 2007 at three elementary schools, one being P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens.Some families have even moved into neighborhoods zoned for dual-language schools just so that their children can participate in these classes. This area, as well as adjacent neighborhoods Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill, house many French-owned cafes and restaurants. Smith Street is closed off annually for the Bastille Day street fair. The area has been dubbed as Little France and Little New York. A few of the schools, Public and Middle, with the French dual-language program are also in the Upper West Side. It is extremely competitive. Most of the requests comes from nonnative French speakers.
Some relevant statistics from the article: About 15,800 French immigrants* live in New York City. The median income for households headed by a French-born person is $84,500 (citywide median, according to the latest Census Bureau, is $50,400). Approximately 84,400 New Yorkers older than 4 (1.1% of the population) primarily speak French (including patois and Cajun French) at home.
While currently the program exists in affluent neighborhoods, the campaign is fundraising to provide access to the program in less affluent neighborhoods with a growing population of francophone populations, such as in central Brooklyn where there are many immigrants from Haiti, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana; in Queens where there are areas of North African immigrants; and in the Bronx where there are immigrant enclaves of residents from the sub-Sahara: Guinea, Mali, and Senegal.
*Here, the New York Times article uses immigrants instead of expatriates (as they wrote earlier in the article). I’m not sure if the two words are being used interchangeably or if this signifies the inclusion of lower socio-economic classes as well as francophone immigrants.
This is a link to the FACE’s page on the French dual-language program: http://face-foundation.org/french-dual-language-program/index.html
Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/nyregion/a-push-for-french-in-new-york-schools-from-france.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A11%22%7D
This article is contains valuable information on how active the French community is in New York City. French language programs are apparently quite popular in the city and they are growing, despite a significantly lower percentage of the NYC population being from France and francophone countries than from other countries. It is also really interesting to see how much of a role the French government plays in supporting this campaign overseas. If anything, the role of the French language is growing.
