HAPPY INTERNATIONAL FRANCOPHONIE DAY
"La Francophonie is a vast country without borders, an invisible country, spiritual, mental and moral"
- Gilles Vigneault, poet, and singer-songwriter
At Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (OFFA), we work every day to promote French on our campuses and in the community.
In this newsletter, you will find some ideas for celebrating, discovering, and living the Francophonie, today and beyond.
Enjoy your reading and happy International Francophonie Day!
Until March 31st, Simon Fraser University’s Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (OFFA) invites you to participate in some 20 free cultural, academic, and interactive activities during the 14th edition of SFU’s Printemps de la francophonie. Whether you speak French or not, participate in one or many of the upcoming "English-friendly" activities:
STUDENT STORIES
Sayyidah Jaffer, Community Leadership Award Recipient
For the past 3 years, the Fondation des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique and the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (OFFA) at Simon Fraser University (SFU) have presented the Community Leadership Award. This award recognizes and rewards the commitment of a student or a recent SFU graduate to the community through their dedication to promoting the French language and Francophonie in British Columbia.
This year's jury, composed of university and community members, chose Sayyidah Jaffer, a fourth-year student in SFU's French Cohort Program in Public and International Affairs.
French Students At SFU To Earn British Columbia Teaching Certification
Arriving in January, three French students pursue their studies in the Professional Development Program - French module cohort, as part of the Dual Program, to complete their teacher training and to land a job in a B.C. school.
We gathered their first impressions of the differences between the French and British Columbian school systems, following their short internships in the province's schools.
FRENCH AT SFU | DID YOU KNOW...
- SFU is a member of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), a worldwide association of French-speaking higher education and research institutions. The AUF brings together more than 1,000 universities in every continent in some 120 countries.
- Thanks to its variety of programs and services offered in French, SFU is the only university in BC to be a member of the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie Canadienne (Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie), which promotes college and university education in Canada's linguistic minority settings.
- 29 programs are taught entirely or partially in French.
- Close to $500,000 in scholarships are awarded each year to students for studies in French.
- With the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs and its sixty+ partners, SFU offers many services to the population, such as resources adapted to teaching in French for the province's teaching and administrative staff, a year-round program of free cultural and scientific activities open to the public, and a DELF-DALF examination centre to certify one's level of French.
FRENCH PRESENCE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
French in B.C. represents:
- 65,568 people speak French as their first official language
- 328,650 people can speak French
- 6,414 students registered at the Francophone School Board
- 53,493 students registered in French immersion
Curious to learn more?
Check out this new infographic from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages to discover the Francophone and Francophile communities in our province: