Bienvenue dans les cours de Mme Derfeuil

Bonjour et bienvenue!

 

I am so pleased to accompany you on a linguistic and cultural exploration of the French-speaking world! It is a real honor to teach you my first love, French. Since the age of 6, I have adored my French studies - whether studying vocabulary, grammar, cultural elements or geography. I remember the first time the teacher taught us the past tense and what a joy it was to be able to tell a story in the past in a foreign language! I remember being thrilled to count past 69, even though, the numbers were harder and sometimes required addition! Another great moment was seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, which no picture in a textbook could ever do justice, and be able to talk with and understand native speakers - the proof that all of the time spent working on what seemed like a dead language was worth it. Yet, ironically, the best part of teaching language is realizing that you never know everything. There are always new expressions to learn, new linguistic evolutions to discover, new connections between French and English to marvel at, new Francophone cultures to explore and deeper nuances of identity to ponder. This dynamic nature of a language and the diverse peoples that speak it is what motivates my teaching. Having lived in France for several years, I have been privileged to come to know French as a tool for communication, a gauge of a people’s values and lifestyles, and ultimately as a lifelong friend. I am honored to take you on this journey of discovery of one of the world’s most beautiful languages. You will find yourself saying as Thomas Jefferson (may have) said more than two centuries ago, “Every man has two countries : his own and France”.