Puducherry being an erstwhile French colony, has a number of institutes and schools where French is spoken and taught.
There are many students who naturally opt for a graduation or masters in the language in the union territory, pursuing French literature and history.
But their grounding in grammar may not be all that strong, a concern that French language day celebrated on Thursday, addressed.
The United Nations declared March 20 as French language day. It is celebrated in France and all Francophone countries where French is the official or widely spoken language.
The day is one among the six days designated by the United Nations for each of its official languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. B.A. and M.A. French students spent an entire day revisiting the French tenses and their usage.
Tenses in the French language are notorious for their quirks and there are often as many exceptions as rules. “While students are familiar with conjugations of tenses, they may fumble with the usage of tenses in sentences,”says S. Arun Kumar, president of Lingua Mystica, an organization for foreign language learners.
While language related contests are held all over the world, the society in Puducherry helped students pursuing an advanced level of French, an opportunity to cement their basics.
Quizzes, gamesQuizzes, games and activities were arranged around tenses to make the learning exciting. Student from Kanchi Mamunivar Postgraduate studies, Pope John Paul II College of education, Pondicherry University, and Indira Gandhi college for arts and science, participated.
There are more than 100 countries with their official language as French and the day celebrates the richness of the language, says Marie Joelle, course director, Alliance Francaise de Pondichery.
The library, like many other French speaking institutes, had an exhibition designed around ten words chosen for the occasion.
The ten words are selected by the Ministry of Culture to help French speakers enrich their vocabulary.
“There are many words that native French speakers may not know, because these words originated and are used in parts of Africa or Asia, which are former French colonies,”says Ms. Joelle.
“This is a chance to be aware of new words in dffferent lands.” The institute also organized a literary evening with writers from various French speaking countries, earlier this month.
