The Alliance Française de Pékin Free French Open Class, organized by Phoenix School of Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, was held in Room D202 of Li Ze Building on April 27th, 2021. This open class was available to all students from BNUZ and BNU, Zhuhai and many students from different grades and majors actively participated in it. The class was given online by Lei Yang (Marianne), a teacher from the Alliance Française de Pékin, and hosted by Yimeng Li, a director from Phoenix School of Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai.
At the beginning, Ms. Li made a brief introduction to Phoenix Language Village and Ms. Yang, the lecturer of this open class. She mentioned that Phoenix Language Village aims to integrate global resources, cultivate global talents, lead the world in innovation, promote international cooperation, and provide a multi-lingual learning platform and international cultural exchange activities for all teachers and students on Zhuhai campus. To reach that goal, a French Village has been firstly built to offer professional language training, special courses, guidance for further education, and various cultural activities with distinctive features for teachers and students.
Next, Ms. Yang introduced the Alliance Française de Pékin to the students in the class. As the largest official language institution for French study in the world, the Alliance Française de Pékin makes use of the online teaching tool “ClassIn” to provide students with face-to-face, instant and vivid learning experience. Also, its unique teaching belief improves the students' ability to work in groups, think critically and use French in real life.
She also said that French is the most elegant, rigorous, widely spoken language in the world and the official language of some international organizations as well. When it comes to France, people may think of the beautiful Eiffel Tower, delicious specialty food, world-leading fashion ideas, football, rich artistic heritage, long history and culture, etc. In addition, French is widely used in the modern world and some Chinese characters also originated from French.
Finally, Miss Yang stressed that French, as a language representing the integration of different ways of thinking and lifestyles, is a tool for people to reach out to the outside world and learn different cultures. Then, she led students to learn how to simply greet others and say goodbye, make self-introductions, and talk about different jobs in French. In this open class, students and teachers actively interacted with each other and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. The rich and colorful activities Miss Yang prepared not only stimulated the students' passion for learning French, but also gave them an opportunity to appreciate the charm of the French language.
Translator: Sun Yue
Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg
Layout: Yu Wanping
