On Wednesday, September 23, 2015, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy & Albertine Books in French and English will host Professor François Grosjean, world-renowned psycholinguist and specialist on bilingualism, in a conversation with Fabrice Jaumont, Education Attaché at the Cultural Services in New York.

Born in Paris, this prominent scholar became bilingual himself when he was sent to an English boarding school in Switzerland at the age of eight and then moved to the United Kingdom when he was 14. Having had such an experience, he decided to dedicate his career to psycholinguistics, receiving a PhD and a doctorat d’Etat from the University of Paris. He then became a faculty member at various universities in France, the United States, and Switzerland. A former director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory, he is Professor Emeritus of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

After publishing eight books on psycholinguistics and bilingualism, the first one published by Harvard University Press, François Grosjean is now presenting his research on the linguistics and cognition of bilingualism in his new book Parler plusieurs langues – le monde des bilingues, as well as his very successful blog "Life as a bilingual" on Psychology Today.

LOCATION: Cultural Services of the French Embassy,

                  972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075,

                  Between 78th and 79th street

DATE: SEPTEMBER 23 at 6pm      

       FREE EVENT                           IN ENGLISH

If you wish to attend this event, and the ensuing networking reception, please RSVP by emailing education@frenchculture.org or by calling (212) 439-1436 before September 18.

This event will be live-streamed at http://livestream.com/frenchembassy. The video will be available online after the event.

Take a bilingual French class with intense and devoted teachers, two cameras, and a few placards, and you get a wonderful project. The French dual-language program of PS110 The Monitor School in Greenpoint, Brooklyn allowed their Kindergarteners to show their artistic skills by making them shoot each other with a professional camera. The photographed children held a placard with their dream job written on it. Teacher, fashion designer, game maker, scientist, artist, astronaut, jewelry maker… the children showed us the diversity of their dreams and ambitions. Meanwhile, the adult team shot the students photographing their classmates and the way they were handling such an impressive material.

With the help of two professional photographers, Fabrice Trombert and Laurent Girard, the shoot became an actual artistic piece where all the pictures taken by the children were exposed. The event was such a success that the school team has decided to repeat the activity every year to follow the evolution of their bilingual children; good mementos for them to keep of their school years. It even might have inspired some new vocations, since some of them proudly held a placard bearing the word “photographer”…

The New-York French American Charter School graduated  its 5th grade French bilingual students on Tuesday June 16th. It was time for this school to say goodbye to its promising students who now head towards their bright futures in Middle School.

Time flies and the school team did not hide its emotion while witnessing these children taking a new step in their life. After a beautiful entry of the children and the moving speeches of the School Director Marc Morris,  Richard Ortoli, the school's Board President, Catherine Watkins, its founder, Fabrice Jaumont, and the teachers. A young 3rd grade student even sang Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose in perfect French! The talented girl received a round of applause from the impressed parents, teachers and students.

The school team had even prepared a short video featuring the best moments of the school year, a nice way for them to remember the opportunity they had of studying in this bilingual school in Harlem, created for and by New York City's francophone community. Afterwards it was time for the proud graduates to receive their well-deserved certificates, and a gift from the French bookshop Albertine.

All the pictures are on the wall, the tables are served, and everything is in it’s place; on the evening of the Wednesday June 17th, the French Embassy welcomed the 42 bilingual children from MS256 and PS84 who took part to the project Through My Eyes in collaboration with Magic Box Productions. The latter non-profit has worked over the years with more than 10,000 students, teachers, and parents giving them opportunities for creative expression, community and cultural connections, and access to new technologies.

The goal of this project was to have these students reflect on the different pictures taken by Magic Box and develop their taste and capacity both in art and French .The guests who came to see the exhibition had a chance to read the comments written by the students under the photographs that inspired them.

After the speeches made by Benedicte de Montlaur, Fabrice Jaumont, Nelle Stokes from Magic Box and the two principles of both schools, Robin Sundick from PS84 and Brian Zager from MS256, the students had the honor to receive their certificates and their gift bags from Albertine, the French bookshop of the Embassy, as well as take pictures to immortalize the solemn moment.