Marianne Chartrand

Co-founder and Dir. of Instruction

A native of the Sancerre area and proud mother of 3, Marianne is responsible for the instructional programs for Coeur de France Ecole de Langues. A real gourmet, she also teaches our French Home Cooking class. We asked her to describe a typical day.

"At Coeur de France we have morning and afternoon sessions, so my day starts officially when classes begin at 8:30 AM. I'll teach a class until it's finished about 1:00 PM then prepare for the afternoon class starting after lunch. At 1:30 PM the afternoon class arrives and we finish at 5:00 PM. Depending on the time of year, we may vary the hours a little, e.g., start and end classes 30 minutes later in winter when the days are shorter, etc. And of course, there's always prep time before classes."

Designing Coeur de France's pedagogy is also Marianne's responsibility. "I was educated (in the UK and USA) to be a teacher of foreign languages. Before creating Coeur de France Ecole de Langues with my husband Gérard in 1996, I taught at a language school in the USA for several years. My training and personal experiences living in English-speaking countries have given me insight into effective methods of teaching. I know the typical mistakes Anglophones make when learning French. As a native French speaker, I also know the traps other Latin language speakers tend to make."

What does she find most interesting about her work?

"You know, I'm always excited teaching our students because, first of all, they come here to study French willingly -- they've not been forced by employers, universities or whomever. Secondly, because they have a genuine interest in our language, they're always interested in the other aspects of our rich culture such as gastronomy, literature, history, and so on. And finally, they come from absolutely all over the world with their own stories to tell. People with such natural curiosity are always interesting to know.

I personally would love to go to a foreign country to learn a new language with my family, but the opportunities are practically nonexistent. Many language schools simply don't accept young children, or if they do, they're segregated from everyone else. What a shame.

When I was a young girl, I went to school in a one-room village schoolhouse. A range of students of different ages and skills were being taught various subjects by just one teacher in the same room. And everyone really LEARNED. I thought, 'With some modifications, why wouldn't this approach work for teaching languages alone?'.

Using this same principle, I developed the Family & Couples program. Here children and their parents (of the same family) may learn French together at their own speed. I know of no other school in France that offers this possibility. Why? Because teaching to different ages and skill levels in the same class presents a unique set of challenges for teachers unaccustomed to the one-room school house experience. However, our experience has been extremely positive: the Family & Couples program has become one of our fastest growing programs and enjoys the highest rate of students returning with their families to study again and again!"

Any funny stories?

"Well, I'm not going to name names if that's what you mean! I will say that people are people regardless of where they come from or what their native languages are. Occasionally I'll have a student who needs the same explanation repeated more than usual, but we all learn at our own speeds and abilities.

I guess some of the families I've taught stand out most to me. This summer there was an English family -- parents with their 2 primary school age children -- who came for a week of Family program. The mother was all for it, the kids were, well, kids who were not terribly excited about spending a week in France studying French! The father was sure he wasn't going to learn anything as he was convinced that he would be held back by the rest of the family.

Classes began on Monday morning and by Wednesday, guess who was learning the fastest? Right -- the kids! How we all laughed. By the end of the week, everyone was regretting the end of the program. Dad learned more than just French that week, I'll tell you. And guess what? They're coming back next summer...."

Marianne