6 Ways to Celebrate la journée de la francophonie with your Family

Every year, March 20th is a day for people from around the world to come together and celebrate the Journée internationale de la Francophonie.

At its heart, the francophonie is a community of men and women that share a common language: French. The last report from the Observatoire de la langue française reported that, as of 2022, there were 321 million French speakers spread out across five continents. French ranks as the sixth most spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi. French is the third most commonly used language in business and the fourth you’re most likely to see on the internet.

The francophonie has a bright future ahead of it. Current estimates think that there will be over 800 million French speakers in the world by 2050, securing its place in the world for decades to come.

It was in 1962 that Léopold Sédar Senghor famously characterized the Francophonie (with a capital F) as “a complete Humanism, weaving its way around the world: a symbiosis of the ‘‘latent energies’’ of all the continents, of all the races, reawaken by their complementary warmth.” As an organization, the Francophonie represents more than a mere linguistic community. For its 54 member states, the Francophonie is a font of educational, economic, political, and cultural cooperation, based on shared values like solidarity, human rights, dialogue, and inclusion.

To help you celebrate the francophonie and la langue française at home, we here at EFBA have put together a list of six activities you can do at home with your family. Enjoy!

• • Read a book in French

  Don’t know where to find affordable books in French? Le Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques, part of the government of Quebec, gives its members living in America free access to thousands of ebooks from authors all over the Western Hemisphere. The collection of le Centre is vast and diverse, bringing together, preserving, and spreading the textual heritage of the francophonie in the Americas. We would like to specifically recommend Histoires du soir pour filles rebelles (2022 | audience: 5+) by Elena Favilli as well as the ever-irreverent C’est moi qui décide ! (2020 | audience: 3-5 years) by Elise Gravel.

   

  • Find a French-speaking artist near you

  There are a multitude of francophone artists from around the four corners of the world. Look to see if there are any exhibitions or musical performances going on near you. For example, from the 16th to the 19th of March, the famous Malian couple Amadou and Mariam got people moving at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco with their subtle blend of African styles, blues, pop and electro.

   

  • Enroll your child in a French program at EFBA

  Have you thought about enrolling your child in French after school classes, or maybe about signing them up for different cultural activities online or in person like museum trips, concerts, and escape rooms? Do you want to find French style summer camps in the San Francisco Bay area? EFBA offers a year-round assortment of French immersion programs to allow your child to dream, have fun, and explore, all while learning French. For us at EFBA, pleasure is essential for kids to learn a language.

   

  • Organize a short-film night with your family

  Short films (court-métrages) are movies that run less than 20 minutes, perfect for exploring a variety of different worlds and stories in a single night. There’s a fantastic collection of short films by francophone artists, thanks to the many film and animation schools in France and Canada. We think you should check out:

  • Oktapodi (2008, Gobelins, l’école de l’image | audience: 6+| length: 2 mn). Two octopuses fight for their lives with a restaurant cook in an escape through a Greek village.
  • Jamais sans mon dentier (2016, Bellecour Ecole | audience: 5+ | length: 5 mn). Four people living in a retirement home want to watch their favorite serial but the head nurse takes away the remote. 
  • Luminoir (2009, ESMA – École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques | audience: 7+ | length: 7 mn). An endearing monster shows a little girl why she shouldn’t be scared of the dark.
  • La boîte (2017, ESMA – École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques | audience: 4+ | length: 7 mn). An old man ends up taming the mouse he wanted to get rid of.
  • Check out an online exhibition from a francophone country.

  Want to go to some of the biggest museums of the francophone world? No need to take the plane–many of them have organized virtual tours online! Some of the ones we recommend are:

  • “Head to head with the Mona Lisa“, the first-ever virtual reality experience of the Louvre (France). Learn about the latest research on Leonardo de Vinci, and the techniques  and processes he used to create his incredible paintings.
  •  Virtual Tour of the Monet’s house. Giverny is well known for its fabulous collection of paintings that Money himself painted in his house and garden. Come discover what it would be like if you were really there!
  • “Vivez Versailles”: Versailles has created a VR experience that allows you to relive the official visit by the ambassador of the Kingdom of Siam to the court of Louis XIV, as well as the Bal des Ifs organized by Louis XV. This is best enjoyed if you have a VR headset.

   

  • Find podcasts in French for kids

  Get your kids to reduce their screen time by offering them fun alternatives like podcasts. Our selection of podcasts in French for kids will help teach and inspire your children, all while helping them work on their French..

   

  We wish you all a bonne journée de la francophonie! 

   

  Written by Julia Peillon

  Translated by Zach Sebree