Francophones gather for dinner at Starlight

Enthusiasts of the French language and culture gathered at a Greenville eatery last week for a night of food, wine and conversation.

The francophone community of Greenville and East Carolina University met for a dinner at Starlight Café on Wednesday, April 28. “Our community of francophone speakers wanted to get together,” said Anne-Hélène Miller, assistant French professor at ECU and organizer of the event. “There was a lot of interest for and talk about such an event.” The owners and the chef of Starlight Café, Susanne and Tobias Boutilier, suggested to host the event and cooked an exceptional French dinner.

A great variety among the approximately 35 francophone speakers attended the event. Aside from members of the ECU’s French department, professors from the English, Italian, biology, and history departments were present, as well as from the Brody School of Medicine. The event gave them the chance to mingle with francophone members of the community, French Club members, French majors and minors and French exchange students.

Visiting Distinguished Professor from Oxford, Dr. Robert Fox, a historian whose concentration is science in France during the 19th century thought it was a great evening. “It is wonderful seeing students here,” Fox said. “The danger with such events is that they have the tendency to become tea clubs. It is a great initiative, getting people to speak French, because it takes a lot of courage.”

“This event helps create new interactions between the United States and France,” said Frédéric Fladenmuller, a French Professor at ECU. “There was a time when the relationship between the US and France was fragile, and we are now at a point where there is a need for change and collaboration between these two different cultures, which is often ignored.”

Sara Bell, a graduating biology major and French minor, was surprised and delighted to see her biology adviser, Jean-Luc Scemama, a French native, at the francophone dinner. “It feels great to find myself among such a high concentration of French speakers,” Bell said. “I came to listen and to practice my French, but it is also great to meet people who are involved in the French community in Greenville.”

Bell, who studied abroad in Rennes, France, for a semester during her junior year, said that events like this are a good way for her to keep up with French, “especially since all my French minor classes were completed after my junior year.” She also thinks it would be good for people to make connections and for students to have the opportunity to experience French outside a classroom setting.

“It is important to show that French is still a popular language and that there is a lot of interest in the French culture,” Miller said. “We have had an extraordinary number of students expressing interest to major in French this past semester.”

The francophone community is also working on the Alliance Française, a worldwide non-profit organization sponsored by the French government. “The idea is to plan cultural events, conferences, and offer classes in language, literature and film,” explained Miller. “It would be a nice social gathering.” The Alliance Française would make it possible to invite prominent French people to come and socialize with the francophone community in Greenville.