Julian signed up for a noncredit French class at a local community college last fall. He wanted to brush up in advance of a future vacation to France. I chose not to sign up with him that quarter, preferring a quiet evening to myself. He’d come home from class with good reports about the professor: “She’s a native speaker and a stickler for pronunciation.” Okay. “The class is very relaxed.” No exams or grades, of course it’s relaxed. “She’s a foodie. She’s even published a cookbook.” Oh, really? Tell me more… After some more arm-twisting, I decided to sign up for the second class in the series with him winter quarter. And here we are, enrolled in the fifth quarter.

The professor, Yolande, was born and raised in Paris. She married an American and immigrated to the US. For a while she had her own personal coaching business and published her cookbook, “Pace of Provence”, in 2001. We managed to find a used copy on the Barnes & Noble website. Although the book is 15 years old, the recommendations she makes are still nutritionally sound. The recipes are very easy to follow. One of our classmates, a novice cook, has made several recipes out of the book successfully. I made the fig appetizer for our Friday night crew, and they disappeared quickly.

Our French class cooks!

The students have been a mix of people of varying ages and origins. This quarter we even have two Chinese students. There was a significant drop-off in students from French 2 to French 3, so the class has become much more interactive. Yolande instituted a feature called “Quoi de Neuf?” (What’s new?) This is like show and tell, except in French. This section has continued into French 5. She’s also giving us French literature to read, starting with excerpts from Les Misérables. Our latest assignment is the chapter where Jean Valjean goes to the bishop’s house. [Trivia question: Who played the bishop in the Hugh Jackman-Anne Hathaway-Russell Crowe version of Les Mis? Colm Wilkinson, who originally played Jean Valjean in the stage version. Julian asked why Wilkinson didn’t play Valjean in the movie, since his voice is better than Jackman’s. Simple: He’s about 25 years too old for the early scenes.]

If you want to review a language you studied in high school or college, or learn a new language, I highly recommend doing it through a community college. The tuition is reasonable, particularly if you’re doing a non-credit class. You’ll meet a diverse group of folks, and you just might wind up with a professor with a foodie or other interesting background.