French Day 2025, “Techne, Technologie”: March 21, 2025
Join us for a half-day program of interactive workshops in French! Intended for students with at least two years of experience in the language, this immersion program incorporates interactive learning techniques designed to build vocabulary and improve comprehension skills. This year’s edition focuses on the intersection of traditional crafts and new technologies in the French-speaking world.
Please register here as soon as possible and no later than February 14. Space is limited and confirmed on a “first come, first served” basis once payment is received.
French Day 2025 Schedule
9:00-9:15 AM: Welcoming remarks and logistics
9:30-10:20 AM and 10:30-11:20 AM: Workshops
11:20-12:10 PM: Lunch
12:15-1:30 PM: Film Competition (see description below).
2025 Workshops
Industrie internationale ou artisanat unique? Les Chemins du cacao
Dr. Pascale LaFountain, Montclair State University
This workshop explores the ways in which global transportation, international monetary systems, colonial relationships, and local artisanal cultures are intertwined in the harvesting of cocoa in francophone Africa and the technical production of chocolate across European francophone countries. Bonus chocolate tasting! Geared toward advanced beginner and intermediate learners.
Artisans & Innovateurs: The Digital and Handmade Arts of YouTube en français
Mme Gerry Plinio, Montgomery Upper Middle School
Workshop participants will explore French YouTube to personalize their individual language learning experience. We will learn about some of the many French-speaking YouTubers who specialize in a variety of topics (such as baking, gaming, arts and crafts, etc.). Students will have time to explore some of the videos and share their own opinions. This workshop is designed to empower and motivate students to feel comfortable exploring their own interests within the French-speaking world. This workshop is geared toward advanced beginner and intermediate learners.
La Glace en France: produit industriel ou artisanal?
Mme Josée Dufour, Le Salon Ice Cream Shop, Corsica; Dr. Elizabeth Emery, Montclair State University
French artisan glacier (ice cream specialist) Josée Dufour will present the French ice cream and cakes she makes in her shop in Corsica while discussing evolving industrial methods used in France for making other products such as bread or pastry. How are products sourced? What are the differences between hand-crafted and machine-made products? Are attitudes and regulations about craft products different in France and the United States? In this discussion, participants will learn vocabulary related to common foods and food preferences while considering the cultural differences between the United States and France. Targeted to intermediate and advanced French learners, the workshop will culminate with discussion and a tasting.
AI in Translation: Tool or Trap?
Dr. Kathleen Loysen, Montclair State University
In this translation workshop geared to high intermediate and advanced students, participants will experiment with some of the tools available for translation from French to English while discussing the benefits and drawbacks. Geared toward high intermediate and advanced students.
La Mode et Musique Lebou: Senegalese Fashion and Music
Mme Seynabou Haith, Morris County School District
Come and discover the style, fashion, and music of Senegal’s Lebu ethnic group. We will try on traditional clothing, learn to tie headscarves, and wear wraps and trousers especially handmade in Senegal. Exclusive jewelry and makeup worthy of Senegalese hospitality (la Teranga) will accessorize these “made in Senegal” outfits. Lebu dance music (Ndawrabine) will perfectly complement this workshop. On your marks, get set, and discover this remarkable Senegalese ethnic group and its myriad marvels! Geared toward all language levels, though the vocabulary is pitched at the advanced beginner and intermediate level.
Professional Development
Teachers may enroll for 3 credits of Professional Development on the registration form.
Film Competition
Spring 2025’s competitive events will consist of two ways for students to engage with French language and culture while treating issues of tradition and modernity: “Tableaux vivants” is geared toward advanced secondary-school students and “La Poésie en images” for beginning and intermediate students.
Prizes will be attributed to the strongest submissions in both categories and screened during the afternoon session.
Tableaux vivants (for Advanced Students)
Riffing on “tableaux vivants”—a late nineteenth-century parlor game and twenty-first-century Instagram challenge (@tussenkunstenquarantaine), participants will bring life to a painting dealing with tradition and modernity and produced by a French-speaking artist. This involves writing a scenario and dialogue based on the characters and tensions represented in the painting. The filmed performance of this “living painting” should last no more than 5 minutes, including credits. Good sources for selecting French paintings include the Musée d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others.
View the “Tableaux vivants” submission form for more details and registration information. Submissions are due before March 3.
La Poésie en images (for Beginning and Intermediate Students)
Individuals or teams of students should select a poem written in French in which the central tension involves considerations of tradition and modernity. They should create a filmed adaptation of that work (no more than 3 minutes including credits). Feel free to use still images, animation, or live action (people, puppets, animals, paper cut-outs, etc). Wheaton College’s “Vive Voix” site [https://wheatoncollege.edu/vive-voix/] provides a selection of poems with accompanying readings and the Morgan Library’s online Blaise Cendrars exhibition may provide some ideas about tensions between tradition and modernity: https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/blaise-cendrars
View the “Poésie en images” submission form for more details and registration information. Submissions are due by March 3.
For more information or questions about French Day 2025: msufrenchday@gmail.com).
Archived French Day Programs
French-Day 2024
French Day 2022
French Day 2020
French Day 2019
French Day 2018
French Day 2017