Last week, the downtown QAIS schools (Quebec Association of Independent Schools) held a special conference entitled “Le Fait Français,” a celebration the high quality of French taught in our independent school system. It was an impressive collection of speakers: experienced teachers, alumni, community members and the former Premier of Quebec, Pierre-Marc Johnston.
All presenters spoke about the critical importance of French fluency in Quebec. It is an essential for day-to-day life and success in professional careers. We were reminded that outside Quebec there are some 65 countries around the world who are members of “La Francophonie,” so French competence also has its use well beyond the borders of our own province.
What resonated most with me were the comments from an LCC graduate. Amrick Bansal ’98 is a young lawyer who practices in Montreal. He recounted how he was in Advanced French at LCC and felt pretty confident about his language skills when he graduated. After college and university education in English in Montreal, he felt that his French skills had declined somewhat. He decided to remedy this by attending law school in French at l’Université de Montréal. The nuances of language made this a challenging, yet satisfying, experience. Mr. Bansal solidified his French skills by spending a full year of legal studies at a university in France. Proud with his achievement at refining his French fluency, Mr. Bansal then spent a year at university in Holland, completing a graduate certificate in international law. However, upon arrival he noted that that most of his classmates from Europe and around the world arrived with the capacity to confidently speak four or five languages.
The important message here is that bilingualism is essential for all of us in Montreal. However, in an interconnected world with the domination of global forces, the knowledge of multiple languages is what most young people should strive for to gain a competitive edge. Bilingualism is a necessity, but multilingualism is what we all should aim for. I hope you have already begun to broaden your linguistic fluency.—Chris Shannon, Headmaster