French Program
Why study French?
Explore French language as well as Francophone cinemas, literatures, history and cultures while developing cultural awareness and critical thinking skills.
The Saint Mary’s approach
Knowing an additional language and having enhanced cultural skills gives you an advantage in your career and future education. We offer comprehensive Major, Minor, and Certificate programs that will strengthen your linguistic skills and help you to understand and appreciate the languages and cultures of the Francophone world.
Hands-on learning
There are excellent opportunities to study abroad in France for academic credit – you could even win the CIDEF-Angers Prize for studying abroad in France. As a student, you can enjoy our French activities or participate in the Explore Program to improve your French.
You can also compete for an excellence award given by the Alliance Française of Halifax. Winners get a chance to take a trip to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (a little bit of France in North America), which is offered by the French Consulate in the Atlantic Provinces. You could also work in France as an English assistant.
Sample courses offered:
- Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced French: Learn to speak, write and converse in French.
- Literatures of French Canada: A study of selected major works in various Franco-Canadian literatures outside Québec: Acadie, Ontario, and Western Canada. Students gain a historical and cultural appreciation of the Francophone communities outside Québec. They also study literary works from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
- Songs in French: Songs are part of daily life and reflect the evolution of the society in which they are rooted. They also have a genuine poetic value, and in this respect, they are timeless. The purpose of this course is twofold: first, to examine the cultural and historical background behind the works of France’s or the Francophonie’s most prestigious songwriters; second, to analyze the literary value of the lyrics.
- French for Business: You will acquire the basic vocabulary and reading skills necessary to understand business correspondence, reports, and articles in French, as well as writing skills to allow written communication in French in a Canadian commercial context.
Career Opportunities:
- Any job you want! A second language is always an asset, whatever the job is
- Teacher
- Translator
- Journalist
- Interpreter
- Cultural liaison
- Social worker
- Public relations consultant
- Politician