The French section shares the mission of the department of Romance Languages and the College of Pro Humanitate. Classes are taught in French from the beginning levels, and the faculty’s commitment to communicative learning fosters the development of student proficiency. Just as language lives only in a context of culture, French courses at Wake Forest highlight meeting places among the language, culture, literature, film, art, and history of France and of other countries of the Francophone world. Co-curricular activities including films series, conversation hours with native speakers, and presentations further support this mission.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau reminds us in his Confessions that “Quoique j’eusse l’esprit assez orné, n’ayant jamais vu le monde, je manquais totalement de manières.” ( However cultivated my mind may have been, I was totally lacking in social skills because I had not seen the world.) If the humanities count among their sometimes unspoken missions the development and formation of human beings, traveling and studying abroad count among their own missions the development and formation of a responsible citizen of the world. To this end, the French section is especially pleased to offer two excellent opportunities to live and to study abroad: our long-standing semester program in the elegant city of Dijon, and our more recently started summer program in the beautiful town of Tours. Students live with French families and continue their studies both with French instructors and with a Wake Forest faculty member from the department.