French, the language that, until the middle of the last century, most Catalans had studied at school as their first foreign language, has been losing speakers here, on the other side of the Pyrenees. Now, and for several years already, only those who have ties with France or another French-speaking country, those who appreciate or are fans of French culture, be it cinema, music or literature, or those who have to use this language in their professional activity, learn it. English was imposed in all educational centers like a great steamroller that left French cornered as an elective.
Therefore, in French classrooms today there is, above all, a select variety of students with various motivations towards learning the language of the neighboring country. And, when they encounter a teacher like Marie, they find few excuses to miss French class. Marie Martínez is head of the French department at the Escola Oficial d'Idiomes (EOI) of Barcelona Vall de Hebron. But it is not precisely in the organizational bureaucracy of the functioning of an official school like this where she savors the pleasure and the true incentive of her work: she experiences that inside the classroom.
"There is nothing I like more than teaching," she says, with that security and firmness that comes from afar, and from deep within. This teacher loves the profession that keeps a language in recession in Catalonia alive. At the beginning of each academic year, Marie discovers the new enrollees, curious to know what interests them most about a language like French, why they study it, how they study it...
"In French ---she comments--- it's like a luxury to have teenagers in class who usually already speak English quite well and who like languages. There are those who start in first year and complete all courses until they obtain C1, and perhaps they have never lived and will never live in France. They study French as a plus, which is basically what is now being lost," she explains.
Because learning a foreign language ---as Marie says--- is a long journey, but there are always those who "enroll to study a language like someone who signs up for the gym. They start with a lot of enthusiasm, but then they stop coming. Today, when everything is just pressing a button and getting the answer, the number of students who enroll has decreased." Language teachers also think that artificial intelligence has a lot to do with it. "AI will come to replace language learning, yes, with automatic translators and apps to learn. But what artificial intelligence will not be able to substitute is the exchange with the other person. Gestures, eye contact, all non-verbal communication, is lost," the French teacher points out. In classes, all linguistic competencies are learned simultaneously: to read, to write, and to speak the language. But, in addition ---Marie explains--- "you learn much more than grammar. You can automatically have a perfect translation, but the culture of the country and the exchange of experiences with the language and its country of origin among students and with the teacher, all that also happens in the classroom."
Preparing crepes and tasting them, or discovering cheeses made in French workshops are activities that are part of the French course at the EOI, moments to further strengthen the bond with the group, with the common denominator of the French language. In addition ---Marie adds---, "the process of thinking in another language, knowing the expressions, along with these cultural touches, is a richness." It is this sharing of anecdotes in the classroom that gives the differential touch to language learning. "And I want to believe that it will be valued more again," she trusts.
Class to the dolls
Marie Martínez was born in the city of Mulhouse, in Alsace. She was very young and already entertained herself playing what later became her professional dedication. So, it can be said that she already had experience when she was a child. "At home, I would arrange chairs and sit my dolls on them, about four or five, and I would climb onto a chair and write behind a door, as if it were a blackboard. And my mother and father would get hysterical. Then they bought me a small blackboard and colored chalks, and with that, I continued explaining lessons to the dolls."
"AI will come to supply language learning, yes. But what it won't be able to replace is the exchange with the other person"
At school, she personally also enjoyed it very much. "I liked school, but not because of the subjects. For me, it was a place where you socialized," she recalls. And that is precisely what she now values and highlights most about the dynamics of classes in a school like the official language school. "In the EOI classroom, people of different ages, backgrounds, and jobs mix. They come to class not only to learn the language, but also to learn to share the learning experience, each at their own pace. They bond with each other ---also by creating a Whatsapp group---, a microcosm with a very good atmosphere, where there is usually always the bookworm, the perfectionist, the one who manages, the one who gets ahead despite everything it costs them. And I love that," she says. "I am amazed by those who work all day and at seven in the evening come here to spend an hour and a half in class, twice a week. That for me, as a teacher, is a luxury." And Marie also knows that it is a luxury that in Spain there is a public language school, something that does not happen in other countries.
Andalusia, León, Alsace and Valencia
Marie's parents were born in Andalusia, and lived for a time in León, before settling in France. "But, like all emigrants, they wanted to return to their country, and they did. They returned and stayed between the two worlds, because, after spending so many years away, it's as if they no longer belonged here," Marie explains. When her parents returned to Spain, she was twenty years old. She remembers calling the UNED to inquire about French philology studies, which was what her Spanish teacher in Paris had recommended she study if she wanted to come live in Spain and work as a French teacher. "I had never heard of philology, I had to ask them to spell the word for me," she recalls.
Her parents settled in Valencia. "I came for a year, but I stayed," she explains. In Valencia, she studied French Philology, but in Barcelona, she had her boyfriend, who was studying at the University of Barcelona, and she wanted to come here to do her French doctorate, although she didn't finish it because she didn't like it. "I started working as a waitress, first, and then in a language academy, which was my launchpad as a French teacher," she admits. She also taught French in secondary schools and, finally, where she still does, at the Escola Oficial d'Idiomes. She had the Certificate of Pedagogical Aptitude (CAP), in the course for which she had two teachers who left a mark on her. "They seemed spectacular to me and I felt that I wanted to teach like them." Afterwards, she passed the competitive exams.
Seeing how her students follow the classes and get hooked on French shows her that she has managed to emulate well the teachers she liked the most. With the great advantage that now she and her students have many more complements to continue in contact with the language, outside the classroom. Music platforms, cinema and documentaries, access to Francophone press and media... "All this makes it easier to learn French. The common thread is culture and, like someone who likes art, if you are motivated, learning about it is easy for you. Although there are always those who have much more facility for languages, you see that right away," she concludes.