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Alliance Francaise De Seattle
Category: Education Specialty Schools Language Schools Language Schools [Edit]
4649 Sunnyside Ave NSte 205
(at 46th St)
Seattle, WA 98103
Neighborhood: Wallingford
(206) 632-5433
3 reviews for Alliance Francaise De Seattle
2 reviews in English
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Review from A E.
Seattle, WA
4/29/2010
I started taking private lessons here and the quality of the instruction is good. I was concerned that one on one would be weird and boring, but instead we engage a variety of activities to make the session fun and also very educational. As it is a private lesson there are a lot of ways it could be structured, but in my case we start with some conversation and then talk about and go over take home exercises, writings, etc from the week before. i am reading a book so we spend some time talking about it as well. We then will focus on a grammar point (this in turn sets up some of the homework for the following week) and then end the class with some more guided conversation. What I mean by that is, for instance, perhaps we look at some pictures and talk about them. Overall, it is a good set up, and the AF has pretty good facilities as well.
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Review from Lily H.
Seattle, WA
Updated - 7/20/2008
We have recently passed both the Fourth AND Fourteenth of July.
I happened to watch Eric Rohmer's "Claire's Knee" ("Le Genou de Claire") on DVD again. No shoot-outs, foul mouths...or someone hitting another person on the head with a crow-bar.
I immediately asked myself "Then why study French?"
Whatever your opinion of whether Pax Americana is on the wane or in a temporary standing pattern, or of Nicholas Sarkozy, it is instructive to ask oneself what the differences between French and American culture are, and why an American might think it important to look there for an alternate model.
American movies, just like American diplomacy in the first years of the 21st century, usually end in a fistfight or something big exploding.
The excitement of watching "Claire's Knee" derived, in part, from the sensation of witnessing that intelligent conversation about human relations can and is more pleasurable than watching films about out-sized heroes and villains engaged in duels-till-the-death.
The imperceptible ripples of feeling, thought, and reflection that accompany both the dialogue and the "action" (I use that word in a somewhat ironic sense, as this is precisely the word that encapsulates the esprit of Hollywood) are what give this film its charm.
Charm, as in the subtle, murmured appreciation of an Impressionist painting.
I am not sure if Hollywood has or would care to even try to "duplicate" this somewhat "outdated" genre of cinema. Or that French cinema has not moved steadily in the direction of the "cheap thrills, broad humor" so characteristic of its erstwhile rival.
A n increasingly smaller audience for foreign film (outside of such films as "Crouching Tiger" or films with obvious sentimentality, such as "Life is Beautiful") indicates that "the scales," at least in terms of culture, continue to tip towards America, at least in the cultural sphere.
Even so, in this new era of a hyper-kinetic Sarkozy and the rapprochement of Paris and Washington, on the latter's terms--so it seems, I cannot help wondering if something remains of individuals and institutions outside the scope of influence of popular American culture.
(Furthermore, how many Americans know of or would care about about his recent election to the presidency of the European Union? Or the launching, on his initiative, of the Union of the Mediterranean?)
Despite the tentacles of our culture around the globe, including our language, way-of-thinking--controlled by forces which seem beyond even our own control--all of us may wonder how long it can continue without modification.
Is it simply our technology and entrepreneurial spirit, not form of democracy, in tandem with the global economy that sustain the dominance of American culture and its myriad ersatz imitations?
Sometimes I think that we might still be culturally impoverished and that some of us might still be semi-consciously seeking something outside the limits of popular culture, with its constant stream of tiger-chasing-its-own tail, technologically based innovation.
In the end, someone reviewing French culture might come to the conclusion that it has not, in general, provided easy answers, except during the era of absolute monarchy, the Revolution, and the Napoleonic era, all of which, were subsequently critiqued and found lacking.
That is why I think French history, culture, and language are so indissolubly intertwined. You cannot study one without the other two.
By way of contrast, most of the time when I hear the English spoken around me, I register not only the articulation of vowels and consonants and the intonation patterns but also the endless re-channeling of popular culture heard, seen, and duplicated.
The French language is not only beautiful one but also a vehicle for understanding the world in which I live.
I think it not merely a matter of preference, but also of quality of expression and thought.
To be blunt, the dominance of English, with the concomitant "retreat" of French and other languages, is not good for a world which requires multilateralism in order to survive.
Despite the daily generosity and kindness evinced by many ordinary Americans, much of it is undone by ignorance and lack of awareness of what lies beyond our popular culture.
Having "more" (gadgets, bedrooms, $$) and "bigger" (cars, muscles) has not made us happier or safer.
At the very least, learning French might go a tiny bit towards curbing the very American tendency to blithely holler into their cellphones in restaurants, stores, and, in general, in public, while at the same time--contradictorily--being such staunch champions of individual freedom and privacy.
If more Americans undertook a serious program of learning a foreign language, maybe it would be to the world's benefit...Spanish, being the language of a huge continual influx of immigrants, for obvious political reasons, is not a good choice.
http://letters.salon.c...?1 Previous Review: Show all »
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5/22/2007 First to Review
Does anyone in school learn --not even actually speak--a foreign language any more?
There are… Read more »
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