Petite Histoire et Poésie: Let's Reason and Rhyme with French Words

Reason and Rhyme animation by Noemie Jollet

‘Petite Histoire et Poésie: Let's Reason and Rhyme with French Words’ is a workshop designed by the Department of French in collaboration with the Alliance Française of Glasgow, which was part of the Being Human Festival 2023. Being Human is the UK’s national festival of the humanities, run by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England and in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.

The workshop was internally funded by the University of Strathclyde and was led by Noémie Jollet, Teaching Fellow at the University of Strathclyde and Elise Pincet, French teacher and librarian at the Alliance Française of Glasgow.

The theme of the 2023 festival was ‘Reason and Rhyme’. This theme allowed the organisers to develop a creative writing workshop in French which enabled participants to rhyme and reason with pre-selected French words. All participants were placed into heterogeneous groups, which included complete beginners, pupils from various secondary schools, students from Universities and retirees. Each group picked nouns, verbs and adjectives of various difficulty such as: ‘espace’, ‘cendre’, ‘bizarre’, ‘gourde’, ‘aisé’, génereux’, ‘briller’, ‘mystère’, ‘valloir’ etc. They discussed these words and explored their meanings with the help of the organisers present. From these discussions, they were able to create two short stories in French:

Text 1

• ‘Il était une fois, il y avait un grand incendie dans la forêt. L’incendie détruisait tout, aussi le petit village à côté. D’un espace, des cendres, une créature bizarre est née. Il était invisible pour les personnes avec les cœurs moches, cependant, il était bavard et il voulait l’amitié. Un jour, une petit fille d’une famille aisée se promenait dans la forêt et soudainement, elle a vu la créature.

  « Salut » a-t-elle dit.

  La créature était complètement étonnée. « Tu me vois ? »

  « Mais bien sûr » a-t-elle dit.

  « Je t’avoue que seulement les gens avec la beauté de cœurs généreux permettent de me voir. Ça s’est un mystère ! Est-ce que je peux faire de l’amitié avec toi ? La lumière de ton cœur brille autant que je veux vraiment être ton ami. Ne t’éloigne pas de moi s’il te plait. »

  « Mais bien sûr » a dit la petite fille. Nous serons amis pour toujours. »’

Text 2

• ‘Cet animal est fort mais il est un peu gourde car il combat et court avec les autres animaux dans les champs. La vie libre vaut beaucoup pour les animaux. L’animal était blessé par une flèche empoisonnée. C’était une bataille impossible. Les cendres du souvenir de l’animal soufflent dans le vent. Il est mort. C’est une image poignante.’

Creating this outreach event is an excellent way to promote the languages at the University of Strathclyde. It also rereinforces ties with external partners and creates new links with members of the public.  

The overall feedback from the participants showed that everyone enjoyed creating artistic works in a foreign language and in a team, moreover, they felt proud of their group accomplishment. They were able to discuss with native speakers to help them and develop their knowledge of French. One representative of each group performed their story orally and prizes were given to the best performances. This workshop allowed learners of all backgrounds to gather and collaborate in French. This was a successful event that the University of Strathclyde and the Alliance Française look forward to hosting it again in the near future.

Any queries about the workshop, please contact: noemie.jollet@strath.ac.uk

The original link for the workshop can be found here.