Dubai Telegraph - Long-banned Alsatian finally allowed in French schools

EUR -
AED 3.865039
AFN 71.961868
ALL 97.885367
AMD 409.705534
ANG 1.898038
AOA 960.733931
ARS 1055.061215
AUD 1.613881
AWG 1.894109
AZN 1.787029
BAM 1.951539
BBD 2.126437
BDT 125.855234
BGN 1.956342
BHD 0.396578
BIF 3110.579445
BMD 1.052283
BND 1.414399
BOB 7.293078
BRL 6.086683
BSD 1.053191
BTN 88.848028
BWP 14.387453
BYN 3.446543
BYR 20624.740218
BZD 2.122845
CAD 1.469502
CDF 3014.78969
CHF 0.929776
CLF 0.037101
CLP 1023.776253
CNY 7.619996
CNH 7.625593
COP 4626.455438
CRC 534.824751
CUC 1.052283
CUP 27.885491
CVE 110.024795
CZK 25.350861
DJF 187.538784
DKK 7.458788
DOP 63.520417
DZD 140.573397
EGP 52.274979
ERN 15.78424
ETB 131.306162
FJD 2.388363
FKP 0.830585
GBP 0.832524
GEL 2.883571
GGP 0.830585
GHS 16.7185
GIP 0.830585
GMD 74.71233
GNF 9078.051459
GTQ 8.13025
GYD 220.338958
HKD 8.189863
HNL 26.613518
HRK 7.506205
HTG 138.346648
HUF 411.186809
IDR 16734.714279
ILS 3.929639
IMP 0.830585
INR 88.911049
IQD 1379.588093
IRR 44293.214291
ISK 145.520299
JEP 0.830585
JMD 166.933965
JOD 0.746386
JPY 162.676061
KES 136.007134
KGS 91.02957
KHR 4249.68174
KMF 491.94202
KPW 947.053999
KRW 1471.222726
KWD 0.323672
KYD 0.877684
KZT 523.167824
LAK 23125.51255
LBP 94319.785398
LKR 306.411046
LRD 190.622024
LSL 19.101997
LTL 3.107117
LVL 0.636515
LYD 5.138732
MAD 10.521031
MDL 19.167154
MGA 4930.189594
MKD 61.546561
MMK 3417.773046
MNT 3575.656436
MOP 8.443666
MRU 41.866002
MUR 48.839087
MVR 16.268296
MWK 1826.195708
MXN 21.380416
MYR 4.698412
MZN 67.293799
NAD 19.101997
NGN 1768.455747
NIO 38.755022
NOK 11.613586
NPR 142.154623
NZD 1.792324
OMR 0.40513
PAB 1.053101
PEN 3.996674
PGK 4.239684
PHP 62.126243
PKR 292.773138
PLN 4.342422
PYG 8247.914831
QAR 3.840515
RON 4.977085
RSD 117.020141
RUB 106.281009
RWF 1452.315514
SAR 3.95054
SBD 8.79238
SCR 14.332083
SDG 632.944958
SEK 11.610939
SGD 1.413951
SHP 0.830585
SLE 23.75528
SLL 22065.84631
SOS 601.88026
SRD 37.282669
STD 21780.126598
SVC 9.214882
SYP 2643.891613
SZL 19.091139
THB 36.458458
TJS 11.216013
TMT 3.682989
TND 3.324243
TOP 2.464553
TRY 36.27081
TTD 7.130433
TWD 34.270209
TZS 2791.031424
UAH 43.426878
UGX 3886.514989
USD 1.052283
UYU 45.021709
UZS 13526.469111
VES 48.861031
VND 26751.65603
VUV 124.929112
WST 2.937543
XAF 654.521833
XAG 0.033884
XAU 0.000395
XCD 2.843846
XDR 0.801343
XOF 654.521833
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.991742
ZAR 19.064031
ZMK 9471.810193
ZMW 29.146091
ZWL 338.834589
  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

Long-banned Alsatian finally allowed in French schools
Long-banned Alsatian finally allowed in French schools / Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN - AFP

Long-banned Alsatian finally allowed in French schools

In a school in eastern France, teacher Sandra Cronimus greets her pupils every morning with a lusty "Guede morje!"

Text size:

She is speaking Alsatian, the German dialect spoken widely in Alsace, a wealthy border region that France and Germany have fought over three times since 1870.

Long forbidden, the language that legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger grew up speaking, is now being taught for the first time in French state schools.

"Clap your hands if you like going to school," Cronimus urged her class of three and four year olds, who responded to the roll with "Ich bin do" -- "I'm here" in Alsatian.

The 15 children at the Rainbow nursery school in Brumath, north of Strasbourg, are taught three-quarters of the time in either Alsatian or German, with the rest in French.

Three other schools near the city on the Rhine have also started teaching in Alsatian, a rarity in a country where regional languages have been pushed to the verge of extinction by a centralising state, ever-vigilant of threats to French national identity.

- 'They forbade us from speaking' -

Brumath's mayor Etienne Wolf is delighted by the change.

"When I was a child they forbade us from speaking Alsatian," said the 68-year-old.

"I want to defend Alsatian, which is falling away" particularly among young people, he added. "Often people understand it but don't speak it anymore."

Classroom assistant Corinne Husser is equally overjoyed to be able to speak her first language with the children. "It's great, it's the first time I have been able to work in Alsatian," she said.

While Alsatian is spoken by around half a million people, the dialect in Brumath is not exactly the same as the one spoken by Cronimus, who comes from a village in the northern Vosges.

And it is different again to what is spoken 150 kilometres (93 miles) to the south at the other end of the region. "In Altkirch it's completely different," said the teacher, who switches easily between German, Alsatian and French with the children.

Cronimus got extra training from language experts to take on "this new challenge".

Alsatian is already taught with German in a dozen community schools across Alsace run by the private ABCM network. Several take an immersive approach, with no French at all spoken in class.

- Rapid decline -

Pierre Klein, the president of the Alsace Bilingual Federation, said it was a pity that the state schools did not follow their lead as "they could have fully benefitted from the advantages of immersion".

Even so he welcomed the belated official "recognition of the value of being bilingual given the rapid decline in the use of the dialect... particularly among the under 50s."

However, Wolf said that the big problem with the completely immersive approach "is finding the people capable of teaching it".

Local education officials are already struggling to recruit teachers for bilingual French-German classes, in which one in five children in the Strasbourg area are taught.

Parents too were clearly worried about signing up for an experimental project.

"At the beginning only three pupils were signed up but before others were won over," said Cronimus.

Those that have signed up don't seem to be disappointed.

Celine Babin, 40, admitted that she "hesitated a little" before putting her son Paul into the class. Now, however, she is convinced it will help him with other languages. "And also, Alsatian is part of our culture," she added.

I.Mansoor--DT