Journalists awarded certificates for French

The constant globalisation of our world requires use flexibility and social cultural understanding. Journalists need this even more in order to ably carry out their duties. This is why a group of journalists celebrated their certification for completing A1 course in learning French as a foreign language. 

The 15 media practitioners who graduated on January 15, came from various media houses were sponsored by the French Embassy and took lessons from Alliance Francaise Kampala.  According to Patrice Gilles, the director of Alliance Francaise Kampala, the course will help journalists expand their horizon, ease their covering of issues related to Francophone countries and enhance their resumes among other things.

According to Juliet Justine Rukundo, one of the beneficiaries and an editor at Daily Monitor, this was a great opportunity for her to get more active in the Francophone space of journalism and daily life.

“This level has equipped me with a better vocabulary and connected me to a network of French speaking communities which will enable me to sail the Francophone space better,” Rukundo says. 

“Previously, the sum total of my French vocabulary consisted of only greetings.  This made it hard for me whenever I travelled to Francophone countries. I also missed covering some interesting Francophone events because of  language barrier,” she says.

According to Gilles, a journalist living in Uganda who needs to report on issues from neighbouring countries such as the DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and in a global village, will need to study French.

Shorter courses 
Unlike the long term French lessons taught in local schools, Alliance Francaise, Kampala is able to teach the language in a shorter period of time.

According to Karim Cwinya’ay, a teacher at the institution, Alliance Francaise  Kampala teaches French basing on four competences; listening, reading, writing and speaking.

“The methodology at Alliance Francaise is completely different from that of secondary schools. We learn faster because we are just focused on these four objectives. The methodology is for someone to express themselves,” Cwinya’ay said. In the certified A1 category at the institution, a total of 62 learners (32 journalists and 30 tour guides) benefitted from the scholarship.

Challenges
Losange says like other institutions, Alliance Francaise had to change its form of instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“We had to find ways to keep the students excited about learning French, especially when we moved most of the classes online. We also had to retrain our teachers, create new routines and new ways of teaching,” she shares.  

Learning French
According to Thomas Mbusa Letakamba, a director at Bonjour Kampala FM and a teacher at Alliance Francaise, they have been learning how to teach general French but for the journalists, they had to learn how to teach it for specific purposes in terms of their work.

“The students were very motivated so it was easier to work with them. Since the Democratic Republic of Congo will be joining the EAC, it will be a perfect opportunity to do business and interact with them easily if one knows some French,” Letakamba said.

Learning a language takes dedication and aggressiveness.  

Letakamba says learning a language takes dedication and aggressiveness he suggests visiting some websites that can help with practice, French podcasts such as Radio France Internationale, watching TV5 Monde and talking to friends who can speak French among other French comprehension techniques. 

French in Uganda
Alliance Francaise opened up in 1954. It is a French language centre promoting the culture and the diversity of the French cultures.

“French teaching at Alliance Francaise targets children from the ages of four to any other age as long as you want to learn the language,” says Gilles. He says apart from the obvious ability to communicate with others, learning a new language is good for the memory and has been proven to fight against aging. 

“When I was still in Australia before coming to Uganda, many  elderly people undertook the learning of a new language, French in particular, which is not an easy language, to maintain their cerebral capacity,” he says.
He adds that now that since the East African Community has adopted French as one of the official languages, it is important for Ugandans to learn it.

“Journalists move to different countries, Francophone, Anglophone among other countries.  Acquiring that knowledge will help them in their profession with ability to communicate with colleagues, and get help with ease,” Cwinya’ay says.

How it works
The certificates awarded at Alliance Francaise are valid for life but people are always advised to continue practising to improve their vocabulary.
There are six certificates from course A1 to course C2.
A1-A2 for beginners,  B1-B2 intermediate and C1-C2 are for advents.

If you want to study a Master’s programme abroad, you require a B2. In some cases depending on the quality of your application, you could be accepted with a B1 while a B2 is also required for someone to teach French.

Most international organisations, especially the UN require a B2.
With a general A1, one is able to introduce themselves, talk about what they like and give directions, book at a restaurant and hold a simple conversation.

With a specified A1, one learns how to introduce themselves, what one likes and what one does not like and also, to continue to focus on their activities such as an interviewing a subject in French, knowing about technical expressions in French that can help them in speaking , among others.

French vocabulary consisted of only greetings but now I can  ably communicate beyond that.  This would make it hard for me whenever I travelled to Francophone countries. I also missed covering some Francophone interesting events because of the language barrier,” she says.

According to Gilles, a journalist living in Uganda and needs to report on issues from neighbouring countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and in a global village, will need to study French.

Shorter courses 
Unlike the long term French lessons taught in local schools, Alliance Francaise is able to teach the language in a shorter period of time.

According to Karim Cwinya’ay, a professor at the institution, Alliance Francaise teaches French basing on four competences; listening, reading and understanding, writing, and speaking.

“The methodology at Alliance Francaise is completely different from that of secondary schools. We learn faster because we are just focused on these four objectives. The methodology is for someone to express themselves,” Cwinya’ay said.

In the certified A1 category at the institution, a total of 62 learners (32 journalists and 30 tour guides) benefitted from the scholarship.

The future
“We started a new programme for 42 communication officers at the start of December and we are planning to train 22 members from UTB and we were also able to get a funding for 10 from Mbarara Hospital so they are able to work with professionals in medical institutions from French speaking countries,”Magly Losange, the head of courses at Alliance Francaise says. 

As a reward the French embassy will select the best performing journalists to work with Radio France Internationale.

Challenges
Losange says like other institutions, Alliance Francaise had to change its form of instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We had to find ways to keep the students excited about learning French especially when we moved most of the classes online. We also had to retrain our teachers, create new routines and new ways of teaching,” she shares.  

Learning French
According to Thomas Mbusa Letakamba, a director at Bonjour Kampala FM and a professor at Alliance Francaise, they have been learning how to teach general French but for the journalists, they had to learn how to teach it for specific purposes in terms of their work.

“The students were very motivated so it was easier to work with them. Since the Democratic Republic of Congo will be joining the EAC, it will be a perfect opportunity to do business and interact with them easily if one knows some French,” Letakamba said.

Letakamba notes that learning a language takes dedication and aggressiveness he suggests visiting a few websites that can help with practice, French podcasts such as Radio France Internationale, watching TV5 Monde and talking to friends who can speak French among other French learning techniques. 

French in Uganda
Alliance Francaise opened up in 1954, af is a French language centre promoting the culture and the diversity of the French cultures.

“French teaching at Alliance Francaise targets children from the ages of four to any other age as long as you want to learn the language,” says Gille. He says apart from the obvious ability to communicate with others, learning a new language is good for the memory and has been proven to fight against aging. 

“When I was still in Australia before coming to Uganda, lots of elderly people undertook the learning of a new language, French in particular, which is not an easy language, to maintain their cerebral capacity,” he says.
He adds that now that the East African Community has adopted French as one of the official languages, it is important for Ugandans to learn it.

“Journalists move to different countries, Francophone, Anglophone among other countries. Acquiring that knowledge will help them in their profession in ability to communicate with colleagues, and get basic help with ease,” Cwinya’ay says.

V-Class Learning Management System has an examination integrity software that helps them assess and supervise students from wherever they are.

“We struck a partnership with Airtel Uganda to get data we provide to all our students for free. This is an offer to all students and lecturers at Victoria University for the next eight months. This was the only way we had to chip in to ensure continuity of learning by supporting parents and those students who pay for themselves. All they have to do is to get the device and we provide the data,” he says.

According to Muganga, these unprecedented times call for universities to give back on what they have made over time to students so that they build human capital and avoid dropouts.

Mpezamihigo shares that in June KIU developed enough capacity to deliver online learning and now has the digital platforms and access systems. He says lectures are going on online and students are virtually defending their dissertations and theses virtually.

“Our experience with online learning has been a good one much as there are challenges of connectivity and delayed access but these are not hampering the delivery. Management has also not had physical meetings as we have a virtual senate,” he reveals.

Bursaries and fees cuts
In the wake of the pandemic, Victoria University announced full scholarships for five disadvantaged Ugandans who joined this year’s academic intake thbegan on March 1.

Among the beneficiaries of the scholarships was David Siya, a traffic police officer attached to the Central Police Station, Sylvester Lulenzi a second-hand clothes vendor from Jinja, Moses Ssemitego from Kalungu all won fully paid scholarships. The other two slots were reserved for girls and went to Feddy Akello and Swabrah Mbawomye.

In February 2021, the institution also slashed tuition fees to help ease financial pressure on students and their families sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The 50 per cent reduction was made to cater for the new entrants.

Muganga says all these initiatives will be kept in place for the next three years because they do not know when the pandemic will end.

“We shall even give more bursaries where possible for students to come to school in a bid to limit dropouts. I encourage other institutions to move beyond the profits and look at the future,” he urges.