French for the Future » Featured Student

Featured Student

November's featured student is Jack Li.

Jack was born in Xianyang, China, and is a grade 12 student at Saint John High School. In school, he has many favourite subjects and one of them is definitely French.

In his pursuit of bilingualism, he competed in the Canadian Parents for French Concours d'Art Oratoire last year to practice his French. Not expecting to win, he surprised himself by placing first at the regional level and then at the provincial, eventually representing his province (New Brunswick) at the National Concours in Ottawa in the Core French category.

Jack (at the far right) with his French camp buddies in Quebec last summer.

Next year at university, he will be taking sciences and French as well. In addition to his academic interests, he enjoys competing on the swim team, badminton and rowing and he also likes to run in his spare time.

Although his success in French has been through hard work, there have been many people along the way who have contributed to it. He would like to thank the teachers and animators at the French camps that he has attended for the past three summers and in particular, his French teacher, Madame Kristoffersen.

Name: Jack Li
Age: 17
Grade: 12
City : Saint John, NB
First language: Mandarin
Favourite music/artist: I have many favorite artists and groups
Favourite food: Pizza
Favourite French expression: Bon appétit!
Favourite way to practice French: Speaking french with Francophones and my classmates
Why he thinks it is important to learn French: As the world is becoming more globalized, it is more crucial than ever to be fluent in at least one alternate language. As Canada's two official languages are English and French, knowing how to speak French is essential to the Canadian identity. In learning a new language, one also learns and better understands a new culture and this is also crucial in becoming a global citizen.
Best experience "en français": My best experience "en français" would have to be meeting and speaking with all of the Quebecers and my peers who I met while at French camp the previous summer.
The coolest Francophone country is, in his opinion: I cannot say that any one Francophone country is the coolest but France and obviously Canada would definately be on my list.
How he will use his French skills in the Future: In the future, I will use French from day to day and on the job.
Where he would like to go: I have a strong desire to visit France. It is a country with a very unique culture and peoples as we have in Canada and I could practice my French!