Time Magazine New York
"French
Lessons" by Dana Kennedy Monday,
April 07, 2008
(VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER, France) — More
than half a century ago, Grace Kelly began the arduous
process of learning French after she married Prince
Rainier and settled into life in the palace in Monaco
at age 26. Today, the woman reportedly set to become
the next Princess of Monaco, the South African swimmer
Charlene Wittstock, 30, is taking the opposite tack.
Wittstock is already ensconced in an apartment at
the Palace in Monaco near Prince Albert, 50, and has
been studying at the most exclusive — and intensive
— French language school in the world, the Institut
de Francais in Villefranche-sur-Mer — eight
miles west of Monte Carlo on the French Riviera. Wittstock
is the latest in a steady stream of diplomats, world
financial powerbrokers, actresses (Kathy Bates, Kate
Capshaw and Britain's Honor Blackman), athletes and
royalty (Queen Sonja of Norway was a recent student)
to attend the Institut hoping its unusual methods
will help them perfect French.
Housed in a hillside villa overlooking the Mediterranean,
the school was founded in 1969 by Jean Colbert, a
former French aerospace scientist and Columbia professor
and his wife Madeleine. The Colberts based their teaching
principles on a scientific survey of the 1500 words
used most often by French people in cafes, buses and
subways. "We're interested in getting students
to open their mouths and speak French," says
Frédéric Latty, one of the school's
administrators. "We don't spend a lot of time
on vocabulary that you'll never use."
Most students, who range in age from 21 to 75, live
in school-run apartments scattered on the hillside
and walk to the Institute every morning. After being
tested on the first day, they are assigned to beginner,
intermediate, or advanced classes. Between 75 and
80 students enroll in each month-long session. The
course costs 2500 Euros ($3165) during the off-peak
season and 3100 Euros ($3920) during high season.
Although students come from all over the world, including
America, England, Australia, Germany, Switzerland
and Scandinavia, they all have one thing in common:
They're Francophiles.
Rick Posner, 56, a court reporter from San Francisco
who attended the Institute recently, said he fell
in love with the French language when he was a 16-year-old
high school student. "I even thought I'd eventually
become a French teacher," he said. "But
then life took over and my French went on the back
burner. I lost a lot of it. I always regretted it."
When he came to the Institute recently, Posner said
he was realizing a lifelong dream. "I felt I
was finally living out my high school fantasy,"
he said. "And when I left the school, I was really
speaking French." No one is exempt from classes
that begin every day at 9 a.m. and do not end until
4:45 p.m., five days a week for a month. Students
are fined one euro if the teachers them speaking any
language other than French. Even beginners have to
deliver an oral report in French.
"We get many people who are used to being leaders
in their field," says Jean Segarra, the school's
principal teacher who has been there for more than
25 years. "Then suddenly they are in a situation
where they are not in control and are in the same
boat as everyone else. It can be a humbling experience."
Students spend 45 minutes a day in a language laboratory
or "chambre de torture." But the tougher
sessions are made more palatable by afternoon "séance
pratiques" during which, for example, students
learn the history of various French cheeses and wine
or how to make chocolate crepes — and partake
of what they've just learned at the end. For many,
the school is so addictive (and the perfection of
French so tantalizingly out of reach) — that
they return over and over again. The record is held
by a San Antonio couple, Margie and Charles Kilpatrick,
who have taken the Institute's course 11 times. A
number of wealthier American alumni have even bought
homes in Villefranche. As for Wittstock, whose engagement
to Prince Albert is said to be imminent, she is making
rapid progress.
"She has the ear," Latty said simply. "It's
just a matter of time." Nadia Lacoste, who served
as the spokeswoman for Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier
for almost 50 years, said the princess, in contrast,
struggled with her second language.
"She was not truly comfortable speaking French
for many years," said Lacoste, who now lives
in Paris. "When they started getting older, Albert
and Caroline would correct her all the time. She never
lost her American accent but many people found it
charming."
