Yedida Valenzuela
About
French Yedida enthusiastically studied French language this summer in Seattle at the Alliance Francaise, University of Washington and North Seattle College. She is proud to add French to her repertoire of romance languages. Yedida’s curiosity in French and its use in Canada was piqued as she contemplated her dream of opening a multi-lingual school in Seattle. The growth in bilingualism according to Canada’s census is credited with more and more Québecers being able to converse in both French and English, affording Québecers unique work and travel opportunities. Yedida’s interest in bilingual education includes both the scientifically supported reports of increased cognitive skills and increased global awareness.
This summer she was able to access both the French language and francophone cultures outside of France thanks to her coursework through the FLAS. She greatly benefitted not only from learning the grammar, but also from her instructors’ shared enthusiasm for the various cultures and dialects of francophone populations, Québec being one of them. Instructors ensured students understood both the complexity and the benefits of being a bilingual state as they guided the students through the multitude of francophone countries. Yedida’s understanding of France’s dialectical variations grew to include not only Canada but Africa, French Polynesia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. Like Québec, many of these countries have both the advantage and burden of incorporating French – among other languages – to their list of official languages. This duality, Yedida is evermore convinced, is a worthy pursuit capable of bridging cultural gaps.
Yedida’s most immediate goal is to open a bilingual school. She has worked in bilingual education for years and is very inspired to branch off and found one herself. She has been researching how to create a Go Fund Me or Kickstarter account for the past few months in order to gain capital to open the school. Ideally, she would incorporate English, Italian and French, however she thinks she should gain a bit more French fluency beforehand. This means she’s planning for an eventual visit to Québec (spring 2015 or summer 2015) to really put her language skills to use, take a class or two and visit a bilingual school.
Yedida plans to continue her studies in French with the hopes of becoming fluent. Thanks to her experience with the FLAS she is more motivated than ever to open her full immersion language institute. Through full immersion she hopes to plant the seeds of curiosity in young children, motivating them to know the world. At the language institute she hopes to offer French, Italian and Spanish coupled with English, just as so many schools do in Québec. She continues to strive to learn, travel and know more. Yedida additionally hopes one day to become a foreign service officer and use her language skills in an official capacity.