“Une nation, sous Dieu, avec liberté et justice pour tous.” (One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.)

With these words from the Pledge of Allegiance, the fifth grade French immersion students took their seat and started gobbling waffles. The meeting of the youngsters and elders of French had officially begun.

Thursday morning before school, 10 boys and girls from the North Lewis French Immersion fifth grade class ate breakfast, mixed and mingled with the group of Victor’s regulars known as La Table Francaise (the French Table).

After brief personal introductions, “Bonjour, je m’appelle Chloe, je suis en cinquième année à l’école élémentaire North Lewis,” (Good morning, my name is Chloe, I’m in fifth grade at North Lewis Elementary…)  the president of the French Table, Preston Guillotte, spoke animatedly and with much interest to the students, asking each one questions about their families, their backgrounds and their future plans. There were shy giggles, stops and starts, even a math problem worked out in perfect French. 

French Immersion teacher Nicolas Launay is proud of his students, and has every right to be. “These kids have passed the Etude certification, which is impressive for just being in fifth grade. Their French skills will carry them far,” said Launay. “They like learning and discovering a different language, a different culture. Plus, it makes their grandparents so tickled to hear them speak French.”

Students in attendance Thursday morning were: Adalyn Planchard, SaNiyah Chatman, Chloe Jones, Hunter Chesson, Jayden Perez, Gwyneth Killgore, Isabella Penick, Ian Barras, Liam Viator and Lillia Penick.

The French Immersion program in the Iberia Parish School System, which will celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2022, is conducted from kindergarten to eighth grade, at North Lewis Elementary and Belle Place Middle School. The program is open to any interested kindergarten-age student throughout the parish, although parents may have to make transportation arrangements if the family lives outside of the district of North Lewis.

All subjects throughout the school day are taught in French. “They start them pretty quickly with all-French,” said Ebrar Reaux, President of Les Amis de l’Immersion Française, the parent support group for French immersion. “The first two or three weeks in kindergarten, the teacher says something in French, then in English. After that, they are immersed.”

At the next table sit the Cajun French speakers of La Table Francaise. The group meets twice a week, once virtually on Zoom every Monday morning at 9 a.m., and in person at Victor’s, Thursday mornings at 8:30 a.m. 

Rogers Romero, who conducts the Monday Zoom meeting, says the group has interest from all over the country, even the world. “We get a chance to hear all kinds of dialects. There are several people who participate from France, from Nova Scotia, around the U.S: Chicago, Boston, Arizona, not just locals,” he said. 

Members of the Table Francaise group told stories from years ago, when the French language was not allowed to be spoken in school. Delbert Soileau related how if the students then would use the few words of French picked up from parents at home, they would be punished. 

That caused the language to be nearly lost to their generation, because parents and grandparents purposely did not teach the children French for fear of repercussion. Thankfully, with students involved in the French Immersion program, that situation has been turned around, and that makes the group excited for the future of the language. 

The group invites anyone who would like to brush up their French to join them, Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. at Victor’s. The conversation promises to be lively, and the atmosphere encouraging. There is even a grammar lesson each meeting, so as to keep la tête et la langue (the head and the tongue)  from getting rusty.