Media

OTTAWA, October 12, 2011  —  The University of Ottawa will celebrate the 5th anniversary of its French Immersion Studies option on October 13 in the Desmarais Building. The University community is invited to attend the celebration, which includes a round table forum where our French immersion students and professors will discuss the theme New generation of students leaning toward French-langugage learning.

Canadians seem to think bilingualism is important: indeed, 77% of them ostensibly recognize the importance of preserving both official languages, and 90% believe that learning more than one language leads to success in the global economy (Centre for Research and Information on Canada). Still, though nearly half of Canadian Francophones are bilingual, only 9% of Anglophones are.

This might be about to change. As of 2001, 17% of Anglophone youths aged 15 to 19 were bilingual (Statistics Canada, 2001 Census). The numbers are set to go even higher. Forty years since the adoption of the Official Languages Act, instruction in French as a second-language has taken root at the primary level across Canada; and now, more and more students are extending their French-language acquisition beyond high school and into the postsecondary setting.

WHAT: 5th anniversary of uOttawa’s French Immersion Studies and a round table
WHEN: Thursday, October 13, 3 p.m.
WHERE: Desmarais Building, Room 4101 (55 Laurier Ave. East, Ottawa)*
*Free parking in the Desmarais garage (entrance on Nicholas Street)

The University of Ottawa's French Immersion Studies option is one of many now springing up in colleges and universities around the country to serve bilingually minded students. It has proven an incredible success so far, receiving nearly 9,000 applications from across Canada and around the world in just five years.

The University is uniquely positioned to offer a truly bilingual experience to its students. With its strong French-language tradition, the uOttawa campus is right across the river from the province of Quebec and in the very heart of the national capital, where bilingualism is the norm among federal public servants. That mindset is catching on among students as well:

Lindsay Little, a third-year philosophy student in French Immersion, says, "The moments that really make my [French Immersion] degree worth it are not just the academic moments, [but] being able to joke with people, to get to know them, and to get to see where they're coming from and why they are the way they are, because of the other language."

Baktash Waseil, a French Immersion student whose family immigrated from Afghanistan in 2005 and who began learning both of Canada's languages in Grade 9, says, "The national anthem is in both languages. Why not learn them?"

Jonathan Yantzi, who comes from Burlington, Ontario, and is in his fourth year of political science, says, "All I know is that studying in French has opened me to another world of experiences in terms of the reading I've been able to do, the culture I've been able to explore, [and] the friends I've been able to make."