FIVE students from Northern Caribbean University (NCU) will spend a year in France as English Language assistants in primary and secondary schools.

“This is really a landmark achievement for the department. To have the largest number of students participating in the French Government’s English Language Assistantship Programme. this should motivate many other students to pursue and study French here at NCU,” Carol Fider, chairperson of the English and Modern Languages Department at NCU, said in a release to the media.

The five students going to France this year are Sherica Green, Charlton Jones, Sanjae Sterling, Tavia Peterson and Quline Morris. The announcement was made on March 8, during Language Awareness Week held at the university campus between March 5 and 9.

“I feel as if I stand out because French is not as common as Spanish. The French culture is unique, and I want to be a part of it and to share my Jamaican culture with the French people,” noted Jones, after receiving word of his imminent trip to France.

Language Awareness Week at the university featured a book fair with local book publishers, along with language presentations by presenters, such as Yasus Afari, Anouck Carre (French Embassy), Carlos Valero (Columbian), and Nathaniel Gracia (Haitian). On Wednesday, March 7, keynote presenter Oliver Samuels addressed a packed house and was well received. The week’s activities were conducted under the theme “Let’s colour our world with languages: Jamiekan, English, Français, Español”.

Meanwhile, the Department of English and Modern Languages has been participating in the French Government’s English Language Assistantship Programme since 2003.

Three students – including Kenesha Edwards, a recent graduate of NCU who is pursuing her Bachelor’s in Foreign Languages in France – made up the last group of NCU participants in 2005. This year’s programme participants will leave for France by the end of October.