MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Non-French speakers sitting in the president’s boardroom at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) on October 26 would have missed the quality of the academic discourse as doctoral student Desrine Bogle defended her thesis in the language which she has grown to love and appreciate.

However, her presentation was not lost on the five judges — three from France and one from Martinique who were videoconferencing from their respective countries, and Haitian-born senior lecturer of French at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Marie-José N’Zengou-Tayo.

After more than three hours of listening to her presentation and quizzing her on different aspects of it, the jury unanimously awarded her “mention très honorable avec les félicitations du jury”, which loosely translates to highest honours.

That formal nod of approval marked the end of a successful five-year quest for a PhD in translation studies from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 in Paris, France.

Bogle, who took over from Dr Carol Fider as Chair of the Department of Humanities at NCU in August, also holds a Master of Philosophy in translation studies from the Paris university, a Master of Arts specialising in translation from the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane in Martinique, and a Bachelor of Arts in French from UWI. In addition to mastering English and being fluent in French, Dr Bogle is proficient at Spanish and she has interest in other languages, including German, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.

Ironically, it was with reluctance that her relationship with the French language began, while she was an undergraduate student at the UWI.

“I was always interested in words from I was a child. I wanted to be a translator and to work at the UN (United Nations). At UWI I had to do two languages and only French and Spanish were offered at the time. I absolutely hated French,” she told the Jamaica Observer Central.

With the belief that one should spend time in a country where the language of study is spoken, she went on a one-year exchange programme to Martinique that changed her attitude towards French.

Upon her return to Jamaica, she changed her major from Spanish to French and graduated with honours despite not having known a word of French before the start of formal study. She was awarded the Gertrud Buscher prize for being the most outstanding student in French on the Mona campus.

She later returned to Martinique where she lived and worked for six years. During that time, she completed her Maîtrise (equivalent of an MA) in English, majoring in translation and minoring in neurolinguistics.

“I developed a fascination with Francophone Caribbean culture that would mark the start of a research journey,” she said.

The PhD, however, really tested her mettle as an academic as it was not the level of French to which she was accustomed.

“The French education system is different. The French way of thinking is different. The level of French needed was outside the realm of what I knew,” she said.

Bogle said that it was prayer that brought her through a particular period of uncertainty during which she thought of discontinuing. Though describing herself as self-motivated, she had to consciously take a decision to give up some of her commitments in order to give the level of devotion required for her studies. The mother of one took study leave in the final year of the programme, resigned as a chairman of the Porus Primary School board and did not seek re-election as president of the Jamaica Association of French Teachers (JAFT).

Her dissertation, a 300-page volume entitled Traduire la culture caribéenne : analyse comparative des proverbes créoles de la Caraïbe francophone et de leurs équivalents dans la Caraïbe Anglophone, was a comparative analysis of Creole proverbs in the French and English-speaking Caribbean. It analyses published translations of proverbs in literary works and proposes the theories of Creole intraculturality and intracultural translation, the latter being her proposed model for translating Francophone Caribbean culture using Anglophone Caribbean equivalents.

The judges, she said, commended her for her competency in speaking French and for the number of issues explored in her research.

“Dr Raphaël Confiant (one of the judges) said that he wished all French speakers spoke English the way I speak French. They said that I was brave to take on that topic, raised questions and challenged the norm,” said Bogle.

The impact of her work will be felt in different spheres as she plans to publish possibly more than one book on the subject, present at various conferences, and create a body of work that will be available for wide use.

Explaining the reason for her chosen topic, Bogle — who was the only student in Jamaica over the course of the programme doing a doctorate with the Paris university, and the only one who defended her thesis by videoconferencing — said that there are many things which unite countries in the Caribbean region and proverbs are one way in which the similarities are shown.

“As Caribbean people there are many things that unite us, but we focus on the things that separate us,” she said.

Dr Bogle began lecturing at NCU in 2003 and has taught French, English, Spanish, and English as a Second Language. She coordinated the French programme from 2007 to the time she went on study leave in 2011.

Among those who travelled to Mandeville for the thesis defence in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy were Bogle’s mother, sister and brother-in-law; friends, and colleagues, including past JAFT presidents Dr Jean Small and Mylene Ferriera.