Fashion of the Belle Époque

The Belle Époque period lasted from 1871 to 1914, the end of the Franco-Prussian war to the beginning of WWI. It is also known as the Edwardian era and the Gilded age.

Verlan your French! How can your French sound more like a native speaker?

If you have ever learned a second language you probably have had the experience realizing that the language you are working so hard to learn might be very different from the way that language is actually spoken.

La francophonie behind the scenes

During the entire month of March, we at the Alliance Française de Chicago have hosted a variety of events as part of our Festival de Francophonie. By the end of the month you’ll have had the opportunity to learn about Russian and French cultures influencing each other, hear about books from around the world, eat amazing food, and see films that explore a variety of Francophonie experiences.

Student Spotlight: Lisa Kinney

What was it about the Alliance Française that first interested you? I was interested in the Alliance Française because of its reputation as being one of the best French language schools in the world.

Finding Love at the Alliance Française

By Monica Fredette (With input from Yves Fredette) I met the love of my life on March 10, 2007 at Le Festival de la Francophonie at Chicago’s Alliance Française. It all started with a look at current events in a “Time Out Chicago” magazine while awaiting my hairdresser, Parto Nadiri.

The romance between French and English

No language is a completely static thing. In a way, a language breathes and grows, similar to a living organism. Over time, words are gained and words are lost. [caption id=“attachment_3328” align=“alignright” width=“339”] A language tree of Proto-Indo-European language relationships.

Learning a new language makes you a better person

Imagine that you are on the train. You’re sitting down and trying to read an Alliance Française blog post on your phone but you can’t help but get distracted by those around you.

Dolphins become bilingual in their sleep. What does that mean for us humans?

At the Planète Sauvage in Port-Saint-Père, France in 2011 it was observed that captive dolphins were talking in their sleep. While sleep-talking in general can be rather alarming, what made this even stranger was that they weren’t speaking the same dolphin language they speak during their waking hours.

Read our interview with Sophie Loubière!

[caption id=“attachment*3110” align=“alignleft” width=“231”] _Sophie Loubière*[/caption] Sophie Loubière is a French journalist and writer who already published more than ten novels. She is urrently working on a new one, B__loody Coffee and this one will be set in Chicago!

Fun facts about Tales of Hoffmann

Jaques Offenbach composed the opera The Tales of Hoffmann in the late 1870s. Before dying he apparently had a premonition that he would not survive to see his opera performed… He ended up being right as he died only four months before the opera was performed for the first time!