Sitting down with an old laureate, Jacob.

Let’s hear back from one of our old laureates: Jacob Hamburger! Back up: Apart from being the leading French language and cultural center of Chicago, for the last 35 years, the Alliance Française has been proud to send outstanding students to France each year under the Alliance Française de Chicago McCormick Award for Excellence Scholarship Program.

French Revolution Collection at the Newberry Library – and a Chance to Hone your Translation Skills!

Did you know that a piece of French history sits just steps from the Alliance? Since the early 1960’s, our neighbor, The Newberry Library, has been home to a massive collection of over 38,000 pamphlets published during the French Revolution era. That amounts to over half a million pages! The collection contains everything from issues of well-known Parisian periodicals to more provincial publications, and even court proceedings and music.

Women Warriors: A Dahomey story

Who run the world? Girls! Who run the world? Girls! As we continue exploring other francophone countries and cultures, it’s hard not to pay respects to the all women warrior military group that once protected the Kingdom of Dahomey which resided in present day Benin - a country now a part of La Francophonie. Their name? The N’Nonmiton.

Grammar with Elodie — intonation and vowels

Bonjour tout le monde! Elodie Kaplan, our wonderful co-director of the learning center sits down with us and gives us grammar and pronunciation tips when learning French. In this series of the Mais Oui! Podcast, get to know her and improve your French!

"Ça va ?" : A conversation

Salut tout le monde, ça va? Have you ever noticed how much francophones use the phrase ça va? Yeah, a lot. Like a lot, a lot. It feels like you and I could have an entire conversation using different variations of ça va! Let’s highlight ways to use this simple phrase to expand our vocabulary and converse more naturally. I took the liberty of coming up with a little made-up conversation between two imaginary friends to start us off on our ça va journey. On y va !

Patricia's must see DVD's

Patricia Florio is a member of the Alliance Française and a valued patron of the Brown library. One of the things she loves most about the Brown Library is the large DVD collection. Get to know her favorites and read her recommendations!

Reporting from the treetops of Madagascar

So here we are, dear reader… on a new adventure. Why would we stop at La Martinique when another Francophone pocket of the world calls. Let’s trade shipwrecks and volcanoes for island deserts, tropical rain forests and big discoveries and head to Madagascar!

Mais Oui! Podcast - Maël's Recommendation (en français)

The Mais Oui! Podcast from the Alliance Française de Chicago continues! Today- episode 5 of the Staff Recommendation series. We talk to Maël Ginsburger (Culture and Administration intern), as he gives us his library recommendations! Stay tuned…

Mais Oui! Podcast - Marie's Recommendation (en français)

The Mais Oui! Podcast from the Alliance Française de Chicago continues! Today- episode 3 of the Staff Recommendation series. We talk to Marie Lhuillery-Weber (brand specialist), as she gives us her library recommendations! Stay tuned…

Mais Oui! Podcast - Zoe's Recommendation

The Mais Oui! Podcast from the Alliance Française de Chicago continues! Today- episode 4 of the Staff Recommendation series. We talk to Zoe Moore (cultural intern) before her internship is up, as she gives us her library recommendations! Stay tuned…