Creating alliances across nations

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

France is a country that has had a remarkable history. France is now a major power with strong cultural, economic, military, and political influence in Europe and around the world. Of course none of this is new.

Voltaire at the Age of Enlightenment promoted the modern ideals of freedom, democracy and reason and Napoleon Bonaparte changed the face of political Europe through his wars. All this is testimony to the fact that France’s greatest asset is its leadership. And in Sri Lanka, the leadership of Alliance

AF de Kotte Director Alexandre Martinez

Francaise has fallen into the hands of Director Alexandre Martinez who took his post just last year in September. He has also been in India and Africa in a similar capacity.

The theme of Alliance Française de Kotte as stated on its website is: “where language and cultures meet”. Nevertheless, they work towards three essential goals: Offering French classes for all, both in France and abroad, spreading awareness of French and francophone cultures and promoting cultural diversity.

Alliance Française de Kotte and Alliance Française Colombo are two separate entities.

“They are two independent bodies and one is no longer recognized. In fact, AF de Colombo has been denied by the Foundation Alliance Française in Paris the label of Alliance Française since December 31, 2009. It is forbidden to use the Alliance Française’s name and logo as brand at 11, Barnes Place, Colombo 7. In Colombo the only recognized entity by the Foundation Alliance Française and, hence, by the French Embassy in Sri Lanka, is AF de Kotte,” said Martinez

AF de Kotte was founded in January 2010, right after AF Colombo had been delisted. The mission of AF de Kotte is to spread French Culture and French language and develop cultural activities bringing together Sri Lanka and France.

“This is the aim of Alliance Française all over the world and especially in Colombo moreover AF de Kotte aspires to share some fundamental values like freedom of expression, generosity in sharing knowledge, bringing people together. Indeed, if you want to learn a proper language you have to know about the culture of this language. The concept of AF is to learn French surrounded by a French atmosphere where you will be taught about the French culture and civilization. AF de Kotte is exactly following that path.

We recently had our internationally recognized official diplomas in French at AF de Kotte and I could see the results were very good. We feel happy and very proud of our students who did very well and that is exactly because we try not only to give them the linguistic knowledge but make them talk and understand about French Culture.

As a well educated Sri Lankan, you speak English very well, if you want to expand your knowledge and broaden your horizons then you can learn another language, so you can go for another Asiatic

language or an European Language and among those European languages choosing French is a good idea because French and English being close languages are complementary to each other. But despite that they are representing two different worlds. English represents the Anglo Saxon world while French represents the Latin world,” said Martinez

By learning French you can go for other Latin languages like Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. Today it is important for a young Sri Lankan to know foreign languages to find work. Naturally by knowing languages you broaden your possibilities.

“You can seek a job in companies having international ties, think of having a work experience abroad or find yourself in the hotel and tourism industry. Sri Lanka has such an attractive culture; it is such a wonderful country, which attracts a lot of visitors. Every time I am going out on tour I can meet a lot of French tourists.

Offering French classes for all is also one important goal of AF. We try to maintain our fees as low as possible. We promote our language as much as possible providing the best quality education in French language. We try to go closer to the public through our network – we have AF in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Jaffna and also in the Maldives.

So we try to get as closer to the students. By learning French you can also study abroad in Francophone countries. We have through our partner Campus France numerous possibilities to offer in almost every field.”

Last but not least, defending Cultural Diversity is one or the main aspect of the Francophone movement. Even in a globalized world, one should not forget its own culture.

“Naturally, here in Colombo, we are defending the French and the Sri Lankan cultures. AF is almost 60 years old now in Sri Lanka with special way of teaching and interacting with Sri Lankan students.

Concerning our cultural activities in 2013, we will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Franco German Friendship Treaty that was signed in January 1963. Thanks to this treaty and thanks to this friendship between the two countries, which were at war for over a century, have benefited from the reconciliation process and today’s cultural ties and economic development show how successful it has been. In March, we will celebrate the Francophone week in which we will have many activities. And in June July, we will offer a new edition of our annual festival ‘French Spring / Printemps français’. We have to continue to develop and continue to improve our services, the way we are communicating and improve the quality of our cultural activities. We have to be competitive and attractive and stay in touch with the youth of Sri Lanka,” he noted.

Martinez is the man at the helm of Alliance Francaise. Daily News asked him to tell us a little bit about himself. “I am specialized in teaching French, and I developed a career abroad through diverse cultural centers.

I trained myself in cultural management to complement the academic background I had with French linguistics. That is how I became director of AF.

I am in this position since 1998. I’ve worked in Germany, in Africa and in India. My very first assignment abroad was in the Caribbean when I was 24 years old.

I am very much convinced that knowing a foreign language is very important to develop ones mind.

By knowing French you expose yourself to a wonderful and very deep culture,” he enthused with a smile.