Alliance Francaise Director explores virtual spaces to connect city folks with French language, cultureMaking French connection online

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

On September 1 when 34-year-old Ophélie Belin landed in City Beautiful to assume charge as director of Alliance Francaise, she was armed with the first-hand experience of surviving through adversities. The Nepal earthquake may have ‘shaken’ her, but the pandemic has been somewhat ‘stirring’. While the enrolment figure of the French institute stood at 101 at the start of the pandemic in the city, it has now risen to 388. The challenge at hand is to explore the realms of virtual spaces to connect city folks with French language and culture. The only glitch is the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, 500-600 students were enrolled in classes at the institute.

At the lawns of the institute, Ophélie shares: “In September session, we have enrolled 388 students for online classes. The numbers are picking up. In March, we had 101 students and 281 in June.” The institute, she says, has been organising online classrooms on Zoom and to keep up with the quality of education, the number of students has been downsized a wee bit. “We would take about 20 or 22 students in physical classrooms, but it is difficult to teach so many students online and so we aren’t taking in more than 17 students. To us, quality of education is paramount,” she says.

The cultural events of the institute, too, have shifted online. It had recently organised cooking workshop with Tiline (Tiphaine and Pauline, our native French teachers) on Instagram. The institute will soon be organising an online media art festival called Deconfine, with artistes, curators and researchers from France and South Asia.

“It is a frustrating situation, especially when online education is our only survival tool and there’s no physical contact with either students or teachers. I haven’t met most of my staff and know them only through online meetings,” says Ophélie.

Though new to the city, Ophélie stands acquainted with its architectural legacy and fondly mentions its French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier. “In fact, Alliance Française’s library was renovated just before the lockdown and it, too, was inspired by Corbusier’s architecture, but we haven’t had a visitor because of the pandemic.”

Before joining Alliance Française, Chandigarh, Ophélie served as director of Alliance Française of Nosy Be in Madagascar and director of Alliance française of Kathmandu in Nepal. “I was there from 2013 to 2015 and experienced the earthquake too. I worked with relief volunteers there. It was a shaking experience, now with the pandemic, it’s a stirring one. I hope I’ll survive this too,” she laughs.