For the second year running, a French student on the Pietermaritzburg campus has won the creative writing competition organised by the French Embassy in Pretoria.
Victorious in the category “French major university student”, Ms Amy Stimson’s prize was an all-expenses-paid 11-day stay in Paris.
Stimson, who recently returned from the experience, said she especially enjoyed visiting the monuments as well as mingling with French-speaking people in cafés, bookshops and bakeries. ‘My stay in Paris has improved my level of proficiency and given me an eternal love for the language.’
UKZN’s French Discipline is particularly proud of Stimson’s achievement. French Lecturer Ms Ghyslaine Dye said the courses at UKZN were geared towards the autonomous use of French enabling students to compare favourably with their colleagues at other South African universities.
Professor Bernard De Meyer, who co-ordinates third year French studies, said: ‘We introduce current issues mainly from France and Francophone Africa, and encourage critical thinking in the language. Our students are particularly well equipped to face the multilingual world and its challenges and have an added advantage when it comes to job opportunities, especially with French being a main language of communication in Africa.’
Ms Stimson plans to register for an honours degree in French next year.