“La Francophonie” kicked off on 10 March 2018 to celebrate the French language and Francophone culture festival. The Alliance Française and French Embassy, who organise this rich, cultural diverse 2 week festivities, partnered with Pretoria Boys High school to host the opening day. Numerous Francophone countries showcased their traditional food and beverages to the thousands of visitors who attend the event.

A group of France Alumni members met each other at the French stand to enjoy the morning together. As France Alumni members (students who have previously studied in France), we were delighted to realise that we all returned to South Africa with a workable to excellent level of French! This unique competence boosted our careers and allow us to communicate with other Francophones living in South Africa. We exchanged memories on our experiences as students in France and networked to identify future professional and academic opportunities in connection with France.

The general knowledge of our France Alumni were tested with a quick quiz, in French, on France and the French Higher Education system. A lucky draw of the quiz sheets left Lebogang Moloisane as the winner of a 10 hour private French language course at the Alliance Française. While leaving for France with a B1 level in French, she returned to South Africa with a wonderful B2 level. She will therefore be able to join the C1 preparation, conversation class or work at her own pace during private lessons.

The France Alumni did not forget about France when they left the French territories coming back to South Africa. Christof van der Merwe (Master in Industrial Design and Innovation, Strate Collège, France, 2013) continued to work for the French rail company, Alstom, where he did his Masters 2 internship in France. Trisha Naidoo (Global Executive MBA, INSEAD, France, 2017) plans to use her business knowledge gained at INSEAD to create a start-up company in connection with France. Lebogang Moloisane (Master in Materials for Nuclear Energy, Grenoble INP, France, 2017) and Khangelani Mbekela (M1 in International Management, IAE Toulouse School of Management, France, 2016) just returned from France and are looking for employment opportunities. Dr Jeanne van Dyk works as a French-English Translator/Interpreter for the PAN-Africa Parliament and André van den Berg (Masters in Informatics, Institut polytechnique de Grenoble, France, 2014) continues to improve his French language skills at the Alliance Française of Pretoria in the C1 conversation class. Sheila Bendile will soon leave for France again to continue with her second year PhD at the University of Grenoble Alpes in the field of Geography. Narine van den Berg (Masters in Neurobiology, University Joseph Fourier, France, 2013) currently works for the French Embassy as the University cooperation officer of the Campus France office.

The France Alumni will regroup for other France Alumni networking events and we hope to meet and exchange with even more of its members in the future.