French at Wesleyan
French is spoken by more than 220 million people worldwide and is the only language other than English spoken on five continents, from Senegal to New Caledonia, from Quebec to Louisiana, from Belgium to Guadeloupe. Moreover, French is also one of the official languages of the United Nations, UNESCO, NATO, the International Red Cross, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), les Jeux Olympiques, la Féderation Internationale de Football Association, and many other international organizations.
Wesleyan’s French faculty offer a diverse and multidisciplinary curriculum that opens a window onto the literatures, ideas, and cultures of the French-speaking world, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Our courses foster the linguistic proficiency and intercultural awareness necessary for living, studying, and working successfully in a French-speaking environment, in the U.S. or abroad. Students who study French will develop critical self-awareness by becoming more adept at understanding other points of view and will acquire the resources needed to develop their own creative and critical capacities and to succeed in future academic and professional endeavors. French majors and minors at Wesleyan have combined their studies with other majors including Neuroscience, History, Computer Science, Music, English, College of Letters, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Psychology. Recent graduates have gone on to pursue studies and careers in law, education, the humanities, business, medicine, international relations, finance, music, and fine arts, among other fields.
