International Francophonie Day is celebrated on 20 March every year and this year was special as the French Embassy in Port-of-Spain in conjunction with the High Commission of Canada and the Consular Representations of Lebanon, Morocco and Belgium hosted the annual observance on Wednesday 22 March at the residence of the French Ambassador, His Excellency Didier Chabert.
It was an opportunity to honour successful candidates of the DELF (Diplôme d’Etudes en Langue Française) and DALF (Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Française) examinations. These qualifications awarded by the French Ministry of Education certify the competency of candidates from outside France in the French language. These certificates are valid for life.
This reception was a chance for the francophone & francophile community to mingle after many years of absence.
In this photo, behold two generations of French lovers and more than 100 years of accumulated interpreting experience.
What a privilege it was to stand between two of my megastar mentors who are living legends❣
To the left of me, Dr. Michael Lilla, Founder of Lingua Interpreting and possibly le Doyen des Interprètes, in #trinidadandtobago 🇹🇹
I’ve had the distinct pleasure of sharing the interpreting booth with this phenomenal linguist for many years.
Irony of ironies, he is a high school buddy of my dad. Imagine working with your dad’s contemporary😄
To the right of me, Eric Maitrejean, a man who wears many hats!
We met when he was my CXC French Examiner back in 1992‼️ Then A’Level Examiner in 1994. Then French lecturer at UWI 1996-1999. Then Interpreting lecturer 2006-2007. Then I graduated to becoming his interpreting 🎧 booth buddy 😎
In between, this Frenchie who is now “Trini to de bone”, inspired me to pursue my passion for French.
I have nothing but respect and admiration for my elders in the profession.
They paved the pathway for the rest of us in this photo📸
To the far left of me, my high school buddy Arnold A.K. Mc Letchie who charted the course for Trinis studying at the University in Martinique.
Over the last 15+ years he has passed on his passion for French to hundreds of highschool students at a prestigious school in Port-of-Spain.
To the far right of me, Kyana Le Maître and I go way back to our sejour en Guadeloupe before we both returned home to T&T where we work from time to time together, mostly in the virtual booth🙂
This felt like a grand family reunion 🫂
It was a demonstration of language bridging barriers and bringing people together around a common passion.
Vive la francophonie❣
Vive le français❣
A la prochaine 😉
#languagelover #languagematters #language #languageskills #multilingue #multilingualism #multilingual #french #frenchlanguage #frenchinterpreters
