On multiple sites, including Babel and Rosetta Stone, they say that about 320 million people can fluently speak French. The French club teaches many different subjects from foods and cuisines to cultural traditions, with both Erin Schneider and Brianna Ovalles having multiple experiences in most of the things they teach.

The French Club goals include introducing students to countries all around the world that utilize French culture and traditions. They normally take about two meetings to talk about one country. One of the more recent meetings was about Morocco, a country on the northwestern corner of Africa and is about the size of California.

“Our biggest goal is to celebrate French-speaking culture all around the world, not just French culture,” Schneider said.
At the meeting, one of the members brought tea and pastries that they had made, which was a type of mint tea from their country that had a traditional way of being made, along with a pastry made with nuts that went very well with the tea.

“So really, this club is just deep in ties with the French as a whole,” freshman Miranda Caldwell said. “But you don’t have to be French or in French class to get in.”

The French club has been a student club for over 20 years, though it’s only Schneider’s third year as sponsor. The club population has been steadily rising as the news and information about the club spreads.

“It was small, but we only had, you know, like, five or six students,” Schneider said. “But now on a regular basis, we have probably 15 to 20.”

In previous years, the French club had so many members staying for such long amounts of time they had to put a limit on how long they could stay.

“We have fun,” Spanish teacher Brianna Ovalles said. “We enjoy hanging out with each other. We actually did have to put a time limit this year.”

The club meets almost every Wednesday in room 373.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Annalynne Bradley

Sophomore Alex Welzenbach pours out a bag of coconut flakes into his bowl.