Today, November 26, is International French Teachers’ Day.Instituted in 2019 by President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, the day honors and pays tributes to 900,000 teachers of French all over the world.
French is now the world’s fifth most spoken language there are 300 million French speakers worldwide today.It is the world’s second-most widely learned foreign language after English, the third most important language in business, the second language of international information in the media, and the fourth most used language on the Internet.
To mark International French Teachers’ Day, all diplomatic missions of France in Central Asia joined to offer a richly varied online professional development program for teachers of French.Organized by the French Institute at the Embassy of France in Turkmenistan, the festive event took place online.
Among those participating in the event were some 60 specialists, including the French Embassy staff, representatives of Magtymguly Turkmen State University, the Azadi Institute of World Languages, and international schools in Ashgabat.
Her Excellency, Ambassador of France to Turkmenistan Ms.Isabelle Guisnel delivered an opening speech.Presentations of innovative projects, webinars on distance learning, and a round-table meeting were held as part of the event, entitled “New methods for teaching French”.
After the event, every participant was offered access to Culturetheque, the digital library of the French Institute.The Turkmen side took great pleasure in taking part in the French Teachers’ Day celebration, sharing the opinion that being able to communicate in foreign languages brings nations closer together, makes them more tolerant to other cultures, and helps people to broaden their horizons.