In Haute-Marne, a former teacher teaches French to Ukrainian refugees

They didn’t speak a word of French a few weeks ago. But little by little, these Ukrainian women taking refuge in Châteauvillain in Haute-Marne are learning French, thanks to Annick Fleuriot, their volunteer teacher. Erasing the language barrier to allow them to integrate more quickly, even if learning our language is not easy. The alphabet is not the same, nor is the syntax, so you have to go to the essentials: “It’s really for making simple sentences like “My name is…”. We also worked on the numbers, the dates, so that they could say how many children they have, how old they are, and so on. So there, we are seeing all the basic vocabulary, so that they manage to get by in everyday life“.

A teacher by training, converted into agriculture, Annick Fleuriot did not hesitate for a second when the first refugees arrived in the town to volunteer to help uprooted people. Stories that echo his own story: “I am from Alsace and my grandmother suffered the exodus during the Second World War, she had to leave for the Dordogne, and found herself in the same situation as these women. So I thought it was important to do something for them. As we welcomed my grandmother in the Dordogne. I go the opposite way“.

Like Annick, there are hundreds of volunteers across the country providing French lessons for adult refugees. Children and adolescents benefit from these courses in the schools where they are welcomed.

A few weeks ago, near Dieppe, we met Véronica Lemaître, one of these volunteer French teachers, in the middle of a course with a full Ukrainian family who had taken refuge with relatives. Diligent students, motivated by the desire to fend for themselves and especially to find a job quickly to meet their needs.