The ambassadors of three Francophone countries visited Deering High School in Portland today, highlighting the growth of the French-speaking population in Maine, growth driven in recent years by burgeoning African immigrant communities.
Diplomats from Gabon, France, and Central African Republic spoke with teachers and students, many of whom speak French as a first language at home.
Nathalie Gorey, French teacher at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, said the more recent arrivals have breathed new life into Maine's longstanding connection with the French language.
"These newly arrived refugees have joined with the Franco community and the Acadian community to revitalize French and thus created a renaissance of the language in our state," Gorey said. "We're so lucky."
But Gorey said Maine struggles with a shortage of qualified French teachers. And she said foreign language education should be emphasized in lower grades, because students are often able to better master a language when they begin learning it at a younger age.
On stage, Noel Nelson Messone, the ambassador from Gabon, made the case for studying French as a versatile global language.
"Twenty nine countries are officially Francophone," he said. "It's an important chunk of the global community, of the world."
The state's Francophone history has roots in migration from Canada. More recently, the state has attracted thousands of immigrants from Francophone Africa, including from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Gabon, and elsewhere.
