Introducing Heather Simon
We all have our own story about how we found the Franco-American Centre, whether it was through a friend of a friend, from an event, or maybe so long ago we no longer remember.
Heather Simon decided she wanted to be involved after attending one of the Prêt-à-Parler events, which she found in a quest to keep her new French language skills sharp.
I spoke with Heather recently to hear the unique story about how she learned French.
Michigan to France by way of Manchester
Heather told me she'd earned her BS in food science at Michigan State University, and her first job out of college was with Lactalis, the world's #1 dairy company, which is based out of France. Heather worked in research and development. She moved to Manchester for the job, and worked here for about a year and a half.
Until one day, a co-worker mentioned, as a joke, how Heather should go to France. He'd heard of an opportunity offered by the company for employees to learn French and earn a Master's degree in France. Heather knew it was meant to be a joke, but she thought the program sounded like a wonderful opportunity. She told me she liked her job then, but wanted more, and this sounded like it could be what she was looking for.
She looked into the program, then applied and was accepted, with just a few months before she left for France.
She had taken two years of Spanish classes in High School, but otherwise had no language-learning experience. She did her best to study French in the couple of months leading up to the program, but there's only so much of a language a person can learn on their own in such a short period of time. That was alright; the first part of the program was dedicated to learning French.
5 Months to Fluency
The language-learning part of the program took place in Angers. Heather lived there with a host family and took French classes. The classes, though they were intended for beginners with little to no knowledge of French, were taught only in French.
Heather told me those first couple of weeks were difficult, and at times she felt a little lost in the language. But she worked hard in her studies, and it helped that she was so thoroughly immersed in both the culture and the language, between living with her host family and through the class.
After five months of such intense immersion, she was fluent enough to begin her study of her Master's. She was an apprentice, she explained, half a student, half working in factories. She studied staple products of the company, such as yogurt, as well as other dairy products. But she learned even more than just her studies in food science. For example, she told me some products are made differently in France. One that surprised her was the difference between Greek yogurt in France and the US. While there are similarities, both are prepared quite differently in one place versus the other.
She also was able to travel a bit in France, and lived in both Normandy (in the town of Bayeux) and in the town of Laval in Pays de la Loire. Heather also got to learn more about French culture, such as how important food is and how factories are operated differently.
Heather spent two years working hard on her Master's, then completed her program in October of 2024.
She's back in Manchester now, though planning to return to France in March for graduation. It was after her return that she found the FAC, while searching for a way to continue to practice her French language skills. She hopes to volunteer and participate in some upcoming events, and looks forward to the opportunity to now explore some aspects of Canadian French culture.
Written by Jasmine Grace, University Intern
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