New French course includes visit to Paris

Amani Ismail

A new French course at Iowa State will not only teach students about Paris, it will let them experience the city firsthand.

French 396, a course titled “Paris: Past and Present,” will be added to the ISU curriculum next semester.

Marie Lathers, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures, will be instructing the course. Lathers said the class will use the many sights in Paris to study the city’s rich history.

“We’re going to discuss the history and culture of Paris using monuments as our point of reference,” she said.

Students enrolled in the course will spend spring break in Paris, she said. Lathers said visiting Paris is a vital part of the course.

“It allows us to experience the reality of what we’ve been reading about,” she said.

Some of the Parisian sights students will visit include the Notre Dame cathedral and the Per‚-Lachaise Cemetery.

Faye Banowetz, freshman in French, said she is seriously considering registering for French 396. She said what she finds most exciting about the class is the opportunity to visit Paris for the first time.

“I can finally go there and speak the French that I’ve been learning for so long,” she said.

Another student who expressed her interest in joining the course is Amanda Lai, junior in management.

Lai said it’s important that ISU offers courses that explore other countries.

“The United States is a diverse country, so I think you have to know different people’s backgrounds,” she said.

Lai, a native of Taiwan, said she is fascinated with studying the history of ancient cities, such as Paris. She said the architecture and geography of such cities tend to be different from those of modern cities.

Lathers, who holds a Ph.D. in French, said she has visited several French cities, including Lyon, Nice, Cannes and Paris. She said “good art, good food and a lot of exercise walking” make Paris a unique city.

“I enjoy introducing Paris to people,” she said.

Lathers said the fee for the course is $1,499, which includes airfare, hotel residence, breakfasts, transportation in Paris and museum and site entrance fees.

An effort was made to keep that figure as low as possible, she said.

“It’s a course that we wanted to have available to everyone,” she said.