Mission

The mission of the Alliance Française is to encourage the study of French language and cultures and to foster cultural, intellectual, artistic, and friendly exchanges between the French-speaking world and our local community.

The Alliance Française de San Diego has policies and practices of non-discrimination relating to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical disability, veteran status, or political service or affiliation.

Background

The Alliance Française is a worldwide non-profit, cultural and educational center founded in Paris in 1883. A network of over 1,200 Alliance chapters established in 112 countries, the Alliance Française has 140 chapters in the United States alone, serving over 420,000 students. The San Diego branch, called the Alliance Française de San Diego (AFSD) was founded in 1927.

The Alliance Française offers and supports continued learning both in and out of the classroom. Currently, the Alliance Française offers a variety of cultural and social events to its more than 170 members, as well as to the general public. Events throughout the year include: lectures, concerts, films.

In addition to exposing the community to French culture, another integral role of the Alliance Française is teaching the French language. For the Alliance Française teaching is an interactive process between the teacher and the student. Language acquisition is characterized by four main skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and speaking are generally more difficult to develop on one’s own, so the Alliance Française focuses on providing hands-on and cooperative learning.

The Alliance Française also makes learning French convenient by offering classes throughout the year. All classes are taught by experienced native French- speaking teachers, and/or are fully bi-cultural. Supplementary resources are also available free to all members, as the Alliance Française is home to over 500 books to aid in the learning process both linguistically and culturally. As part of a world-wide effort the Alliance Française is proud to promote the integration of cultures within the San Diego community.