On Monday 5 February, we got the opportunity to experience the Taste of French Day put on by the University of Queensland in St Lucia. When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was how much French was being spoken and how passionate the UQ staff and student ambassadors were about the subject.

The first activity plunged us straight into French conversation as we were asked to speak to other participants in French in order to get the signatures of people who fit the requirements on the sheet provided.

Next was a competition – The Great Campus Race. That is, a race around the campus to find five checkpoints, using the clues provided for us (of course, written in French). The aim was to find all five areas, collecting an envelope from each place. In the envelope were French words, and once we had found all five envelopes, we were to go back into the Common Room (our area for the day) and arrange the words to form a sentence. However, we didn’t quite manage to meet the quota; only finding two out of the five required checkpoints.

In the third activity, all of the attending students (including GCC) were each separated into three groups (Les Abidjans, Les Nouméens, Les Parisiens), named after some of the different people in French-speaking countries. In these sessions, we did all sorts of activities while speaking only in French. Elements included in the activities were Google Translate, Poems, Inventions and Household Items.

After the activities finished, we stuck around for a short lunch including drinks, lollies and chocolate croissants provided by the university. We also got to listen to French music, such as cafe-style and bands like ‘Kids United’ during this time. However, being a fair distance from school meant we had to cut our lunch break short, and leave early to return to the College at 2:55pm. Nevertheless, it was a very fun day overall!

Eloise, Nathan and Rebecca