French

After the change of regime in 1989, owing to its earlier oversized place and to the free choice of foreign languages, the teaching of French gradually declined, but it has always remained among the foreign languages offered by the Bolyai. There are strong arguments in its favour: in 2015 it was the second most taught language in the world after English, with 125 million students; in the media it also ranks second as a language of international information, it is one of the three working languages of the European Union, and “economic francophonie” has become an increasingly common term.

In the last decade French has acquired a special status in our school, as advanced learners, that is, students arriving from primary school with French behind them, have run out: the French second-language group is usually made up of students who had learnt only English before and continue it as their first language. They are all beginners in French and progress together up to the level that can be reached in four years and is also the aim of second-language teaching: basic oral and written communication and the ability to use specialist literature in French. Although the curriculum only requires level A2, over the years French has had enthusiastic followers who obtained diplomas at the higher levels of the DELF exam, or B1–B2 ratings at the baccalaureate. Some Bolyai graduates have kept this attachment alive by going on to study French at a faculty of arts.