School's out: French lessons for migrants on banks of Paris canal

PARIS - Sitting in rows on a grassy embankment overlooking a Paris square, around 50 asylum-seekers recite the alphabet in French following a teacher pointing to letters on a whiteboard.

"Ew," Louise shouts, attempting to make herself heard above the passing traffic and the music spilling out of a nearby bar.

"Ooh!" comes the reply from the group of mostly Sudanese and Afghan youths, struggling to pronounce the tricky French'u'.

The migrants are attending free open-air language classes organized by a refugee support group at a dozen locations around the French capital.

On a warm summer evening, two classes are underway on the banks of the Bassin de la Villette, part of the canals in northeast Paris near where migrants are often found sleeping rough.

While Louise, 22, who did not wish to give her full name, teaches beginners, Pierre Piacentini, a retired nurse, instructs Level 2 students on how to describe the various ailments they may find themselves explaining to a doctor.

Many in Piacentini's group are regulars at the daily classes, who show up come rain or shine.

"They were here when it was - 5 C, they're here when it rains, when it's hot, when they have the sun in their faces. They're really into it basically," he said.

Founded in November 2015 at the height of the migrant crisis in Europe, the association BAAM (the French acronym for Office of Reception and Assistance for Migrants) aims to give asylum-seekers some of the support withheld by the state while their asylum claims are being processed.

That includes language classes, with the French government only offering lessons to people who have received refugee status.

"The problem is that the asylum processing times are very long. People want to learn French and they can't," said Julian Mez, one of the founders of BAAM.

President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May, has promised to cut the waiting times for asylum claims from around 18 months at present to six months.

Omar, a 28-year-old Sudanese, began classes nine months ago. Before, he said, he knew "nothing".

"Now, I speak well," he said in correct French.

Besides teaching French, BAAM's volunteers help migrants negotiate the country's bureaucracy and complete forms.

Piacentini has been teaching every day for nine months. "It's like a drug," he says, laughing.

It is a steep learning curve both for teacher and pupil, as he discovered one day during a class about family.

Amazed that all the Sudanese students, when asked to list their siblings, mentioned only their brothers, he asked: "Don't you have any sisters?"

Later, one of the students took him aside and told him that it was inappropriate to ask Sudanese men about female relatives.

Agence France-presse