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How to make learning French more relevant and fun?
Let the students speak their language.
First-year teacher Cedric Andreani had his Andrew High School classes make a rap music video.
In French. To a song by popular French hip-hop artist Fefe.
After weeks of filming, singing and fist pumping, the students recently wrapped up their project and posted it to YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK0cOZ5gKa8).
In the video they lip sync at various sites around the Tinley Park school to Fefe’s “Aussi Fort” — translated, “That Strong” — a song about the artist’s personal journey of struggle and perseverance.
Junior Meghan Deyoung said, “This has been really cool. It means everything to be involved in this project.”
The filming not only marked her debut in a music video, she said, but introduced her to kids in other French classes, students she might not ordinarily meet.
“Our teacher wanted us to do a project that reflects current culture,” Meghan said. “This song is an inspiring story. It tells people if they’re having bad luck, they can get up and keep going. It’s about never giving up and keep pushing. That is something I can apply to my life.”
Fefe, who is a friend of a friend of Andreani’s, grew up in harsh conditions, the teacher said. “He likes rock, salsa, he’s very eclectic. He had a couple of bands that didn’t work out so he started his solo career in 2007 and now it’s picking up.
“He even performed the French version of the Coca-Cola commercial for the World Cup. He’s everywhere in France right now,” Andreani said.
“Aussi Fort,” Andreani said, is about “how he struggled, started singing in the Metro with his friends. They felt like they were rats in the middle of the ocean but it’s about them sticking together and hoping they would make it and how he finally did.”
In their video, titled “Aussi Fort Student Edition,” the teens were filmed rapping everywhere on the Andrew campus — in the gym, hallways, classrooms, even at the entrance to the bathroom.
The project began serendipitously when Andreani, a native of Cannes in the south of France, introduced his students months ago to “Aussi Fort” simply because he liked it. Through Facebook, he learned that a close friend back home was working as a sound engineer in Paris for the song’s author.
“My friend sent me a picture of him working for the artist in the sound booth, doing a sound check,” Andreani said. He told his friend he was thinking about having his students make their own video, lip syncing to Fefe’s song.
Fefe then sent the students a 22-second video on which he says, “Hi, Andrew High School, my name is Fefe, (effy squared, if you like) … I know you’re working on one of my videos. I’m waiting for you. It better be good.”
He signed off with a kiss/peace sign.
“I played the video for the students and they loved it,” Andreani said. “It inspired them to work on their own video.”
Led by freshman Ilias Sadiki, the students did all of the filming, Andreani said.
“It’s been pretty amazing and shocking to have this opportunity,” Ilias said. “We’re using a professional camera the school has given us.”
Ilias, who moved to Tinley Park from New York last year, said he signed up for French class because his parents, who are of Moroccan descent, both speak the language.
“I want to keep that ability,” he said.
Music, he added, is an easy way to learn a language. And Fefe’s lyrics strike a particular chord with teens, he said.
“Fefe came from the bottom up. He sang in the subway. That’s what he’s trying to show us in the song,” Ilias said.
Ilias, who attend the New York Film Academy last summer and hopes to become either a filmmaker or professional soccer player one day, said the students plan to send their video to the artist, in addition to putting it on YouTube. “I hope it gets our school on the map,” he said.
Andreani said the video is only one way he is trying to spark interest in French language classes. The students also have visited the French Alliance in Chicago to watch a French movie. And he is organizing a school trip to Paris in the summer of 2019.
“I am introducing culture. Trying to do the immersion thing,” he said. “All the French teachers I know in the U.S. are using pretty dated material when it comes to music. So many times, they play accordion songs and things like that. I wanted to introduce the students to some more current songs.
“There is so much happening there that is very similar to what is happening here,” he said.
Sophomore Emiyah Twietmeyer said, “Music helps us learn language and understand it.”
Marshe Vatchings, a freshman, said, “The project is cool because we get to make a video and talk with (Fefe) through emails. And we’re going to France next year. Maybe we’ll get to meet him. When you think of (foreign language in) high school, everyone thinks of Spanish. I wanted something different. It’s not easier to learn through music but it is more fun.”
Marshe said in the video, the students mimic the artist’s movements. “I have a part in the beginning.”
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She’s also featured at the end, which shows all of the students lighting up their phones at a mock concert.
Aussi Fort (French version)
Rappelle-toi les premiers concerts quand tu rappais dans le tro-me
Le baggy sale les passants qui te mataient comme ci t’etais pomme???? …
C’est sur un radeau
Que tu t’etais embarque avec tes gens
Rien qu’un petit radeau
Et tu t’etais jamais senti
Aussi fort
Non jamais senti
Aussi fort
That Strong (English translation)
Remember the first concert when we rapped in the Metro,
The dirty baggy pants and the passerby checking us out as if we were lost …
It’s on a raft
That you embarked with your people
Nothing but a small raft
And you never felt
That strong
No never felt
That strong