FranceAndUS: Sports and Diplomacy Hiding in Plain Sight

Sport can promote diplomacy, even between kindred democracies.

For more than a century, different types of sports diplomacy have fostered stronger relations between the United States and its oldest ally, France. 

Although the cultural endeavors of food, fashion, or film drive public consciousness of citizen interactions, the French and American sports story hides in plain sight. Today sports serve as one of the more democratic milieus in both societies, thus sports diplomacy between these two countries is an instructive example of how this prism exhibits the intersection of sport and democracy. 

Read more via “FranceAndUS: Sports and Diplomacy Hiding in Plain Sight” by Carole Ponchon and Lindsay Krasnoff in SportandDev.org

Lessons from the FranceAndUS Frontlines

Sports can serve as tools to bring people together, empower women and girls, work towards social change, facilitate conflict resolution, and much more.

Yet sports are also a tool to aid bilingualism. For Americans in France, playing sports is one way to fast track learning French for doing so requires the ability to communicate with teammates, coaches, and officials, no matter how imperfect one’s grammar or conjugation. Meanwhile, learning about language in sports by watching sports media and films, or following sports figures’ social media platforms, can introduce different vocabulary and phrasings not formally taught in the classroom but used colloquially in everyday life. Lastly, whether as a participant or fan, sports can help foster a sense of community and belonging, which can help children thrive in another country, as lessons from the front- lines of the FranceAndUS project illustrate.

Read more about “Lessons in Bilingualism from the FranceAndUS Frontlines” in the Spring 2023 Bilingual Education in France Magazine, published by the Association of American Women of Europe.