Pasadena City College's French program offers a variety of courses, ranging from basic and advanced language courses to French Conversation, French Culture, French Cinema, and an Internship in a French professional workplace. You’ll have opportunities to join the French & Francophone Club, La Table Ronde, and participate in competitions, festivities on campus or in the greater Los Angeles area as they will relate to French or Francophone culture, bien sûr! Also certificates, awards, and scholarships await you: acknowledgments of your hard and productive work. Whether you’re a beginner or already fluent in French, we have something just for you... On vous attend. Alors, venez!

Want to learn more?

Contact professors Emilie Garrigou-Kempton at egarrigoukempton@pasadena.edu or Emmanuelle Remy at exremy@pasadena.edu.

Not a PCC student yet? Apply now.


Explore Your Passion

We offer elementary to intermediate French courses as well as a variety of culture and history courses. Use the links below to see full course descriptions and the current schedule of classes.

View and Search the Class Schedule

View French options in the Academic Catalog

French | Associate in Arts (AA) Degree

Major in French AND earn a degree. By completing the French major program at PCC you will earn an AA degree in French as well as complete many of your lower division major requirements to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in French prior to transferring to a four-year university.

View Degree Requirements

Foreign Language Proficiency in French | Occupational Skills Certificate

Demonstrate your proficiency in the French Language with an Occupational Skills Certificate! Certificates are available in Basic Proficiency in French (12-13 unit certificate) and Intermediate Proficiency in French (12-14 unit certificate).

Basic Requirements

Intermediate Requirements

Advanced Requirements


Certificate Completion

To earn an Occupational Skills Certificate you must complete all required courses with a C or better. After completing course requirements, complete the Certificate Application and return to the Languages Office, C-247.

Download Certificate Application

  • You need 16 units, choose any French classes you want as long as you have 16 units or more 
  • On your transcript, it will be noted that you have earned a "Certificate of Achievement in French"

View the French Certificate of Achievement


Master Class Program in the American French Film Festival with Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Photo by Paria Didehban

Experience Working in French
Locally or Abroad

Internships are a proven way to gain relevant knowledge, skills, and experience while establishing important connections in a given field. The tremendous particularity of this internship is the foreign language component: you will speak in French. Levels of French will depend on where you do your internship. It is the best way to immerse yourself and improve your French. Internships are a way to get your feet wet and find out if a specific field is something you could see yourself doing in the future. The experience they provide make you a preferred job candidate with another language in your portfolio.

Here are the places where you can do your internship: 

  • French Dual Language Immersion Altadena Arts Magnet School*
  • Monsieur Marcel Gourmet Market
  • Alliance Française de Pasadena
  • Consulat de France Los Angeles

French workplaces want PCC students who are motivated, eager to learn, to discover their passion and above all to explore the French language! Come on board, Internship BUS070 awaits you!

There are no internship during the summer session.

*For students interested in participating with TAPIF (Teacher Assistant Program in France), the internship at the Altadena Dual Immersion Arts Magnet School is a great opportunity for PCC students to develop their communication skills in French and learn how activities are created and managed. It is a plus when students fill in their TAPIF application and on your resume. 

Want to learn more? Listen to Jose Castillo

Want to Apply? Contact an Internship Advisor at wbl@pasadena.edu or contact professor Emmanuelle Remy at exremy@pasadena.edu

The PCC French Department is proud to have had students hired by the French Government for the past five years for the TAPIF Program. Our students have been paid to live in France for an academic year and speak English with French students to give them conversation practice. Living and working in France are the best ways to absorb the language and discover how French people live, study and work.

Elmer M., who took numerous French classes at PCC, was in France when the French and Francophone Club Zoom invited him to come and talk about his TAPIF experience. He created a PPT to present his life in Southwest France. Please check out the video about his experience with TAPIF.

The PCC French Department offers the Work & Study Award that David Cuatt and Kris Pillon have generously provided to help our students have a study abroad experience.

For students interested in participating with TAPIF (Teacher Assistant Program in France), the internship at the Altadena Dual Immersion Arts Magnet School is a great opportunity for PCC students to develop their communication skills in French and learn how activities are created and managed. It is a plus when students fill in their TAPIF application and on your resume. 

Should you be interested in applying for the TAPIF program or if you know someone is,  visit the TAPIF website.


Jose Castillo, intern at the French Consulate in Los Angeles
Photo by Jose Castillo


Discover Languages Awards & Scholarships

Work & Study Abroad in France or in a Francophone country

David Cuatt and Kris Pilon are honored to provide a $750 award to a PCC French student planning to be part of a work/study abroad program in France or in a Francophone country. The award is intended to help financially with the expenses that participants will incur, such as airfare, housing, food, etc.  Students will write a letter to explain their motivation and the purpose of the program they choose. The award funds will be transferred upon proof of participation (such as confirmation from a French company or organization), and flight reservation and payment.  A summary with photos of the experience will be required following its end which will be posted on the French and Francophone club website.

David Cuatt and Kris Pillon are retired professors who taught at PCC in the area of Graphic Arts. They share a love of travel and continue to be enriched by the Foreign Language program at PCC, particularly in Italian and French. They recognize the benefits of first-hand experiences of living abroad, and want to help other students to have the opportunity of living fully immersed in a culture.

Contact Emmanuelle Remy (exremy@pasadena.edu) or Michèle Pedrini (mmpedrini@pasadena.edu) for more information. 

Dr. Pedrini, French Instructor and Professor Emmanuelle Remy, French Instructor, are honored to provide a $1000 scholarship.  One or several French Students of the Year, in recognition of special actions and attitudes, will be selected.  These are students in the French Department who show qualities such as courage, dedication, perseverance, tenacity, assiduity, originality, support, progress, and leadership, to name a few. Students need to have taken 2 semesters of French. They are determined to learn the French language and support the French Department.  The $1000 scholarship will be given to one student or shared by several students. It will vary from year to year.  Keep doing what you are doing and it might be you next year!  Ce sera la surprise du chef and it might be You! 

Michèle Pedrini and Emmanuelle Remy-Riley are offering this scholarship based on observations from PCC French professors.This award is not conferred solely on grades/performance but also honors and recognizes students for their learning evolution and their blossoming in French courses as well as their contributions to the PCC French Department and its students.  

Contact Emmanuelle Remy (exremy@pasadena.edu) or Michèle Pedrini (mmpedrini@pasadena.edu) for more information. 

Students from French program can apply to Kathleen D. Loly Scholarship. 

Learn More


You may be the next recipient of a study abroad scholarship!
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

Live French Beyond the Classroom

All Year-Round

Join the French & Francophone Club that meets online and/or in person at festivities or on campus. During online sessions, the club is an engaging place to be, to learn some French and Francophone news, to meet French students, and also to welcome and listen to guests who are from different backgrounds but always have the French/Francophone common denominator. Please check the French & Francophone Club webpage to see our online sessions calendar, articles, news, outings, etc. The French & Francophone Club webpage helps all of us to stay connected. If you would like to share an experience, a good tip, a French or Francophone experience, or something else, this is the place to share and exchange.

For more information see our official French and Francophone Club webpage or send an email to  francaispcc@gmail.com - an officer will respond.

To contact the Advisor, please email Emmanuelle Remy (French Instructor) at exremy@pasadena.edu.

La Table Ronde is for French 3 level students and higher. It meets once a month and the session is one hour and fifteen minutes.  Students talk only in French about diverse topics centered around authentic pedagogical materials: stories, poetry, articles, songs, videos, etc. Meetings can be online and/or on campus, in a local café, or at a French or Francophone restaurant.

For more information contact Emmanuelle Remy (French Instructor) at exremy@pasadena.edu.

If you ever feel that spoken French is just a blur of sounds and you want to improve your ability to understand what people are saying, come to this phonetic and spelling activity. 

For students who desire greatly to improve their level of oral French comprehension: there will be gatherings to do some dictée exercises together by teleconference.  It will be once a month. It's open to anyone studying French. The meeting will be conducted in English so that it is accessible to all levels of French students.  All you need to have is a pen or pencil and paper. The exercises that we will be doing are at levels A1/A2, which essentially correspond to the first year of college French.

Check our French & Francophone Club webpage for dates and time.

La Dictée de Timothée: monthly event, in order to develop your learning but also to prepare you for La Dictée Competition.
To know more about La Dictée Competition on our French & Francophone Club webpage.

Story behind La Dictée de Thimothée

The activity "La Dictée" within the PCC French Department was initiated by a Fr. 4 student, Timothée Chan, who is a lover of France, French language, French culture etc. During the Spring semester 2021, Timothée organized twice a month an e-gathering and students loved it. It became very quickly "La Dictée de Timothée". If you want to know more about him, check out his article about his experience at L'Alliance Française de Paris and his  see our official French & Francophone Club webpage.

All members of the PCC Community (students, faculty, staff) are welcome to borrow books from our library. Come to room R217 and feel free to take books that interest you and return them when you are finished so that someone else can enjoy them  too.  A box is at your disposal for returning books. Thanks to various donors, our French library presents a very nice assortment of books, including topics such as gastronomy, politics, history, philosophy, and literature from the Middle Ages to the present (and much more). Most of the books are in French but there are some in English as well.

Once a Year

PCC students who are cinephiles and who love French movies, series, or programs will enjoy going to the Colcoa French Film Festival in Hollywood.  They can discover the latest films and some have already been judges for the American Students Award. Also, when it is possible, French Department members participate with Colcoa and welcome on campus a Master Class.

For more information see our official French and Francophone Club webpage or send an email to francaispcc@gmail.com - an officer will respond.

To have access to all information about the Colcoa festival program, go to
https://colcoa.org/ 

Each year, Dr. Marie-Magdeleine Chirol (Whittier College) organizes and proposes a French play performed in the French language. This is to celebrate National French Week. For over twenty years, the R. Shannon Theater, in collaboration with the French Department of Whittier College, has presented a remarkable performance done exclusively in the French language. 
For more information see our official French Club webpage or send an email to francaispcc@gmail.com - an officer will respond.

La Dictée Competition is an annual event in partnership with L'Alliance Française de Pasadena, the PCC French Departement, and the French & Francophone Club. 

It is a fun and intensive two hours immersed in French:  there are quick reviews on grammar, conjugation, and lexicon with preparatory activities. Then comes La Dictée. There will be prizes for everyone.  More information about La Dictée Competition is available on the French & Francophone webpage or send an email to francaispcc@gmail.com - an officer will respond.

Languages at PCC are active and fun! Without languages we lose our identity, our roots, our culture...This is why, for one week each year, the Languages and ESL Division organizes festivities!

Come and listen to some Italien opera, watch spanish films, admire Chinese drums, eat a French baguette with brie, etc. The PCC French Department participates actively in promoting French and Francophone cultures: Come, see, watch and eat!

For more information see our official French and Francophone Club webpage or send an email to francaispcc@gmail.com - an officer will respond.


Foreign language student reciting poetry at PCC International Poetry Day
Photo by Emmanuelle Remy


The French department lending library in R217
Photo by Richshell Allen


Meet the French Professors at PCC

Omar El

Omar El
oel@pasadena.edu 

Michèle Pedrini

Michele Pedrinimmpedrini@pasadena.edu

Emilie Garrigou-Kempton

Emilie Garrigou-Kempton
egarrigoukempton@pasadena.edu

Emmanuelle Remy

Emmanuelle Remy
exremy@pasadena.edu

Corinne Slosburg

Corrine Slosburg
cslosburg@pasadena.edu 

Camille Weinert

Camille Weinert