France <i> Boeufs </i> Up Study of French in United States

It’s more than wine and cheese, mes amis. Hoping that its culture will be recognized for more than the obvious, the French government has taken a cue from Italy, Germany and other countries and set up special centers of study at American universities.

“It was felt that in order to preserve the place of the French language and culture in universities, we should make a special effort in a few of the main universities,” said Denis Delbourt, cultural counselor for the French Embassy in New York.

The centers established this year at six schools go beyond the basics of language courses. They work with other departments to focus on French contributions in history, art and mathematics, said Stephen Nichols, a director of the center at Johns Hopkins University.

“Part of our role is to recognize that the university as a whole has many ties with French culture, French businesses, French institutions,” Nichols said.

“I think it’s the recognition that France is not just a culture of wine and cheese, and plays and literature,” he said. “The French center serves as a clearinghouse for interdisciplinary work.”

Other Centers of Excellence in French Studies are at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley.

The French Foreign Ministry asked for 1.5 million to 2 million francs, or $250,000 to $340,000, for the program, Delbourt said. The center at UC Berkeley is being funded separately, he said.

The centers come at a time when the French are dealing with their own cultural mutations.

A bill was introduced recently in the French Parliament to rid the language of Franglais, or English words that have crept into everyday use. The legislation also would require the translation of movie titles into French--so that Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” for example, would become “Le Parc Jurassique.”

The Italian government gave a $10-million endowment in 1991 and spent $7.5 million to renovate the home of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University in New York, the academy said.

The German government also sponsors three centers for the study of German culture at Georgetown, Harvard and UC Berkeley, said Wilfried Krug, counselor in the cultural department at the German Embassy in Washington.