Françoise Agena, MA

I have been an educator for over 25 years and I am so glad to be a part of the Well-Trained Mind Academy to share my knowledge and passion for the French and Spanish languages.

I was born and raised in the outskirts of Paris and spent ten years living in the South of France, two miles from the border with Spain, on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. At a very early age I knew that I wanted to learn different languages. I went on learning English, German, and Spanish in high school and was lucky to have many opportuinities to travel throughout Europe with my family and through school trips.

During college, I spent one year in Scotland with an exchange program in Glasgow. The waether was tough but it was a wonderful experience. I loved leaving in a different country so much that I decided to come to the US as an exchange student and have been living in Nebraska since 1997. As a graduate student teaching French, I soon realized that my true passion was to teach. I have been a Lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln ever since, teaching French and Spanish.

In my class, students grow their vocabulary and grammatical abilities through a variety of topics. During class time, I encourage the students to use the target language as much as they can to express their ideas. I do believe that learning a different language is a wonderful opportunity to gain confidence and to promote analysis and critical thinking. But I am also very aware that it can be very intimidating and I do my best to make every learner at ease through a very interactive style.