Nov. 12

From the beginning of the Jeopardy game, senior Etreta Thakker immediately chose the hardest question with the highest point value for her team in the game.

“Five hundred for music,” Thakker said.

The cursor clicked the box she selected, and the question that popped up was “What are the names of these men?”

Stumped, members looked around at each other and then back to the screen until a student said, “It’s Daft and Punk.”

Laughter filled room B109 and the officers revealed that the band’s name was daft punk, except their real names were Thomas Bangalter and  Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who produce electronic music.

Jeopardy Day during lunch on Nov. 12 featured fun facts about French culture. The club was divided into two teams and each team attempted to earn points by answering questions that varied depending on difficulty. Players could choose from music, art, architecture, food or a random topic.

When making the questions, senior Rhea Choudhury, French Honor Society president, stayed away from ones such as “How do you conjugate this verb?” and opted for questions such as “What is a waffle called in French?” or  “Who is this French celebrity?”.

“We incorporated questions from French culture we learned in class, and questions that are unique,” Choudhury said. “The questions are not super easy to guess. It’s fun and people would know if they paid attention in class.”

Choudhury hopes for higher turnout next year.

“It’s more fun when there’s more people competing,” said Choudhury. “We take a lot of time to plan out the events, so in the future, we will promote more, maybe through Facebook.”

The officers want to increase the size of the club and hope to reach out to more people, but some members find that they like the smaller feel of the club .

“French Honor Society is a small club and I enjoy the club because of it,” Thakker said. “[Whenever] there is [an event], I like to participate. It’s always the same crowd of people.”

Nov. 13
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177929655″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /] This is an excerpt of the French nursery rhyme “Il Etait un Petit Navire,” which translates to “There Was a Little Boat.” While the song has a light-hearted tune, it masks a macabre meaning. A luckless young boy who was on a boat that ran out of food drew the shortest straw, so his crewmates planned to eat him. He ran to the top of the sails to pray that the heavens save him. At the end of the song, a miracle happened and thousands of fish jumped on to the boat, thus saving the little boy and the rest of the ship crew by providing them with food.

The traditional nursery rhyme was introduced to the MVHS French students as part of their curriculum and became a song that students can hum and sing along to. Other songs the officers played include the 80s classic “Haut les Mains” by the group Ottawan and French pop songs such as “Alors On Danse” by the singer Stromae and “Le Sens de la Vie” by the singer TAL.

“A lot of pop songs in France have good messages,” Choudhury said. “TAL’s ‘Le Sens de la Vie’ is about taking risks and chances.”

French songs are incorporated into the class curriculum for their message and appropriateness. In honor of French Week, the officers played their best selections and sang along as they ate their lunches.

Nov. 14

The French Honor Society club members grabbed some snacks and drinks from a side table, then found their place among the desks to settle down. Members from both Cupertino High School and MVHS filed into Room 318 at 5 p.m.. The lights dimmed and the title screen for Pink Panther illuminated the room.

The movie shown was the French remake of Pink Panther (2006), chosen by the FHS French Honor Society officers, who thought it would be interesting to watch the remake with French actors.

“It’s a tradition for us to watch a movie every year,” French Honor Society secretary senior Saba Naqvi said. “Last year we watched the movie at [MVHS], but adding the interdistrict component makes it more exciting.”

CHS French Honor Society president Nikhil Krishna held the movie night as an icebreaker event to start off the year. Krishna made the event interdistrict because it gave members from different schools a chance to meet each other. Later during the school year, Cupertino High School will hold its own French Week.

“French Honor Society is a valuable club,” Krishna said. “It’s a group of individuals that are dedicated to language. People with the same passion come together through cultural events and activities.”