A French connection

A project in collaboration with the French Embassy,it offers degrees certified by the Alliance Francaise (AF) in Delhi. “The AF had conducted a survey few years ago in India,and found that French was a popular foreign language option among Indian students. So,they were looking for a method to tap this scattered section of Indians who could not make it to the classroom. I offered this solution,” says Muller,who launched the website in mid-2006. After three years,it has over 7,000 students from across the country.

After moving to Chennai from Lorraine in France six years ago,Muller started interning at a software solutions firm in the city. After completing his programme,he wanted to set-up his own IT company in India and moved to Delhi in 2006 and took up this project. “We are an IT solutions company but did not have any expertise in setting up a language learning website. Although we are proficient in French,we had language experts from AF as consultants to design the course content,” says Muller,who works out of his Okhla office.

His website offers three packages—Basic,Plus and Privilege—of six months duration and each costs Rs 6,000. “We want to cater to the needs of every learner. So there is a basic course which acts as a refresher course for those who speak some French,while the other two offer specific help to the learners in terms of audio aid and telephonic assistance from teachers,” he says.

Compared to the classroom model where teacher-student contact is always maintained,the content on the site is woven around the story of a South-Indian girl Taara who goes to France for higher studies. “The audio content and sentences are about the concerns of this girl in France. This way a student gets an idea about how to adjust to a new culture and picks up the right pronunciation,” explains Muller.

While designing the website Muller included the option of networking with other students to form a virtual classroom,set up forums and offered various activities (tests) and games which make the learning process fun and less intimidating. “We also give the option of holding classroom teaching for university students and corporates over and above the course material on the site. But this is at an additional cost,” says Muller,who earlier worked as web consultant for the EU parliament website and a UNICEF-funded project in Andra Pradesh.

These days he is developing Version 2 of the website that will improve connectivity between students in chatrooms. “This is planned for January next year,” he says.