The evangelical Église de la Pélisserie (FREE), in Geneva's sparsely populated old town, has offered free French classes for non-native speakers for the past year, on the initiative of pastor Serge Carrel and three volunteers. The Wednesday and Sunday sessions drew an average of 25 participants since September 2025, mostly Mongolian and Ukrainian members of the church along with friends from those communities, and have since progressed from vocabulary basics to written comprehension, grammar and conjugation.
As the Mongolian-origin student group shrinks and new Ukrainian students join, volunteer teacher Olivier Berner says the class has become more demanding, prompting organizers to split the course into separate beginner and advanced tracks this term. The church is now appealing to sister FREE congregations for additional French-speaking volunteer teachers.
(Originally published in French. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Église évangélique de la Pélisserie (FREE) — lafree.ch
