The French club recently had their first game of pétanque here on campus, on the front lawn of Shilling Hall.

Pétanque is a game similar to horseshoes. There are eight balls, four silver and four gold—strongly resembling Harry Potter golden snitches—and a small wooden ball. The playing field is a smallish rectangle.

To begin the game, the first player throws the wooden ball, and then every other player takes turn throwing his or her ball, trying to get as close as possible to the wooden ball without going out of bounce.

Other players can attempt to knock their opponents balls farther from the wooden ball or move the wooden ball all together. The person who gets closest to the wooden ball wins and gets to throw the wooden ball to start the next game.

The game is very popular in France, where it is played by people of all ages, from the adolescents to the elderly. The French students (and even non-French students) participating had an amazing time playing the game.

Dr. Toure, one of the French professors, said it’s important to get beyond the classroom, and actually experience and participate in activities French people do, to spark active interest in French. He also stated French club will be holding more of these kinds of activities in the future, which are sure to be a great time.

After the game the group sat down for frittatas, which are basically omelets wrapped in pastry dough with the options for various types of filling.

Many people will tell you foreign language is a great thing to have in a future career, because it helps you stand out on a job application when looking for a job. In fact, according to spring.org, learning a second language fights off dementia, promotes brain growth, boosts your memory, increases your attention, makes you better at multitasking and even improves your first language.

Millikin University offers French, Spanish and Italian to fulfill the foreign language requirement MU has.

For those who have some interest in taking on a French minor will be delighted to hear that French minors get to travel all over the world with many job opportunities, and those wanting to check out French club can rest assured there will be many more fun events like pétanque day.