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Peggy Feehan is a native French speaker, born in New Brunswick, Canada, and educated there. She taught high school science before moving to Louisiana in 1999, when she was recruited by the to teach French, which she did until 2006. 

Feehan earned her master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2007.

From 2006 to 2014, she was a consultant, first for St. Martin Parish and then for the Louisiana Department of Education. In February 2015, she began working for CODOFIL, where her main duties included recruiting French teachers from France and Belgium. In 2018, Feehan was appointed as CODOFIL's executive director. 

She is married to Scott, executive director of Lafayette's Festival International, and together they are raising their two children, Elaine and Jeremi, in French and English. 

What are some of the programs that CODOFIL is working toward right now?

We are a state agency that has legislative mandates, so that's first and foremost what we do: education, economic development and community development. 

When the phone rings, we'll try to fulfill everybody's needs, like if it's putting musicians in touch with a festival in Canada or a French publisher who wants to tour schools down here to sell their books. 

The scope of what we do is very wide, on top of our legislative mandates. 

Festival International is coming up in Lafayette. Is CODOFIL planning anything in particular for the festivities? 

We're going to have a tent not far from the Fais Do-Do stage with some French tables. There's a French immersion program in Nova Scotia, Université Sainte-Anne, that's coming to recruit. We'll have information about the scholarships we manage as well.

As a 'transplant' from Canada, why is it important to you to keep French alive in Louisiana? 

My goal when I moved here was not to be the CODOFIL director, it just happened from one job to the other. When I applied to be director, I had been here for three years, and I really wanted to do more. 

Where I grew up, I was raised in French. I learned English in school, like people learn French here.

The Acadian people fought for their language, so it's a battle that I've fought my whole life growing up — kind of like a rebel — demanding French services and French rights and French schools. I grew up in that environment, so it translates well to working for French in Louisiana, although at a different level.

In New Brunswick, French is an official language, so there's real rights for citizens, and that really doesn't exist over here. But the idea of preserving a language, or fighting to keep it alive, certainly is similar. 

Are there any notable people in Lafayette who are keeping the language alive in a unique way?

Certainly, the CODOFIL employees do a lot in their respective jobs. When you think about the Lafayette International Center, which is an arm of Lafayette Consolidated Government, they do a lot of trades internationally — so there's a lot of French involved in their day-to-day jobs. 

Cavalier House Books on Jefferson Street has French books, and they did that intentionally to service the French-speaking families and the kids in French immersion. Parents who put their kids in French immersion — not just in Lafayette but statewide — it matters to them. 

The old folks who spoke French first, they're dying, so we need little kids in school learning the language to keep French alive. The parents are really the biggest French supporters because they're putting their kids in the program. 

What are the benefits of young people learning a second language? 

For a kid, it's like a game. There's no effort. 

Being bilingual in another language certainly has a lot of cognitive benefits. It's really good for brain development, and the earlier they learn, the better. In schooling, the younger the better, because you want to front-load with language. 

Curriculum in Pre-K is nothing compared to curriculum in fourth grade. So we can front-load a lot of language without having to worry about learning all that we need, or finishing the curriculum. In first grade, you can back off the French to introduce more content, like social studies content in French. They already understand the language, so it's not learning social studies and French at the same time — it's just learning social studies in French. 

Do you have any tips for adults who are learning French? 

Our website, , launched during COVID, when we were getting phone calls asking if we taught French, which we don't. The website includes free resources for beginners or continuing learners.

There's also a big network of French tables around the state, and we have a calendar available at . We invite people to visit those French tables and sit down with French speakers to either listen or participate. 

They're held at different locations around the state, sometimes in a library, cafe or for lunch at a restaurant. There's one rule: If you sit down at the table, you speak French. You can listen and tell a story or do as much or as little as you want. It lets locals and tourists visit in French, learn different accents and continue their learning.