First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service (1917), by Ernest H. Wilkins and others

The training of American soldiers and other military personnel involved more than how to shoot a gun or work in a team. It also involved learning the language of the country where they would most likely be working—France.

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, a small industry in French language instruction soon sprang up. It included classes, books and newspaper articles.

In the summer of 1917, the University of Chicago Press published three books that addressed the different French language needs of the soldiers, doctors, and nurses who would be traveling to France. The authors worked with military personnel in nearby Fort Sheridan.

• First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service, by Ernest H. Wilkins (professor of Romance languages and literature at the University of Chicago), Algernon Coleman (assistant professor of Romance languages and literature at the University of Chicago), and Howard R. Huse (professor of French at Sophie Newcomb College).
• First Lessons in Spoken French for Doctors and Nurses, by Wilkins, Coleman, and Ethel Preston (Department of Romance languages and literature at the University of Chicago).
• Le Soldat Américain en France (by Coleman and A. Marin La Meslée), a book of advanced French language lessons for soldiers who were already familiar with the language.

The preface of the pocket-sized First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service states:

The purpose of this book is to help men in American military service (1) to understand what may be said to them in French; (2) to make themselves understood in French; (3) to understand printed French.

This instruction takes the form of 36 lessons that cover grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Verbal communication is emphasized, to get the student used to speaking the language.  

First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service tells much about the people, places, and things that the soldier was likely to encounter, as well as the situations in which those encounters would occur.

For example, the first 10 lists of words at the end of each of lesson cover these topics: soldiers and officers; numerals; army; arms and equipment; food; clothes; city and town; persons; war; and care for the body. An appendix includes the names and pronunciations of different places, like Alsace and Verdun.

Household accounts in 1918  (Comptes de la ménagère en 1918)

First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service was used in classes in the United States, but it's easy to imagine soldiers reading it during long trips across the United States and the Atlantic Ocean.

The book is densely packed with a variety of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation instructions that were probably difficult to absorb during the first reading. It was probably referenced many times after soldiers spent some time among French soldiers and civilians.

By then, the soldiers would have better understood how the French language was actually spoken, and also understand how much their quality of life—including survival—depended on their knowledge of the language.  

First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service also had value for people who were not going to France. English language books about the war often used French words to more precisely describe something. Those words included poilu, which the book defines as the slang word for soldier.

The copy of First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service that was used for this review includes an inscription dated March 21, 1918 that indicates that the book was used by a female college student. This copy also includes many handwritten notes inside the covers and in the margins of the pages.

Other military instruction in the French language included:

• A series of French lessons in the Vicksburg (Mississippi) Evening Post by Mademoiselle Paul Archinard, a French instructor who had visited the war zone in France (Vicksburg Evening Post, June 21, 1917).

• A wide variety of French language instruction books on sale at Macy's in New York City (The New York Times, July 21, 1917).

• Courses taught in Philadelphia by teachers recruited by the School Mobilization Committee (The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 26, 1917).

• A course at Camp Ricketts in Pittston, Pennsylvania that was conducted by Regimental Chaplain James Farr (Pittston Gazette, August 14, 1917).

• The book Cortina French-English Military Manual, by Jean A. Picard of the Cortina Academy of Languages (The (New York) Sun, August 25, 1917).

• A nine-lesson course by the Gordon-Rottweiler Institute at the B.F. Keith's Theater in Washington, D.C. (Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), September 27, 1917).

• The book A Military Guide Book to the French Language, by French artillery officer George Nestler Tricoche (The Atlanta Constitution, September 30, 1917).

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First Lessons in Spoken French for Men in Military Service was published in July 1917, according to its copyright page. It was reviewed in the July 29, 1917 edition of the Oakland (California) Tribune. Front page headlines in that day's Tribune included:

• JAPAN MAY FILL BREACH IN EAST FRONT IF RUSSIA FAILS

• DRAFT BOARD IS TO PLAY NO FAVORITES / "Another Must Face Death for Every Man Who Is Excused," Crowder's Word to Judges

• Incomes to Stand War Tax Raise

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Online versions:

• Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Internet Archive

Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/).

Image of household accounts by Archives Nationales (France) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons).