New Delhi, July 31 -- As I watch Eva Bonnet, who runs the Instagram handle @bonjour.mate, list ingredients for a multi-fruit clafoutis in a video barely a minute long, I am reminded of the smattering of French words I learned years ago in a classroom-beurre, sucre, œuf, lait, farine-butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour. Only this time, immersed in Eva's beautiful kitchen, watching her banter with her son as she mock-scolds him for not eating the fruit before it needed rescuing, I realise I am more likely now to remember the terms than I did back in the classroom.

Sometime around the early 2000s, while doing my master's, I found I had most evenings free, and a popular, globally recognised French institute offered language classes not too...