Best language immersions in France
 

Bonjour à tous!

I’m an adult looking to spend two weeks in France in a language immersion school this July.

There are options in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier, among others.

Any suggestions and/or recommendations are appreciated.

Merci!

not a direct answer but have you tried Italki for exchange immersion from the comfort of your own home first?

I’m interested in traveling to France.

Bonjour, mgvt4223 et bienvenue a Fodors!

I've not personally done a language course in France, but I've done several in Italy so I've some experience in judging language schools. My initial questions are whether you are a beginner or already have some french, and whether you actually mean "immersion" ie all you hear and speak is french? If you are a beginner that can be extremely tiring and may be too much to take; OTOH if you have some experience it may be just the thing to take you to the next level. Also if you are experienced it's important to find a school that offers classes at every level. I think that those are more important factors than where the school is.

I have a friend beginning a course tomorrow. However, she has not understood rule #1 of French immersion, and no matter how much I tell her, it just doesn't get through -- watch French television while in France and listen to French radio. Otherwse it is hopeless. Everybody says "I've learned to make sentences but when people are talking, I don't understand a thing." That's because they have not really immersed themselves.

Two weeks is rather short if you don’t speak any French at all. But I second kerouac, listen to the TV, news, movies, even météo, you’ll learn a lot. I personally found being with young children a huge learning experience, they didn’t care if I made silly mistakes or spoke badly, while I picked up a lot of phrases and expressions from them.

Actually, no one cares if you make mistakes, they’re happy to see you make the effort. But I was terribly conscious and hesitant to speak. You also learn from people you interact with in shops, restaurants, on the metro, etc. Try and go back again later this year, or at least join a French conversation group at home to stay in touch with the language.

Thank you for these insights - and the warm welcome! They are very insightful and I will take your
advice into consideration.

Merci beaucoup!

I have heard this advice before and will take it to heart. With French movies and shows available on Youtube, it should be easy enough. Thank you for taking the time. Much appreciated!

Fantastic advice. Thank you!

The big struggle for me was the first meeting and getting used to speaking and speaking without pause but making loads of mistakes. I still do this but the stress of doing this for the first time is very tough. I can now do it face to face in my chosen languages but I found swopping languages on italki a great first step. The benefit of using a screen is you can cheat and the emotional termoil of stumbling along is reduced by the artifical connection.

Cheating, write down the top 40 expressions you are going to use (my name is, I live in ....) and they can be the scaffolding of the first contact. By the end of the first 30 minutes you will find you have made a friend and you have a shared experience of stumbling around in foreign languages. Then when you go to immersion school it is so much easier.

Kerouac's ideas on TV, radio, film are perfect, plus read/watch the news everyday.

It sounds like immersing myself in just the sounds of French regularly before I go to an immersion class is the way to go. I do
have a weekly in-person class I'm taking, to pick up on where my high school French left off. It is very awkward to speak
in my elementary-level French, but I am slowly getting less self-conscious about it.

I'll check out italki. Thanks!

You can listen to radio stations and TV news on the internet before you go. Have a look at this list for instance:

https://au.radio.net/country/france

Better to find one that has some talk rather than all music or you will not reap the benefits. For the news see if there is a short broadcast of up to two minutes.

Lavandula

My radio station of choice is France Inter.

I've been listening to the News in Slow French podcast, which I have discovered is a fantastic resource for beginners. I highly recommend!

I've known people quite enjoyed the program in Tours (said to be the purest accent in France) and the pricey program at the Institute de Francais in Villefranche-sur-Mer. One suggestion for French content outside of France is FranceChannel --- a streaming platform for TV, movies, documentaries, etc.

It can help if you go to a school that draws on a more international group of students. This way you are forced to speak in your common language (French) over breaks or lunch. Don't be tempted to always speak with other English speakers at this time. You can usually find a breakdown of student nationalities somewhere on the school site or elsewhere on the web.

I liked studying Italian in a smaller city, since it was easier to get away from the tourist areas to try speaking with merchants who were more likely to have time and patience.

<<I liked studying Italian in a smaller city, since it was easier to get away from the tourist areas to try speaking with merchants who were more likely to have time and patience.>>

very good point, mama_mia.

I absolutely loved the weeklong French course I took at the Coeur de France in Sancerre (I only did a week, but you can do multiple weeks). The staff/teachers were lovely, the classes were challenging and fun, and the school offered excursions in the afternoon to nearby towns, vineyards, a goat farm, etc. I wouldn't necessarily call the experience an "immersion" experience though, since while the classes were all in French, some of the excursions were not. But living in Sancerre was super helpful - the shop owners and people who live there are used to language students visiting, and they're all eager to practice french with you. I'd highly recommend, and I actually feel like my French improved quite a bit just during the week I was there.

I think the Villefrance-sur-mer course is more true immersion, though. I've also heard good things about L'ecole des trois ponts. Both of those are more intensive courses.

Since 2012, my wife and I have gone to several language schools in Paris, Villefranche-sur-mer, and Montpellier in France; Madrid and San Sebastian in Spain; and last month, Florence, in Italy. I guess, in retrospect, it's kind of a hobby. We rarely go to a school for less than a month. We've absolutely enjoyed each of the experiences! If I were you, I would keep the expectations low. Learning a language is a process. After more than 10 years, we can hold a decent conversation in French but not yet in Spanish or Italian. But, we started late in life. Besides going to a school in France, there are "immersion" courses out there where you stay with a family. We've done that twice in France, two weeks each time (but not in Paris). If you're looking at going for 2 weeks only, I wouldn't worry too much about the course; instead pick the location that interests you. In the summer. you'll probably find many more younger people in your course than we found when going to school in the spring, fall, and winter. If this is your first trip tp France, I would probably look for a school in Paris, which is where we started. Although you seem to be a bit late in the planning phase, I wish you well and hope you find learning French as stimulating and rewarding as my wife and I have found it. From Rome, our best, Bill and Cindy

One way to get an immersion on the cheap is to stay in table d'hote. This is a form of B&B where you eat with the hosts and chat about life. I normally try to fit one in at the start of any french holiday as 2 hours of discussing valve manufacturer with a valve salesman from Lyons in a small hotel in the middle of nowhere near Bordeaux is a sure way of getting the brain going