dlejhunt

Hello all Fodorites - I am planning to spend a month next summer (that is, 2011) in Paris, studying French. I am wondering if any of you have done this, and if you have any school recommendations.
By next summer I will have finished my French B.A. requirements, and I will be looking for an advanced course, with an emphasis on spoken French (vs. written, I mean). Of course grammar lessons will be necessary (so many intricacies that I have yet to learn).
Je vous remercie!

spaarne

I did the Alliance Francaise twice. I would like to go again. When you sign up they give you a test to determine which level of class you belong in.

stldv

That gives you time enough to google.

dlejhunt

Thank you spaarne, I will check that out. I will probably take some Alliance Francaise classes here this summer, and then I may be able to investigate what they have to offer in France.

Of course I have googled stldv, but I find that personal recommendations are always very helpful. That is the whole point of this forum, I think.

LaCoccinelle

If you register with CampusFrance you can view all schools in France that participate in the Student Visa Programs. You can filter schools using several criteria. I think (not sure) that the program you would be looking for is FLE or a similar anagram. You can then look at a list of quite a few schools (over 50 I think). Paris itself has quite a few less but if you look at the main list then you can filter out by city. AF is a good school and it runs roughly 800 Euro a month for the 20 hour a week program that is required for Visa eligiblity. I think the most economic school is the Catholic Institute of Paris www.icp.fr. If I rememeber correctly they're on a trimester system so the cheapest program they offer may not fit your timeframe. Hope this helps and good luck!!

Christina

yes, I've done it several times. I studied at the Sorbonne one summer and l'Institut Catholique another. I enjoyed both, but did like l'Institut Catholique better in some ways -- the classes, and the accommodations in particular (great locaiton in St Germain, also). I also took some shorter conversation classes once at l'Institut Parisien which is a regular language school, not a university like the others.

All the classes I took emphasized spoken French, but of course, the university classes covered everything, it was a full curriculum. So you would have to speak if you were taking a history or sociology class, of course. And I had to write essays and things, of course, in some classes. But the regular universities make you take grammar and regular classes, so if you are looking for something only oral, go to a private school where you can pick and choose. That's what I did when I went to l'Institut Parisien, but that was because I didn't have as much time.

I talked about all these several times on Fodors in more detail, and other people discussed other things, you can find those threads if you search. Here is one
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...mendations.cfm

Schools I mentioned
http://www.institut-parisien.com
http://www.icp.fr/

dlejhunt

Thank you Christina! Just read your response - end of semester has been crazy and I have not been able to get back on the Forum. I will bookmark your sites and I am most grateful for the info.

LittleFish58

Bonjour! I have a recommendation for you if you decide to consider cities other than Paris. I studied last summer at the Université de Reims and had a great experience there. The classes were small so there was a good deal of personal attention. Not to mention the cost of the program plus housing was much more affordable than Paris, which is only 45 minutes away by TGV. And of course, the Champagne region is lovely. If you want more info on my experience, feel free to contact me. Here's a link to the program: http://www.univ-reims.fr/formation/m...ers,8261.html?

Bonne chance!

Sue4

Bookmarking

hamingja

Well if you are looking for an intensive (or once weekly) class, I took an excellent French class with Nouqa Langues (www.nouqa.fr) when I was in Paris for a few months. I was very pleased. I had a VERY good teacher! Just generally fun...but I learned a lot too, it makes a big difference being able to speak French more confidently while you're there!

I had better 'written' French as well, so it helped to have a professor crank up my spoken/conversational French fairly quickly

Xaxu

Bonjour!
Just like LittleFish 58 I have a recommendation but for somewhere else in France.
Sud-Ouest French Institute 64 (http://www.sofi64.com) is a French language school located in Anglet/Biarritz.
It is an intimate school with very good teachers!
And they are also very close to the beach...

Voilà!

Phread

Have you guys noticed the OP was coming in 2010. veni vidi vici...