6 Week Study Abroad Language Immersion Program

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm mostly just posting here to ask if anybody else has done a similar program to what I'm doing and how they felt about its effectiveness. I'm going to do a 6 week immersion program in a French-speaking country to study French. I'll have classes 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I've been studying French for more than five years now, and I have a lot of francophone friends, so I already speak the language quite well. So, if anybody else has done a similar program, how did you find it? How would you describe your skills in the language you were learning before you left? How would you describe them after? Do you feel it made a significant difference in your fluency?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance to anybody who responds</p>

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<p>If really depends on what you make of it. 3 hours per day seems a bit light to me, but if you spend the rest of the day interacting with native speakers, you will go a long way to achieving fluency. Try not to hang around too much with English speakers.</p>

<p>I did a Goethe Institute in Germany (2 months intensive) and it was fantastic. I had no knowledge of German when I started and left with a solid grasp of grammar and able to get around. Over the next 10 months, with German friends, I got fluent (not that I am anymore, but I was). </p>

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<p>6 Weeks is not a long time - but you already have a base in the language. From my experience with Spanish, you will solidify what you have already learned, pick up some new vocabulary along the way, and improve your ability to speak French. </p>

<p>I don’t think it will be a big step towards fluency - from my experiences, you need to spend more time in the culture. The 6 weeks will be an important step, nonetheless.</p>

<p>I am not crazy about homestays, but for a short period of time a homestay is a pretty good way to make sure you speak and hear the language you are studying. Even better would be a residence or shared apartment with French speaking students.</p>

<p>Study hard! The more you study, the more you will learn! You can really make the time work for you!</p>

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<p>@Magellan,
First, thank you for taking the time to go on CC and share the wealth of your experience with study abroad! You’ve been so helpful to so many.</p>

<p>Second, I was curious why you weren’t so fond of home stays? Is it because it can be a more restrictive environment for a college student than staying with peers? I can totally understand this from a college student perspective, but I am writing to ask advice for a young high school DD.</p>

<p>Maybe a home stay would be just the thing for her at her age. Better, perhaps, than a US based organization that sends a group of high school kids to Europe, where they probably spend a lot of time chatting with each other in English. Still, again for a kid of young high school age girl, I worry about safety of home stays, as unfortunately there are pedophiles and such even in families, and perhaps being so isolated and dependent upon a roll of-the-dice family is not so good either. She’s done briefer home stays (a couple of weeks) with well-vetted families before, so this won’t be entirely new to her.</p>

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<p>To Auberginebleu - I forgot to post a linke for you:
<a href=“http://www.budgetstudyabroad.com/courses-programs-abroad/abroad_category/month-long-french-courses/”>http://www.budgetstudyabroad.com/courses-programs-abroad/abroad_category/month-long-french-courses/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>To 24daffodils,</p>

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>Home stays are fine. And for high school aged kids I think they are a great option and agree with you on the reasons.</p>

<p>I only did one home stay, and it was fine. But because I wanted to study abroad a few times, shared apartments were less expensive - sometimes 400 euros less expensive. The cost savings allowed me to stay abroad longer, even though I also had to pay for food.</p>

<p>Also, I had lived in shared apartments with other students and I loved being in an apartment (in Spain, for example) with Korean students, German students, and people from other countries (usually around 3 or 4 other students). I learned so much from them and got to experience all kinds of great food!</p>

<p>Interestingly, in the times I have studied abroad, I never heard of anyone in the home stay families making unwelcomed advances on young female students or treating them badly. The worst I ever heard was not being able to put stuff in the refrigerator, which I experienced in Germany and which a friend of mine experienced in Spain.</p>

<p>I have a hunch that the schools and programs that use home stays do get to know their host families and I would imagine they take consider carefully with which families they place their female students (though I imagine the famiies are fine and would be appropriate for any students, male or female.</p>

<p>Also agree with you on the “role-of-the-dice” thing. Some host families are spectacular, I have heard from my classmates at the time, while others are mediocre.</p>

<p>In any case, choosing a home stay for your daughter seems to me to be a rational and responsible choice - and home stays do have a lot of positives - a family, supportive environment, company, and perhaps a sense of stability and security while abroad.</p>

<p>Many thanks for the kind words! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>(Now that I know that people actually read some of what I write here, I am really going to have to cut down on the typos!)</p>

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<p>Hi 24daffodils,
Just a quick note to let you know that I replied to you post (I hadn’t hit “reply” in your entry…)</p>

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<p>@magellan26, thank you so much for your thoughts! Your story of sharing an apartment with others from all over the world sounds amazing.</p>

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<p>It’s a pleasure to help! :)</p>