<p>I have posted this question on the study abroad forum but it is not very busy over there. So here goes...my daughter will be a sophomore at UCLA this fall. She is planning on spending the fall of her junior year in Paris as part of the UC's EAP. The program is taught at the UC Center, as opposed to the Sorbonne or other French University. The students have the option of living with a host family or in a dormitory with other UC and American students. She very much wants to be in Paris and is considering minoring in French. </p>
<p>Would like any opinions and advice regarding the UC Program, home stay verses dormitory, and the UC Center. If any of you or your children have had any experience with this I would appreciate the information. My older D did a summer program through her LAC in Ecuador and did a semester in Chile so I am familiar with the whole study abroad concept but am looking for info on the UC program and Paris.</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>hands down, she should live with a host family. It’s the best way to learn the language. If she lives in the dorms she will end up talking in english with fellow students. Being really immersed in the language, struggling to come up with the words or phrases you need, is the route to proficiency. And you get that with the host family. </p>
<p>As an anecdotal story, I know someone who took part in the UC program in France and she ended up not getting along with most of the other girls in the dorm. She wanted to learn french and took the admonition to talk in french only seriously; many of the other girls did not and just refused to associate with her because she wanted to talk just in french.</p>
<p>Also I suggest your D attend meetings of the EAP where she can talk with fellow students who’ve been on the program and get their input directly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice mikemac. I agree it is best to live with a host family. And thnaks for the heads p about attending info meetings.</p>
<p>Anyone out there with personal experience?</p>
<p>UC used to also have a study-abroad program in Bordeaux. If that is the case - or if other areas are offered - I would suggest them over Paris. Paris is great, but it’s also filled with international students (tons of Americans) who then speak to each other in English. In smaller cities, English will not be nearly such a temptation. Aix en Provence is also a site I’d avoid, for that same reason. I spent a year in Paris, studying at the Sorbonne, and loved it. But I know I would have spoken far more French outside of Paris. By the way, I know semester programs are the rage now. But if learning French --really learning it – is the goal, a semester won’t do the trick. Fact is, by the end of the semester you’re just getting comfortable with the language, fluency is still a long way away.</p>
<p>I agree that a year long program would be best if the goal is becoming fluent. The UC program in Paris for the fall has the opportunity to continue in Bordeaux for the spring semester. The problem with that is that UCLA is on the quarter system. By going for the fall my D only misses fall quarter at UCLA. If she stayed for the spring semester also she would be missing 2 quarters more (winter & spring). I think she is afraid of not getting all of her major classes completed if she studies aboad for a year. She is pretty set on Paris. I think she wants to experience living in Paris and all it has to offer more than she is interested in actually becoming fluent in French.</p>
<p>Does anyone have personal experience with the UC Paris program?</p>
<p>I spent my senior year studying at Universite de Poitiers in France through UCSB’s EAP program. Loved it! It’s a well-run program (EAP) and I became fluent in French, took a year’s worth of courses in French, all of which transferred to my major (English Lit) and traveled a lot. I highly recommend it. If she is set on Paris, she should try to live with a host family. We didn’t have that option, just apartment living. Because I wasn’t in Paris, most of the local people I met did not speak English, so that’s how I became fluent. In Paris, it’s so much easier to get by not speaking French, particularly if she will be taking courses in English at the EAP center rather than in French at a local university. I was totally unconfident of my language abilities (had just two years of university French courses and one six-week intensive course when we arrived in France), but being immersed in the culture, people and college, I became fairly fluent by the end of 10 months.</p>
<p>If missing classes during the year is an issue has she considered doing a summer study-abroad program?</p>
<p>Yes, actually she is looking at doing the summer program in Florence, Italy next summer. She doesn’t have an extremely intense major such as pre-med or engineering but does feel that a full year abroad would make that final senior year very full. I think a solution would be to possibly take one or two summer sessions at UCLA to fulfill major and unit requirements. But I am just not sure that she would really want to spend a full year there. She is pretty active in her sorority and is hoping to have some internships while in LA (public relations/marketing type stuff).</p>