Last summer a chamber music concert was taking me to Paris and I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to provide at least a temporary fix for my perpetual addiction to language study. I promptly planned to stay two additional weeks after the concert and started searching for places that offer what I needed.
I had previously studied French lyric diction and had a good basic sense of “art song vocabulary” as well as common poetic structures from my work as an art song coach and enthusiast. I had never had a chance to immerse myself in a formal study of the language, however, much less in the capitol of France!
After entering “French language study Paris” in my computer search engine, I was immediately drawn to the bright, clear website of the Ecole France Langue. Paris boasts a plethora of places to study French, but it soon became clear that Ecole France Langue had exactly what I needed.
The website was highly useful, with all its information available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the Japanese, Russian, or Chinese translations, but the English was excellent, clear and concise. The site’s links also were very helpful, taking me to the correct places and actually containing all the prices and information I needed to help me choose and register for the appropriate courses.
Perhaps most appealing: I was able to complete every element of the registration process without so much as a single phone call—and the large size of the Ecole France Langue meant I was able to register for a course as an absolute beginner, starting any Monday of the year!
On the website, students also can sign up for a variety of housing options ranging from bed and breakfast accommodations to rooming with a host family. I had made independent housing arrangements, but the rates seemed reasonable and I would not hesitate, based on my positive experiences with Ecole France Langue, to try one of its housing options in the future.
The website also advertised other aspects of the versatility of the offerings, including Business French, Hotel and Tourism French, French Art History, French and French Cuisine, etc. Upon my arrival at the language school, I was able to appreciate the wide the variety of students, even in my one elementary class.
As I took the short subway ride from my apartment to Place Victor Hugo, I was thankful for the great and convenient location of the Paris branch of the Ecole France Langue. Only a short walk from the Arc de Triomphe and a slightly further distance from the Eiffel Tower, the facilities are all centrally located within a five-minute walk from the Place Victor Hugo. All of the buildings are nicely maintained, well lit, and in an upscale part of Paris.
Upon entering the main office building, the friendly staff greeted me warmly, and didn’t mind the fact that I was uncomfortable saying much more than, “Bonjour. Je m’appelle Caleb Harris.” While taking care of the necessary paperwork the young lady assisting me also gave me a helpful packet of information that included Paris maps, information about events that were open to students of the language school, my carte d’étudiant (student card)—which gave me free access to the school’s Internet lounge—and information about where to purchase the textbooks for my level. I was particularly pleased that I was able to sign up for elementary French (which met from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday), since beginner French is for people who couldn’t even say, “Bonjour, Je m’appelle Caleb Harris.” This gave me Friday off and also challenged me to achieve a higher level than I had anticipated.
After a quick trip to the large bookstore (only two subway stops from Place Victor Hugo) to buy my textbooks for the course, I was ready to embark on my French language journey. The textbooks cost only about 20 euros and they looked interesting, clear, and engaging.
Armed with a French dictionary, my French textbook and workbook, a notebook, and excitement to spare, I arrived early at the classroom to meet my fellow students and teacher. Immediately, I was surprised to find the immense variety of people enrolled in the class. Out of 12 people only three were Americans, with Japan, Taiwan, Great Britain, and Iran also represented. I found out later that of the approximately 3,000 students who enter Ecole France Langue each year, Japan, Germany, the United States, and Russia have the highest enrolments, with 22 percent, 10 percent, 9 percent, and 7 percent respectively. A classroom of students who spoke a variety of different native languages forced us to build our elementary French immediately and rely almost exclusively on each new language tool we were learning so we could share a basic common ground.
Our wonderful teacher, Eva Sheldrick, was the most influential person helping us to achieve this goal. From the first moment I met her, I knew she was fantastic. Not only was she exceptionally skilled at teaching us a new language while speaking in that very language, she also had a seemingly endless arsenal of pedagogical tricks. From pictorial representations to hand gestures and sound illustrations, her understanding of the structure of the language and how to communicate effectively was tremendously impressive. It was also wonderful how she managed to work with such a wide range of students and never seemed to show the slightest sense of frustration or impatience.
As the class progressed and she got to know each of us individually, Madame Eva would also ask us questions about our individual activities outside of class, and patiently listen to us stumble through the answers in our halting French. She seemed to work corrections in so subtly that I wasn’t afraid to try my new skills, though I’m sure my preliminary sounds were often unintelligible.
One of Madame Eva’s biggest challenges was keeping a class that met for four consecutive hours on four consecutive days interesting, especially considering that we started at 8 a.m. She achieved this masterfully, however, by starting most classes with small conversations or scenarios that were largely repetition-based. It was almost like starting the day out at breakfast with a friend. It was low stress and a good way to just practice pronouncing the sometimes quite difficult sounds of French while also getting used to many basic sentence structures. Madame Eva also rotated the activities every few minutes and varied the nature of the assignments so skillfully that I rarely found it interesting to follow the second hand around the clock.
Some of my favorite exercises involved actually reading dialogues or preprinted conversations with other members of the class. This was especially helpful for me in my work as a language coach—I could not only practice speaking and improve my abilities with Eva’s suggestions, but also get to listen to her correct other people and relate her ideas to my own pre-existing knowledge of French lyric diction. Even though French has instances in which you speak the language differently than you sing it, I found it very helpful to get the chance to read and speak so much with a native speaker. The largely interactive format also gave me more confidence on a daily basis and allowed me to see ways in which I could put my new skills to use.
One place where I was able to apply my increasing knowledge of French was in reading the program notes and biographies of composers and performers at the concerts and plays I attended in the evenings. I remember feeling delighted when I was able to understand practically every word of the program notes when I attended Rostand’s wonderful play, Cyrano de Bergerac, at the Comedie Francais. It was also exciting to sit in the play, trying to understand so many words and phrases, and often be surprised to hear a phrase, word or expression I had picked up in class. Knowing that I could return to French class the next day and tell Madame Eva about my experiences was always fun because she was both quite well-read and knowledgeable about the arts, and I knew she would have something fun and interesting to add or ask.
One depressing exercise involved reading the ads for apartments in Paris. Madame Eva had shown us how to read all of the abbreviations to understand exactly what was being advertised. After eagerly perusing several ads in the windows of various real estate agencies, I decided that living in Paris wasn’t a likely possibility in the near future.
I still sometimes wistfully glance at my book of ads, searching for closet-sized apartments that are below 250,000 euros. Six months after my return from Paris, however, I’m comfortably settled back into my life here in the States.
An excerpt from one of Ernest Hemingway’s letters accurately sums up my feelings about Paris: “If you are lucky enough to live in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
The ability to appreciate the many delicacies I was able to taste while staying in Paris was due in no small part to the fine training and friendly staff of Ecole France Langue.
For more information on Ecole France Langue visit the school’s website at www.france-langue.fr.
