View from the Royal Castle in Collioure
Author: Olivia Elshoff | Majors: Sociology and French
On Sunday, July 24th a group of exhausted Americans stumbled off their bus and took their first steps in France. We had left our homes 22 hours previous to this moment and had only managed a few hours of sleep on the two flights and one bus ride to Perpignan, an average-sized city in the south of France bordering the Mediterranean and Spain. Sleep-deprived and nervous, we stood on the hot sidewalk uncertain of what was coming next. Suddenly, a group of people approached us and began calling out our names—our host families had arrived.
If I could describe the first meeting with our host families, I would sum it up with one word: awkward. My mind was clouded with fatigue and English words. The drive to my host family’s house consisted of my blank stares and their patience as they repeated sentences in French two or three times until I understood. Now more than ever, my weaknesses in French became apparent to me.
However, I had chosen this program to learn French and I was determined to improve. Currently, I am majoring in French and Sociology. This program allowed me to earn credit towards my French major and rapidly improve my French through immersion. I have been studying French for 6 years and was excited for this opportunity to visit the country and gain real-world experience speaking French.
By the end of the program, I was able to understand the majority of what was said to me. Having French constantly spoken to me allowed my French listening skills to quickly improve. My host sister was a chatterbox and spoke to me incessantly in French. While at times this could be exhausting, my French listening improved greatly, and I became comfortable around her to an extent where I could speak in French almost easily. With the rest of the family, my confidence in speaking grew slowly over time. At first, I spoke the bare minimum, but as the days went on, I found myself recounting stories of my day, making jokes, and discussing politics.
As for classes, every day we attended four hours of French class. We were separated into 3 different groups based on our level. This was challenging for me, as the program combined all levels intermediate through advance into one class. I was designated as upper intermediate, but many of my classmates were advanced. Although some days of class were very difficult for me, I was being challenged, and I found listening to those more advanced than me speak French to be very motivating.
During class, what we learned varied from day to day, as we had a different teacher each day of the week. We reviewed grammar, read passages, watched films, held discussions, and sang and listened to songs. We also had an overarching project where we revised a story and created a short picture slideshow to represent it.
After classes, there were excursions we could attend, which consisted of a lot of beaches. Looking back, I would not have gone to half of the excursions. Although going to beaches was fun at first, it became tiring, especially because we were in France during a heat wave. I was afraid to miss out on the excursions, but I lost sight of my main goal: to study French. Having long conversations with my host family was difficult after a long day out in the sun at the beach, especially since we were all Americans on the excursions and spoke English to each other throughout the day. However, there were other excursions that were unmissable: a trip to Barcelona, to the quaint castle town of Castlenou, to the fortified castle town of Carcassone, and to the beach shopping town of Collioure and its castle. Visiting medieval castles was one of my favorite parts of the trip, as well as the gorgeous views they provided from their vantage points at the tops of hills.
A breakthrough in French occurred to me during the last week of the program. I found that French was much easier to communicate in if I tried to change my thinking to be in French, so I wasn’t translating into and out of English. This was difficult for me to realize, as I often tried to speak slowly and surely in attempt to make as few errors as possible. But making mistakes is half the process of learning, and my French was better when I just allowed myself to speak, feigning confidence in my sentences.
A highlight of the program was going to Paris. Since we didn’t have classes on Bastille Day, the French Independence Day, a group of us decided to go to Paris for the weekend. During this trip, we were able to visit historical landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre. One of the more memorable experiences of the trip was sitting on the packed Paris streets, straining to watch the Bastille Day fireworks that decorated the night sky behind the Eiffel Tower.
Before we knew it, our time in France had drawn to an end. Although I had enjoyed my time in France, I was happy to return home. The entire month was non-stop, which was both incredible and overwhelming. Furthermore, my French learning journey was anything but linear. Frustration and tiredness threw every French word out of my head, while engaging conversations in car rides with my host dad had me racing through sentences. If I were to give any advice for this program, or any study abroad, I would remind you to listen to your own needs and be patient with yourself. Overall, I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to see the beauty of France, strengthen my French skills, and, last but not least, eat my host mom’s delicious cooking.