Having just completed my first time in an immersion course, I am looking back on the experience and realizing I’m very glad it’s over — for a number of reasons!
On the positive side, my fellow students were a fascinating lot. Most of them were either diplomats or employees of the European Union, UNESCO, and UNHCR. The only non-governmental types were a woman from New York (the only other American), a woman from Stockholm, an Irish man who was accompanying his husband (who is a diplomat), and moi. The other eight were sent by their employers.
From Vence it was a long journey by train. But arriving in the sleek Avignon TGV train station (above) made it worth it! The school is located a half hour drive from Avignon in a tiny village, so tiny that there is no pharmacy (and, in France, there are pharmacies EVERYWHERE!). Only recently did a bakery open. It was certainly in a picturesque enough setting, though, surrounded by vineyards.
It was 95 degrees when I arrived, like the preceding 30 days, and the next seven (the rooms were air conditioned, thankfully). The pool at the school was my salvation, although there was little time to use it. Not normally a morning person, I would get up at 7:30, don my bathing suit and race to the pool for some lap swimming. The pool was a perfect temperature in the morning, just heated enough not to be shocking upon entering. Here was the daily schedule:
8:30 – 9:00 | Breakfast (baguette, cereal, croissants – no fruit) | |
9:00 – 11:00 | Class | |
11:00 – 11:30 | Break | Coffee (and the croissants left over from breakfast) |
11:30 – 12:30 | Class | |
12:30 – 12:45 | Free time (ha!) | |
12:45 – 1:30(about) | Lunch with the gang | |
1:30 – 2 | Free time | |
2 – 4 | Class | |
4 – 4:30 | Break | OJ and small sugar cookies every day, the same |
4:30 – 5:30 | Class | |
5:30 – 6:30 | Free time | Sometimes the last class would end late; usually I would go to my room and rest (collapse). |
6:30 – 7:30 | Some sort of program | It was Pétanque one night, a lecture by an historian, another night. A French rapper (who was the most interesting!) on a third night. |
7:45 – 9 | Dinner | Dinner was served by courses, so meals dragged on… |
9ish onwards | Homework | I needed to prepare a presentation for class the next morning. |
Their internet drove me nuts. Finally, I just used one of my two phones as a hotspot, to get the computer work done. I heard that the director had a much better connection in her office.
The pedagogy was not terribly creative. We were supposed to sit for hours at a time in front of a computer doing exercises that made one’s head hurt after a while, they were so repetitive. I have taken French classes where it was actually fun to learn, by role play, or games, such as Boggle (in French). There was none of that.
So, yes, I learned a few things, but, I suppose the real lesson for me is that nothing magical is going to happen by doing an immersion course (yes, that was my previous thinking, ridiculous as it seems now). Of course, it was only five days of classes (arrival Sunday night, departure Saturday morning), so I’m not sure what I expected. You just have to keep putting in the work, day after day, month after month. So, I’m trying to speak French whenever I can, and I do Duolingo lessons every day. Reading a mystery in French is my next project to try to up my game.
