If you are considering learning French in France or have already started and are searching for the best route to take you have to consider coming to France to take a French language immersion course. It has a plethora of advantages over other methods and in this article I hope to describe a small fraction of them. I will be focusing on the long term relationships you will form during your French language stay and what that could mean for you in the future. How it will help you with your quest to learn French, what other ways the web of connections you form here could help you in the future but also just the personal reward you will get from nurturing this network of people. Trust me this will extend way beyond the end of your intensive French course and off towards the horizon.
The Web of Relationships Lives On After the End of Your French Course
I have a strong conviction that we live in the best day and age for learning languages, particularly French. The wealth of knowledge we now enjoy as pretty standard with the help of the internet gives us access to an infinite amount of resources for every subject. We can learn remotely from anywhere which in respect of learning the French language or any language for that matter is incredibly useful. It also means we can remain connected with people all over the world. A common worry amongst prospective French students is that if they come to France for an immersion stay and then leave again will they lose what they have learnt when they return home? If so what is the point unless you can commit to a long stay that might not be feasible for you right now?
There are some realities we need to consider here. If you learn French for a small period of time and then don’t practice like any skill it can fade. It can fade but it will never disappear. If you don’t keep engaging with the what you have learned on your French course you might lose a bit of the speed and forget some of the smaller nuances. On the other hand it is amazing how quickly you can dust this off and get back into your rhythm with a foundation created by taking a French immersion course. I will devote another article to the longevity of the immersion technique but another advantage to coming to do a language stay in France is that you have the opportunity to build relationships with natives and other students that you can then use too keep up with your French practice after you have finished.
Services Available To Stay In Contact With People You Meet On Your Immersion Course
Utilising messenger applications like WhatsApp or Facebook you can message people in French instantly from half the word away and keep your written French on point. A lot of us can spend a lot of time on our phones messaging people constantly so imagine if the time you spent doing that was at the same time improving your French.
It doesn’t just stop with written language though. Skype and FaceTime are available for you to have face to face conversations with your international friends. Although people may have busy lives you can just catch up with someone once a week and if you do this with several people there is no reason you can’t be talking in French every day. This is pretty important when it comes to improving your French. You don’t have to rely on having the same schedule as your international network either. You can easily leave recorded messages or videos where you are only speaking in French and then your friends can respond whenever they can. If you are proactive, adaptable and disciplined you can keep communicating in French in all it forms pretty much constantly.
Not only will this help you with your French studies but you will develop long term friendships and spending time with your friends at the same time. It’s a massively constructive way to spend your time. Building this network of French natives and other French students is a lot harder if you haven’t created the foundation by undertaking a French immersion course France. The huge boost to your learning the experience gives you long outlives the language stay itself and you get the advantage of potentially creating life- long relationships, what’s not to like?