I just began my fourth week (time is flying by!), after a week focused mostly on oral comprehension skills. It might be that I have acclimated to the learning environment and know how to make the most of my studies, but I noticed a greater rate of improvement during my third week than in the first two. I have advanced a level in the past three weeks, which is exciting!

To anyone who is interested in doing a language immersion program, I would definitely recommend studying on your own outside of class. Classes can move slowly or quickly, depending on what concepts you and other students know. Because everyone has had a different course of study, we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I find that my grasp on grammar is beyond the level of my course, but my speaking and listening comprehension skills are appropriately challenged. So to try and close the gap, I often practice reading syllable-by-syllable and making vocabulary flashcards.

On the weekends, I do some local travel and often get the opportunity to use my French on the road. A lot of people that I have started conversations have been really open to letting me speak French with them. Through these conversations, I have learned a lot about French culture. In my last post, I mentioned that I got the opportunity to speak with many local citizens about the political climate in France, through a class activity. I found it to be one of the most memorable things that I have done so far, and I really enjoy hearing the responses people give me. Thus, I have chosen to pursue the topic a little further and often try to start conversations about the protests and political situation in France.

The Nuit Debout movement is gathering momentum and while there is a definite tension (people are worried about travel, etc.) and I have seen protesters gathered outside the Hotel de Ville at night since I’ve gotten here, I think it is quite fascinating that many people are passionate about their opinions, even if they aren’t directly joining the protests. I met a group of young people who were traveling to Paris for a concert and decided to talk to them about what sort of social tensions currently exist in France. They had many interesting things to share about the protests and issues like racism in France, which seems very similar to the kinds of tensions that exist in the US. We spoke about US situations as well, like Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson. Having visited Ferguson and participated in the Social Concerns “Realities of Race” seminar, I am personally interested in race relations in the United States, but this is my first time really thinking about it in the context of a different culture and country. The people that engaged me in this conversation spoke a lot about geographic racism and segregation, which I found very interesting. What I gleaned from the conversation is that many immigrants are forced to move to outer parts of cities, often due to socioeconomic reasons that force the poor to move into housing projects. As in many cities in the US, these areas used to be occupied by the middle class, people who eventually deserted them because of the increasing poverty and immigration, moving to nicer suburban areas. In addition, these areas are often isolated by fewer transportation lines and thus higher unemployment rates. Based on what I discovered upon visiting St. Louis for my SCS, these situations are very similar. I wish I had more advanced French knowledge in order to be able to pursue the topic further with the lovely people that I met, and I definitely hope to do some more comprehensive reading on this topic. If you’re also interested, here is an interesting article I found that outlines the issues of race in Parisian suburbs better than I can articulate it: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/the-other-france.

As for more about my classes, I have switched from the intensive course (22.5 hours/week) to the standard course (15 hours/week) for this week. I originally signed up for it this way, and I hope to use my extra time to further explore the city and use my French in a daily context, which I think will be more beneficial for me than sitting in extra classes. Now that I know good methods for practicing phonetics, I hope to do more on my own. As I previously said, sometimes the pace of the class can hold you back, and self-motivation is key to more efficient improvement.

I have met other wonderful students, with whom I hope to attend a local music festival, picnic, and visit surrounding areas of Tours. Food is a huge part of the culture here, and I really enjoy getting lunch with my friends and dinnertime with the other students in my host family. I have done some grocery shopping for when I have to make my own lunches, and my staples definitely include the stereotypical baguette and cheese (favorite so far is camembert, even though the local speciality is chèvre). However, for dinner, my host makes a wonderful variety of delicious foods, always beginning with a salad and ending with a cheese plate. I have tried a variety of delicious crepes, quiches, and desserts, as well. Other cultural aspects that I have really enjoyed discovering include French music. I took a culture class two weeks ago that explained the different genres of French music and the popular artists of each genre. It was really engaging and now I try to mix my playlists of songs in English with those in French.

I can’t believe that three weeks have already flown by. I have felt an incredible amount of personal growth, which is really comforting after just completing my first year at Notre Dame. I am meeting so many cool people and love the challenge of being alone in a foreign country, surrounded by so many welcoming new friends is really special. I hope I can make the most of the next 2 and a half weeks! I don’t think I’ll want to leave.

And so concludes the most memorable week of my life! Each day this week I tried at least one new food, met a person from a different country and learned new French vocabulary. I found myself lost multiple times and was accidentally tear-gassed by the French police. I attended mass in a cathedral built in the 300s and a wine festival featuring more wines than I thought was possible. As a result, it feels much longer than one week ago that I landed in Paris after an 8-hour flight from Washington, D.C and boarded the train for Tours.

It seems to silly to me now how nervous I was as the train pulled up to the Tours train station, unsure of what the next six weeks would hold. While the first few days were definitely the hardest, every day has been an improvement and I already am noticing a vast improvement in my ability to understand and hold conversations in French. The second I saw my host parents, holding a home-made sign with my name, waving and smiling at me, I knew I had nothing to be worried about. They are a wonderful and kind couple that has hosted students for over twenty-five years!

That being said, my first couple days in Tours were definitely the hardest. While my host mom accompanied to school the first day on the tram, I decided for some reason to try the bus the next day. I assumed the bus and the tram would let off at the same location near my school, which I soon realized was not the case as I looked out the window and saw the Loire river below me as the bus left downtown Tours for the suburbs. As a result, I was 45 minutes late to the first official day of school. The bus mishap was only the first of many times I got lost. In addition I struggled conversing in French outside the comfort zone of my school and host family. A puzzled look coupled with the phrase “je ne vous comprends pas” was a common response I received the first couple days.

While initially I was frustrated by continually being lost and misunderstood, it was those processes that were actually the most rewarding. In being lost I stumbled across some of Tours’ best shops and in being misunderstood I gained a better understanding of French language. For example here is a word I will never forget: manifestation (protest).

During an extra long répose (break) last week I decided to return home in between classes on the tram, and on my return trip, the tram abruptly stopped in the center of town. When I asked the driver why the tram stopped, he pointed forward and said “manifestation” and then opened the tram doors and said “sortir.” Ignoring the first word because I did not know its meaning, I followed his directors to “sortir” (exit) the tram and began to walk to school, which happened to be in the same direction he pointed when he said manifestation. Suddenly I heard chanting in French as I was encircled by swarms of people holding signs and looking very angry all around me. Then I saw rows of armed guards slowly marching towards us and before I was able to get myself away from the protestors a huge cloud of white smoke engulfed us. Suddenly my eyes began to sting and everyone around me grabbed parts of their clothes to cover their faces. I soon realized the police were dispersing tear gas to break up the “manifestation.” I covered my face with my sweater and ran away from the gas as fast as I could. I was late for school but I when I explained to my teacher why, he seemed very happy I had this “first hand experience of the French revolutionary spirit!” He explained to me the definition of manifestation and how the French view the right of protest an integral part of their history. The manifestation I witnessed however was unusual in that its part of a larger movement against the new labor law implemented by the French government. Protests are occurring across the entire country of France in fact and many workers are on strike.

In addition I am learning the importance of phonetics to the French language. Often French words differ by the slightest phonetic change in a syllable. Outside of the classroom, I am not understood if I don’t pronounce the phonetics exactly. This happened when I tried to buy a watermelon (pastèque) but the seller thought I was calling his fruit plastic (plastique), and when someone asked me how my first cours (course) of school was and I began to explain the route I jog each morning because I thought they asked about running (courir) – (these were some of those puzzled looks and “je ne vous comprends pas” instances).

I lucked out though because my first week at school was a special week focused on oral skills and so by the end of the week already noticed a vast improvement in my ability to hold to a conversation!

I am also expanding my food palate. As my family and friends know well, I have never been an adventurous eater. My usual diet rarely detours from vegetables, chicken and fish. Yet in the past week, meats I have never had before in my life appeared on my plate each night. Much to my surprise, and I think more to the surprise of my family and friends, I found myself liking almost every meal. Of course it doesn’t hurt that my host mom comes from three generations of professional chefs and worked in a restaurant for twenty years herself!

One of the aspects I love most about my time in Tours so far has been my interaction with other cultures in my home and at school. At school the first week I was one of two Americans in my class. One activity in particular I enjoyed was finding advertisements from our respective countries and explaining them to the class. I chose to cover Superbowl advertisements, and people were shocked to learn that commercials could be so expensive and so many celebrates appeared in them.

While I was alone the first three nights in my house, I now have three housemates who are also students at L’Institut de Touraine. On my floor is a very sweet woman from Japan studying the French language and wine to improve her skills as a wine consultant in Japan. One the floor above me lives a boy my age from Ireland and a girl from the United States. We eat dinner together every night at 8 pm and talk only in French – the common language amongst us. Often the conversation turns into a comparison of cultures that goes well over one hour. The inevitable mix of culture, gastronomy and socializing of the meal has made dinner one of my favorite parts of Tours.

I love exploring Tours and all of its treasures, meeting new people and learning French. I cannot wait to begin my month long course on Monday and start excursions to other parts of France this week. À bientôt!

My second week at the Institut de Touraine was great. Like I mentioned, this week is technically a vacation because there’s a national standardized test going on, but there were smaller oral courses for students who wanted to keep taking classes this week. My class this week was bigger and full of people who were more willing to make an effort than everyone in my class last week, so I feel like I learned a lot more. The class was almost like a conversation—we would have a new topic every few days with worksheets and activities to do, but most of the time we got very off track and just started discussing and debating various things.

This, of course, is exactly what I need to improve my French, since if I couldn’t articulate something I was actually unable to cheat and switch to English—my teacher couldn’t speak it at all. I’d simply have to find a better way to express myself. I had to do this with all kinds of topics, from describing popular stereotypes of various nationalities to defending my opinion on a controversial issue. Having to do this day after day made me sort of gradually forget I was doing it in a foreign language and just focus on the topic itself, which greatly helped. I think my proudest moment was when two people in my class were trying to argue against a certain article but confusing the rest of us, until I pointed out that they were arguing for the same point as the writer but taking her metaphor too literally.

We also had to do these phonetic labs where we’d usually be given an absolutely Herculean task like imitating a recording’s voice inflections down to the last syllable, fail at it for obvious reasons, then listen to the playback of our own voices and realize that despite our mistakes we sounded like native French-speakers with a completely French accent. It was really frustrating but interesting in a way.

This week I also explored Tours a little more. I visited the Musée des Beaux Arts; I’m not a huge fan of art museums, but I really loved all the art there inspired by Greek mythology. There was a ton of it—paintings and statues of so many different stories. I also visited the public library a few times and started reading Les Misérables in French. And last night I went to a concert where a bunch of different choirs from around Europe sang to compete for our votes. It was really beautiful, and I got to hear some other languages too. It’s been a pretty good week, and I’m excited to see what next week has in store.

My second week in Tours was great, albeit cut short by a long weekend. Classes continued as they had before, mostly lecture style with constant chances for students to participate. I find these lectures to be effective, but more slow moving than my French courses at ND were. I am getting a good review in grammar and am learning a lot of more specific metaphorical phrases; I have definitely seen a vast improvement in my writing skills, surprisingly. My speaking skills have slightly improved (I think I am far more fluent in asking questions in French during class), but my listening comprehension still needs work.

I am surrounded by a lot of really motivated students, which is a great experience. I am trying to do activities outside of class to enrich my learning, such as practicing my phonetics by reading newspaper articles aloud and making copious amounts of flashcards. Now that I have some important grammar skills in place, vocabulary is my main focus, as with any language.

This past week has been my favorite week so far. Because a session just ended and many students are coming/going, this week is a special oral comprehension-focused week. I wish it were like this every week because we have been doing more speaking and listening exercises. A really interesting activity involved creating a questionnaire/survey and going out into Tours to interview willing people on the street. I wanted a challenge, so my partner and I decided to focus on the current French political scene. It was definitely a challenge understanding many of the complex responses, but we asked a variety of interesting questions from “What do you think about La Nuit Debout and other protests?” to “What do you think of the current presidential election in the US?” We interviewed a variety of people from different demographics, but got many similar responses. Just for some background, La Nuit Debout is a social movement/mass protest against new labor laws in France, and has been going on since March 2016. Most people responded that the protests reflect poorly on the government and that people have a right to be upset towards the new laws, a situation which only worsens with the high unemployment rates and poor economic situation. Many responses expressed that adolescents would be more involved in social activism, since they mainly have the same political sentiments. This activity was a really good experience! Many people refused to talk to us, but the ones who gave answers did a really detailed job.

I hope my last three weeks in Tours will be three weeks of rapid improvement. Now that I have settled well into life here, I am trying to add small things to my daily regime. I hope to start reading more newspaper articles and go to the cinema a few times. A few friends and I hope to bike to visit some chateaus in the Loire Valley. It is absolutely beautiful and inspiring to be here. Unlike Paris (I visited this past weekend), people let me attempt speaking French with them when I’m in bakeries, restaurants, and shops. In Paris, upon hearing my accent, many people would immediately revert to English. I’m really in love with Tours’ culture and place, and hope the remainder of my time will be well spent. There have been a few times when I have let French words slip when calling home!

I arrived in Paris on Sunday morning and somehow managed to get to the Tours train station without missing either of the trains, considering how jet-lagged I was. I had some minor technology disasters in that my phone company neglected to tell me my cell wouldn’t work at all abroad, so I’m extremely glad that the language barrier turned out not to be too much of a problem in the first few hours. I knew there were plenty of English-speakers at the airport, but I managed to find my way around by asking for directions only in French! Personal goal fulfilled. All those exercises where we had to pretend to order food from each other in French class finally paid off. And so did those horrible, ridiculously fast listening exercises, since that was pretty much how the announcements sounded on the train.

I’m staying with a host family. My host mom’s name is France (which one could choose to view in a metaphorical way) and she takes in a lot of travelers trying to improve their French. There’s a Brazilian woman who barely even speaks a word of French, a guy I haven’t really interacted with much yet (besides some awkward clashes over using the bathroom first in the morning), and my host mom’s kids. I interact the most with my host mom, carrying on most of the conversation when she and the Brazilian woman and I have dinner together. She lent me a bike so I can get around Tours a little faster, so I feel like a real French person when I ride it to school.

I’m liking the Institut de Touraine so far, although I think they may have put me in a class that’s a little too easy. The language experience I want to gain is in articulating myself more clearly in arguments, discussions, etc., and so far I’ve barely gotten a chance to do that between reviews of grammar I already know. I’m planning on requesting to move up next week—although next week is going to be a little weird, because it’s technically a “vacation.” This week has been a little weird too, since I arrived during the last week of a class cycle and since because of various absences I’ve had a different teacher almost every day. Next week there should be some other students who are on a stranger schedule like me who will be taking some oral classes, and I’m hoping things will settle into place after that.