Who needs time for rest? The day after finals, I left ORD Chicago weaponed with my passport, universal adaptor, and pocket dictionary. The flight passed smoothly, but after arriving in Paris, I found that the cab driver did not take credit card, and JP Morgan Chase did not appreciate foreign transactions. I already utilized “I’m so so so sorry” in French.
I study at Lutece Langue in the city center. I am enrolled in their intensive program in the mornings, and their practical “atelier” workshops in the afternoons. 4.5 hours a day, 22.5 hours a week, and 90 hours of guided instruction this summer.
In the mornings, we listen to french recordings, read miscellaneous journal articles, and communicate our opinions. We reflect grammar points and converse about our weekends. Workshop are geared toward practical applications, and themes include conversation, pronunciation, writing, and cultural exploration about Paris. Classes are taught in only French, and are limited to 7 students each. Students are grouped based on ability, and reorganized at the beginning of each week for level adjustments.
As all Mondays do, this past Monday brought about the start of the new week. During the first two weeks at Lutece, I was in the highest level group. This past Monday, I was rapidly told in French that I was being moved to a lower group. There were new advanced students arriving, so they wanted to adjust the level of the course to suit their needs. This meant there was no longer an appropriate spot for me in that class.
I responded, in English, that I was going to take a walk. Hopefully it was not too obvious, but I was upset, probably irrationally so. It was hard to swallow that I was not advancing levels, but the opposite. I realized that language learning contains an element of humility. It was important for me to see that every person is at a different level, and acquires the language at a different pace.
Lutece has great teachers that care about the students. They diligently correct us as we speak, and give us the savoir-faire on slang, cinema, and the best macarons. However, I think that I need something more militant. There is not enough grammar or homework. Because class groups change from week to week, there is no consistency or logical flow between topics. You might not be able to learn relative pronouns because the topic was covered before you arrived, and that’s just that. In all, I’ve enjoyed my time at Lutece Lange. The staff is welcoming and the students are dedicated. I’ve learned a lot within these tiny, unairconditioned rooms on the third floor of a Parisian business complex. Most importantly, I’ve learned that an intensive French class only begins life-long pursuit of fish-lip pronunciation and pain au chocolat.
