{"id":1716,"date":"2017-05-30T18:55:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T22:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/?p=1716"},"modified":"2017-05-30T18:55:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T22:55:53","slug":"bienvenue-a-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/2017\/05\/30\/bienvenue-a-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Bienvenue \u00e0 Paris, et mon \u00e9cole Lutece Langue"},"content":{"rendered":"

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”<\/a> in French.<\/p>\n

I study at\u00a0Lutece Langue<\/a> in the city center.\u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n

In the mornings, we listen to french recordings, read miscellaneous journal\u00a0articles, and communicate\u00a0our opinions.\u00a0We reflect\u00a0grammar points and converse\u00a0about our\u00a0weekends. Workshop are geared toward practical applications, and themes include conversation, pronunciation, writing, and cultural exploration about\u00a0Paris. Classes are taught in only French, and\u00a0are\u00a0limited to 7 students each.\u00a0Students are grouped based on ability, and reorganized at the beginning of each week for level adjustments.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0told 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0not advancing levels, but the opposite. I realized that language learning contains\u00a0an element of humility. It was important for me to see that\u00a0every person is at a different level, and acquires the language at a different pace.<\/p>\n

Lutece has great teachers that care about the students. They diligently correct us\u00a0as we\u00a0speak, 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\u00a0logical flow between topics.\u00a0You 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\u00a0and the students are dedicated. I’ve learned a lot within\u00a0these tiny, unairconditioned rooms on the third floor of a Parisian business complex. Most importantly, I’ve learned that an intensive French class only begins\u00a0life-long pursuit of fish-lip pronunciation and pain au chocolat.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Bienvenue \u00e0 Paris, et mon \u00e9cole Lutece Langue<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1169,"featured_media":1720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73607],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1721,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions\/1721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}