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Ten easy ways to practise French
To acquire the necessary vocabulary to begin your studies, you
can attend, as a non-registered student, courses in connection with
your subject at an university. For that purpose, it is necessary
to make a request with the professor or with the registrar's office.
This is all the more interesting as it permits you, from the educational
point of view, to join a small group of students supervised by a
teacher. It will allow you to discover the university life before
the academic year. It will also oblige you to be active in the oral
exercises and to participate in French public speaking.
The non-registered students
The universities welcome non-registered students.
They are allowed to follow the courses of their choice and to
use libraries and workrooms, but can not pass the exams, nor
attend the practical works. No specific condition is required.
However, a residence permit valid for the academic year is necessary
before any step. The non-registered student quality recovers
is under the responsibility of President of the University.
The request must be sent to the registrar's office.
The non-registered students do not have the student status and,
as such, have no access to the social advantages reserved for
the students (student regime of the Social Security, Crous…).
They cannot take the exams and transform their quality of non-registered
in student status in the course of the year.
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The city halls propose evening classes at low price. We advise
you to follow them at the same time as courses taken somewhere else.
To improve your pronunciation and hear new sounds, you can - if
you live in Paris - go to the language laboratory of the centre
Beaubourg. It is free and you are free with your rhythm of work.
This also exists in the provinces, inquire with the city hall or
with the municipal library.
We advise you to buy a radio or television (or both). Progress guaranteed.
It is necessary just to persevere. Get used to having your breakfast
by listening to the radio, to having dinner by watching television
news and to end your evening with a film or a broadcast.
You must try to see people from different nationalities. Meet people
helps Integration and will facilitate your learning.
Municipal libraries give you the possibility to consult not only
books but also newspapers. You can also borrow soundtracks.
Left ads in the university to propose exchanges : one hour of French
against one hour of your language. It is also a way not to stay
alone, to discover by the dialogue some aspects of the French culture
and make people better know your country. It is also one best of
the ways to create strong links of friendship.
Try to integrate a group in the university by practising an activity
(theater, cinema, music, painting, dance, sports, etc.). By this
way, you will be obliged to communicate in French, while indulging
into the leisure activities you like.
Stop thinking you will never be able to speak French fluently. relax
and take it the playful way. Please, take advantage of your displacements
in the means of transport to decode the advertising slogans. Ask
several times a day for your way to see if your French is understandable.
Go and meet the French society in all its variety to have the opportunity
to express yourself in the language (public places, museums, secondhand
trades, etc.). In brief, Do not let the routine of your student
life grab you.
It may be hard to establish contacts in Paris. As in most big cities,
people are anxious, turn in on themselves and live in an unsecured
atmosphere. The city engenders individualistic behaviours where
friendship is not easy. You could be, so, tempted to live among
people from the same country as yours. To solve the problem, once
again, we suggest you to try the provinces where links are much
easier. But ever you really want to live in Paris, follow our advice
above.
An original method
Boris PERNIA, Venezualian, student at the school
of language L'Etoile.
" Once off the plane at Orly's airport, I suddenly realized
that I did not know a single word of French language. Some days
after my arrival, I joined a school of language. The opinion
given by a friend, according to whom for a Spanish-speaker it
is easy to learn French, was not necessarily right. Fortunately
the French language I had learnt at school had given me not
only an effective method of learning, but it proposed courses
in limited groups of pupils which facilitated the speech. Furthermore
my teacher, who loves cinema, used to organize sessions which
ended by a debate in French with a glass of wine. This teach.
urged us permanently to immerse ourselves in the Parisian daily
life, except school. And as I liked cooking had the idea to
organize dinners in my small apartment. Around a hot meals,
we used to discuss in Molière's language. If he had listened
to us, he certainly would have written a new funny play. "
Contact : Ecole de langue
l'Etoile. 38, boulevard Raspail, 75007 Paris. Tel. : 01 45 48
00 05. E-mail :
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The French Alliance
A non-for-profit association, set up in 1883
to ensure the diffusion of the French language and culture.
It was recognized as a public utility association by the decree
of October 23, 1886.
Some data
L'Alliance Française is present in 135 countries all
over the world.
1 000 associations have been set up and take part in its network.
More than 400 000 students attend its courses.
The French Alliances are autonomous and administered by a committee
of personalities belonging to the economic, cultural and scientific
world.
The French Alliances do not deal with politics, religion and
racial concerns.
The courses are adapted to a very varied public. People know
how to welcome the foreigners. The Alliances also maintain a
dialogue with all the cultures of the world.
There is an Alliance Française in about all the major
French cities (see Addresses).
Training
Diplomas of language (general language, business language, legal,
business and tourism language).
Diplomas in partnership with the ALTE (Association of the centres
of assessment of languages in Europe), with the chamber of commerce
of Paris, with the Ministry of Education.
Modern techniques of teaching: video, phonetic laboratory, written
documents, listening of recording, role play.
Types of courses :
- collective (by level) ;
- personalized (one to five students) ;
- distant learning in partnership with Cned (National centre
for distance learning) for the preparation of the teaching profession
of the FLE (Frenchman foreign language). If you are in the impossibility
to follow courses in the centre and that you want to prepare
the diploma of the FLE, you can do it with this system (courses
sent by mail and corrected versions).
Specialized teachers from the School of Paris propose you textbooks,
documents and cassettes adapted to the followed courses.
A team of teachers with university degrees and having a solid
training in FLE ensures the fast acquisition and the control
of written and oral French.
Services
Library : 12 000 books, newspapers.
Media library : 5 500 audio cassettes, 1 300 video cassettes.
Multimedia area : numerous soft wares and CD-Roms.
Phonetic lab.
Cultural area : trips, theater of " théâtre
de la Maison des cultures du monde ", film clubs, cycles
de lectures.
Auditorium.
Bookshop, " relais H " (international newspapers).
Areas of exchanges.
Change office, cash dispensers.
Welcome areas.
Restaurant, café.
Host-paying service.
Ads to consult in situ (part time jobs, lodging…).
Registration
On the spot or by mail, by cheque or credit transfer.
Possibility of sending of a certificate of preregistration which
will make it easier for you to obtain your visa.
Test of placement for the non-beginners.
Courses all year round.
To know more about it :
Alliance Française de Paris. 101, boulevard Raspail,
75270 Paris cedex 06. Tel. : 01 45 44 33 28. Internet : www.alliancefr.org.
E-mail :
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French practice
Anne Bosquelle, teacher of french language at
the school of language L'Etoile.
" For the foreign student arriving in France the language
is a crucial question because immediately, it is necessary to
make oneself understood in the street, the shops the administrations…
This language is then going to become a tool of integration,
exchanges, knowledge, access to culture. This way it is rather
a means than the end in itself. Beyond the academic aspect of
a language, that is essentially the grammar, which one learns
at school, I think it is important that the student, who has
seized in the street an expression without understanding its
sense speaks about it during the classes. I encourage deeply
the foreign student to create a link between what he learns
in courses and what he hears outside. So, as one goes along,
one acquires two levels of language : the academic language
and the colloquial language.
I organize regularly sessions of cinema followed by a tasting
of regional products and a mini-debate. In this way, the student
can more freely practise French and discover too aspects of
our culture. I also incite them to go to the cinema, to read
the papers, to listen to the radio, to visit exhibitions, to
participate in cultural events, in brief, to be fond of any
event and any behaviour which allows them not only to be sensitive
to the musicality of the language, to acquire automatisms but
also to better understand the society in which they live. "
Contact : Ecole de langue
l'Etoile. 38, boulevard Raspail, 75007 Paris. Tel. : 01 45 48
00 05. E-mail :
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Teaching places
