French & Volunteering

Classes - were good, and it was a nice group of classmates, I enjoyed meeting them and studying with them. We had around 15 or more students in the class, which I thought was a bit too large. Also, some of the "fun and games" exercises seemed more appropriate for high school students than adults, intellectually they were not very challenging to me. Also, some of the group work was very abstract, and there was a lot of time spent figuring out what needed to be done, which I thought was not a good use of French language learning time.


Teachers - my teacher was Paola, and I thought she did a very good job of managing a large class size, with people of different levels of French and different interests. I though that some of the time spent on group work could have been used more efficiently.

Edu-Inter staff - they were very helpful and very accommodating. They were so nice! I appreciated Fernanda and Carlos in particular, they were facilitated all my questions, and got back to me right away.

Location - the school was very convenient. Also, it is located not far from the Festival d'Été, so it was easy to go to the festival after classes. Guillaume from Edu-Inter facilitated to get a festival pass for the concerts.

Facilities - facilities were very comfortable and modern. The school has an interesting history, it is in a building that was formerly an Ursuline convent.

Activities - the music component in cooperation with the Arquemuse music school was really outstanding. My instructor (accordion) was excellent, and the staff at the school were very kind. They spoke French, so this was a great way to learn French (through the music study and the interactions). I cannot say enough about how attentive and supportive they were at the music school, and what an incredible opportunity it was to study (accordion with Bernard Cimon). Everybody at the music school went out of their way to give me an excellent experience.

Housing - I stayed at a small hotel within walking distance of the school, called UniLofts. It was not too expensive. I have no complaints.

The classes were ok but nothing more. I had the same teacher all the classes. The teacher did not explain the grammar she assumed that we already knew all the rules. The communication classes were not very well planned and the teacher talked to much herself. All the other things were great. The location was perfect near the city.

The school offers everything I expected including lunch break facilities. It gets a bit hot in the rooms on warm days but ventilation helps. The class I went was a group of about 12 and everyone was very nice, helpful and motivated to learn. We had a great time, some of us even went exploring the city together after class. The teacher was the best French teacher I ever had, good mood, wonderful humor, fresh ideas, interesting material, really cool to learn in her class!! I only spent one week but I learned quite some vocabulary and grammar plus and most important to me, a lot of practice talking and understanding.

Quality education and people. I loved the location and they way things were organised.

I liked my prof. She is very nice and kind! I learnt a lot from her. She is always patient and answer my questions. The Homestay is very nice, too. I always practice my French with them after school.

I enjoyed learning French, the teacher were helpful but I wish there were less work sheets in the morning and more conversations.

I expected to come here and have a good time and what not, but I found it really normal and boring basically normal school. Nothing to remember or hold on to. They said there were going to be activités but you have to pay for those. Everything is dependent on money and the course is already really over priced. In my opinion I could have spent my time and money else where.

The school is nice, I took my classes from the middle of October to the middle of December.

Teachers: I found that some teachers are way better than others, especially one teacher, Sonia was really bad, she only reads the book and gives examples of the book and never corrects you when you say or write something wrong.

On the other end, I also took classes with Fabrice which in my opinion it's the best teacher in the whole school, he really loves his job and you can feel his energy, he makes it his job to really make you understand and learn the language.

The structure of the classes: I think is good, I really liked it, they have like cycles and it's easy to follow. When the teachers see that your level is good they move you up.

The only thing that I didn't like it's that the objective of the school is oral production, so they don't give you enough material to practice your writing (sometimes they did but the focus was grammar, JUST grammar and as homework), it was until level B2 that the teacher gave us a project to really practice our writing, full grammar, syntax, vocabulary and all without aid.

Facilities & location: The school it's inside College Merici, which it's really well located, it's near downtown and next to a park. The major buses pass nearby and it's easy to move around from there.

Activities: they are nice, I only attended to three but they are really well organized and not that expensive.

Housing: the service I receive from the school was amazing, I was placed with a really nice family but they didn't make me feel welcome, I felt watched and they really monitored my every move I felt like I couldn't make a mistake or break any rule or my 'mom' would lose it. I talked to the coordinator and she was really understanding of the situation and help me with the transition. My next family was the best, it was a little far from the school but totally worth the commute.