Université Jean Moulin: Lyon III

There is truly no better way of learning a language than in a country where the target language is the native language of the people. Even without spending a long time looking in dictionaries and vocab books, I was able to improve my knowledge of French considerably.

At the beginning it was really difficult to understand French people. I would say that after a couple of months I started feeling quite confortable. By the end of it I was totally fluent and understood every single word, including typical expressions and slung. I remember listening often to certain words and thinking I will never use them. Well, already after a few months I was using them without even realising it.

It may be difficult at first, but once you start attending lectures, and really integrating yourself into the French culture, you shouldn't have any problems. Word of advice: Try your best to avoid speaking in English to the international students!

The most difficult was to understand everyday conversations among natives and at the beginning to understand specific business vocabulary in class. It was also pretty difficult to speak fluently at the begining, when I had limited vocabulary to speak. It is use ful to speak with native people and to listent to the radio and wastch TV there, to catch and learn new words.

Through my studies at University and friendships with native French speakers, my knowledge of the language improved in every context whether personal, social or academic.

I learned a lot as a result of experience with little conscious effort to do so. Sometimes it was diffcult to communicate to the natives but that was part of the fun.