Université Toulouse II - Le Mirail

At first, I wasn't at all confident speaking french. I had learnt the language at school and university but didn't feel prepared for real, lengthy converstaions with real people! I made the effort to make french friends and to not spend too much time with other anglophone students and also starting going out with a french man so little by little my confidnce increased and my spoken french greatly improved. At the university, I found it difficult to concentrate in lectures when I couldn't understand all of what was being said but it was a case of tuning my ear to french and persevering and now I can sit for two or three hours and get the jist of what is being said. The french students here have often been very helpful and friendly which has made university life more interesting and fruitful.

I had taken French for about 6-7 years, so I was pretty good at it to begin with. In classrooms, I was used to speaking only French, but I had had no practice outside of class, and it was in this area that I learned the most. Just how to make casual conversation with people I met, or with the friends I made. I learned alot of local slang,local accents, expressions, and etiquettes. Things like asking for help at the grocery store was a challenge at first, but became second nature by the end of the year.

I was really scarred of not understand the others but finalle it wasn's so difficult. That period let me be more brave in language area...

i did not interact much with french students but rather international and we mostly spoke english which was a very bad idea.

Everybody talks French, at the beginning it was a bt difficult but by the time I got used to it. It was useful

It would have been easier and funnier to meet more local people.