Université de Haute-Bretagne (Rennes II)

Being mixed in with a lot of international students, french was the only language that we could use to cross communicate. So pretty much everyone was forced to speak french at the university. I personally loved meeting so many different people who have come from around the world to study the french language. Not only did I learn a lot from my french classes, but I also learned quite a lot from these other students. The classes I took did help to improve my vocabulary and language skills. The professors were all willing to help and encouraged our continuation into the french studies.

For me, language was definitely the point of going, and I felt the program was well designed to accomodate students at all levels, from beginner to advanced. The assessment at the beginning was good, and I appreciated very much that they allowed me to attempt the most advanced level. At the beginning they had a few misgivings, but in the end I managed extremely well and truly am grateful for the chance to push myself (and not have been bored in a lower level).

There were some courses were I did not understand a single word because thy referred to lots of books, texts and authors I had never treated before. It took me 2 month to get into it. People always gave me "positive feedback" concerning my language level, I never felt in any way ashamed when talking with my german accent.

I am particularly good at imitating sounds, which means that I have almost no accent. This is good, except for occasions when I do not know a particular word or expression, or I say something incorrect. Because my pronunciation is good, sometimes people have difficulty understanding why I just said such an odd thing.

It wasn't necessarily the instruction that helped me (especially as the second semester had almost no lessons due to strike) but I made french friends which greatly improved my spoken french, especially slang and fluency.

Living with a family definitely helps. I spoke more English than I probably should have (just because Rennes is a rather forgotten city in terms of study abroad doesn't mean that you're the only English speaker there).