RS 2.7

Good evening fellow rennlisters;

many of you have ties w/ Europe (whether or not you live(d) there, studied abroad, etc), so there is a good chance I can achieve some sort of advice from here.

My plan is to study abroad somewhere in France, approximately 3-4 semesters from now. I am gathering information from the office of study abroad, but I would also like opinions firsthand.

I believe some of the exchange program cities are Angers, Clermont-Ferrand, and Besançon, plus more.

My ultimate goal is to be fluent in at least one more language, and I feel studying abroad would influence my abilities greatly.

So here I wonder, just how much would a semester or even a full academic year affect my french speaking abilities? I also wonder at the moment, how useful will my college degree be if I major in french? Would it really open up opportunities working in foreign business relations? Ultimately, I dream of living outside of the U.S. for a good portion of my life, so I hope studying abroad/majoring in french will help me as much as I hope.

give me the details if you can, hopefully it isn't too good to be true.

Rich Sandor

J'aime les Porsches.

RS 2.7

oui, moi aussi

tifosiman

I went to Sixflags one time, and while going in, I noticed a hotdog stand! Instead of looking where I was going, I kept my head trained onto the stand in the hopes that my mom would buy me one. Because she didn't notice me, I decided to say "Mmmmmm, hotdogs" just like Homer Simpson would, but right after I said this, I crashed into the knee high brick wall. After falling over into the garden on the other side of the wall, I yelled out, "Owwwwww, my knees!" Everyone heard this and stared at me. Anyway, I hurt my knees and I didn't even get a hotdog.

Tifo

Fishey

I think Tifosiman is the Rennlist bot..

tifosiman

Close.

I am the OT-Bot.


Tifo

Ryan Z

tifo....that was the first post that made me laugh out loud!
on a somewhat realated note to the original post, I'm going to be studying in England next fall for one semester, then on to Cairo probably for another semester. Any listers here from England near-ish to Cambridge or Oxford campuses or in Egypt at all?? its nice to go to an entirely new place knowing at least one person.

Matt H

Ryan- I went to boarding school not that far from Cambridge. I loved it. My goalis to move there permanently at some point.
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DerSchlechtSpecht

Well, I dont know about french; however while in Germany I met many american students studying at various international schools and I must say, they progressed thier German speaking abilities much quicker than college students do studying German in the US. It ties into the whole language immersion ideaology. If you think you speak french well now, go there for but a few months and you will swear you expanded your abilities 10 fold.

Christian

J Berk

my sister ( who already spoke french) studied in paris for 6 mos while attending Lehigh Univ. She came back sounding like she'd lived there all her life....WOW!

John D.

Je ne suis pas sur que je comprends votre question, mon ami. Sont vous tentant d'apprendre Francais pour habiter en la France, ou peut-etre pour un meilleur travail aux Etats-unis.

Le Sorbonne en Paris est excellente, mais tres difficile au le meme temps. Vous savez ceci deja, peut-etre?. Si vous cherchez un travail, il y a beaucoup de Corporations en L'etats-uni qui toujours cherchent des personne qui oubliez parler anglais.

Vous avez contacte les corporations aux etats-unis qui ont un bureau en france, et les demander de "le travail" - especialle les programmes comme "Intern"? Je crois aussi il y a une possibilite dans cela, mais aussi - au le meme temps, le salaire est très petit . Aussi, peut-etre vous savez, habitant en Paris est tres cher.

Demandez a moi pour quoi

bonne chance!

(Sorry about the spelling and lack of accents grave, circumflex and ... Well you get the idea

DerSchlechtSpecht

uh oh, John's post is making me vomit!

Christian

wjk_glynn

Living in the country where the language is spoken every day will certainly accelerate your rate of learning - provided you chose to fully emerse yourself in the culture and not hang out constantly with folks from your home country. This is especially true if your stay is short (i.e one semister).

Jump in with both feet and you'll gain the most benefit. Remember that they will have as many sterotypes about someone from the US as you may (or may not) have about them.

When I was at University, I always chose to live in the same housing where foreign students (99% from the EU) lived and those were great years for broading my horizons.

As regards a French major hurting your career, it depends on what you make of it.

The two folks I know who graduated as French majors are doing very well.

One is a lecturer at Harvard and the other (my wife) is in product marketing at a financial services company.

The degree is only your first step.

Karl.

RS 2.7

hmmm, I guess I ultimately would love to live there for a fair amount of time. Dividing work between two continents would be exciting, but I would prefer to stay put in Europe...traveling back and forth would become too hectic.