So you want to study abroad, and you’ve got a pretty clear idea of what cities you’d love to live in for a quarter, two quarters, or even year-round. But aside from cities, you’re probably going abroad since you want to fulfill some sort of requirement.
Like how I just really wanted to get Civ over with.
This means that when I was applying to go abroad, I specifically went through all the Civ programs in all the cities I wanted (Paris, Barcelona, other European options).
My final verdict? The Paris Civ Program…in French, which also happens to be one of the lesser talked about study abroad programs. It’s only offered Fall Quarter, there aren’t a lot of people who opt for it, and it needs you to basically immerse yourself in French sights and sounds.
Intimidating? Yes. But that’s how you get good at things.
1 to 6, Monday to Friday, is spent at the Center with my computer out looking at things in class and out. 1 to 2 French, 3:45 to 6 Civ, learning about Charlemagne and Richelieu and all the Henri, Charles, and Louis that seem to be the only names for French kings. Hapsburgs mentioned once or twice, that’s mostly for English Civ to take care of because if you’re going to do everything in French, you probably just want to concentrate on France.
Well, not just France, but mostly France.
Descartes in French, Voltaire in French, basically your entire Hum and Sosc in French which you actually get used to and the only hard thing is remembering which Henri, Charles, or Louis you’re talking about.
You can usually grasp it, though, because they really don’t go too deeply into things. But I guess you can only ever scrape the surface if you’re trying to fit, well, 3 quarters of Civ into 1.
Still don’t know how I feel about that, though.
Not to mention that everyone seems smart enough to keep up, but maybe not that slacker in the back (I’m talking about myself). At least my French is getting better.
Five hours each day you’re cramming a week’s worth of material into one or one and a half days, and it goes on for weeks and weeks. And then you go home.
But Thursdays are a bit different since your conversation leader tries hard to find fun things for you to do, and Fridays you go to Versailles and Blois and spend all those hours on trains and busses to look at cheateaus that, sorry, you won’t ever live in. Then it’s back to hours of work that you (accidentally) neglected during the weekend because Paris needs to be explored.
It’s good work, I think.