Post 308: Yvonne learning Advanced French

Post 308: Yvonne learning Advanced French (Middlebury College)

By the time I graduated high school, I was ready for a more advanced level of French and this was when I enrolled in the French Immersion program at Middlebury College.

As an undergraduate, I had already majored in French Language and Literature. I was already able to read and write in French, but my speaking and listening skills were quite weak.

My time at Middlebury College really did improve all my skills in French because I became immersed in the language. Gone were the days of the Grammar Translation method, and in came the more modern method of Dynamic Immersion that you see in the Rosetta Stone program of today.

In an Immersion program, the Language Learner speaks only the target language. He is not allowed to ever speak his native language. As I was immersed in the French language, I heard, thought, ate and dreamed in French.  We lived in dormitories where we were housed with other Americans learning French and with our French teachers who were native speakers of French.

My French teachers would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with us and would tell us about life in France. We were fascinated to hear about French culture right from a French person's perspective.

When I took my French Pronunciation class, I took it with a French native speaker. She was 26 years old and it was her first teaching gig. I remember we were learning the sound 'o' in French. She used the word 'phoque' which has the same pronunciation as the English 'F' curse word.  After she used that example, we all looked shocked. She had no idea what she did wrong.  When we told her that that sound in English means 'foutre' in French, she looked so embarrassed. 

It was fun learning French with native speakers and interacting with native speakers. I then went on to spend a year in France as part of the Middlebury program. By the end of my first year living in France, I was dreaming in French and forgetting some of my English!  Being immersed in the target language truly gave me near native proficiency in the target language. I had a blast in France!