Alliance Française - One day immersion course

[tomgosse]

Bonjour à tous,

Have any of you had any experience with Alliance Française ? The Boston chapter is offering a one day immersion course that I'm thinking of attending. It is expensive, $225 and about twenty miles away from me. If you are not familiar with Boston, MA, the drive into the city and the parking are horrible. Public transportation from where I live is not that great either. It would take me one (driving) to three (public transportation) hours to get there.

I would appreciate your thoughts if you took one of their courses.

Merci,
Tom

Alliance Française - Boston

[Arnaud]

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[tomgosse]

I wonder what you're supposed to learn in one day for 225$...perhaps how to say "comment perdre 225 dollars en une journée ?"

Ça c'est vrai !

[emk]

Have any of you had any experience with Alliance Française ?

So the thing about the Alliance Française is that it's a very loose alliance, so to speak. For example, I belong to a semi-rural chapter where even the official emails sometimes seem curiously stilted. At the opposite end, there are some regional chapters in France that run highly praised hard-core immersion programs with housing provided by experienced host families. It all depends on the individual chapter.

You're looking at the Boston chapter, which is actually the French Cultural Center. As Alliance Française chapters go, they're one of the big ones. They have a multi-story library with 28,000 books and other items, mostly focused on art, history, philosophy and other cultural and academic topics. They also have a rather nice children's room with a lot of BDs and easy books. But if you're looking for general popular culture stuff that you'd buy in a French bookstore, their collection is fairly weak.

This is actually where I took my DELF B2 exam, and there were plenty of people around who spoke native or advanced French. They did an excellent job with the conversational part of the exam, and I actually had fun. So they certainly have the talent they would need to run an intensive one-day class. If I were going to pay somebody $225 for a French class, I'd probably at least consider them. But personally, I'm unlikely to spend that much on a one-day class in any case—the remaining problems with my French can't be fixed in a day.

If you're going to visit that area for a day, I would also recommend trying to drop by Schoenhof's Foreign Books near Harvard Square. They're relatively expensive, but they have a great selection of French books. They also have some amazing people working there—there's one middle-aged man who's always happy to spend 40 minutes recommending science fiction and detective novels to me, and his taste is great. And unlike the French Cultural Center, they can do popular stuff. The downside: between the selection and the recommendations, I once spent $150 in a single visit. Danger!

[tomgosse]

Merci à tous pour vos conseils.

After thinking about it, and after having lunch (I think better on a full stomach) I decided not to take this one day course. As emk and Arnaud wrote, how much can I learn in one day for $225?

I have enough resources to create an intensive one day course at home:
* Turn off the television
* Block Facebook for a day
* Listen to ten lessons of Pimsleur non-stop
* Work on Duolingo for five hours

Plus, I can always use the money to buy more books. And, one can never have too many books, can one?

@emk I'm quite familiar with Schoenhof's Foreign Books in Harvard Square. It was one of my favorite books stores when I lived in Porter Square a lifetime ago.

[sctroyenne]

Yeah, with the AF I always look at what will give me the most bang for my buck (so no conversation classes, no classes with 9+ students, no classes focused on reading and analyzing one book over a term, none that are obviously set up to be social classes for all the old regulars, etc). What could be worth getting though, is membership. You get access to their library which is great (you'd have to go in to check stuff out but you'll get to keep them for a while) plus now the online Culturethèque.

But wow, those class prices in Boston...I hope my local ones never decide they need to raise rates that high.

[tomgosse]

Yeah, with the AF I always look at what will give me the most bang for my buck (so no conversation classes, no classes with 9+ students, no classes focused on reading and analyzing one book over a term, none that are obviously set up to be social classes for all the old regulars, etc). What could be worth getting though, is membership. You get access to their library which is great (you'd have to go in to check stuff out but you'll get to keep them for a while) plus now the online Culturethèque.

But wow, those class prices in Boston...I hope my local ones never decide they need to raise rates that high.

The problem for me is that the library is in downtown Boston. I live about twenty miles away, and driving into, then finding parking Boston is a living nightmare. As we say in New England, "Ya cahn't get theya', from heya'."

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[rdearman]

If I were going to spend that much money, I'd just pay someone to come and speak to me for 8 hours straight in French! Or spend that money on a load of iTalki tutors.

Actually I did think if I won a little bit of money on the lottery, I'd hire French & Italian drivers to take me back and forth to work. Because yes, I'm one of those sad people who'd continue to work.

[Arnaud]

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[tomgosse]

I think TG should follow his feelings and do what he wants, our opinion isn't really important.

Your opinion is very important to me. In making my decision I relied on the collective wisdom of the group and people with more experience than me in language learning. Everyone who responded to my question brought up good points and gave me much to think about.

That kind of event is perhaps an opportunity to meet people with the same interest in the french language or native speakers who live in your neighbourhood, or something to boost your motivation (always helpful when you learn alone).
As for me, if I had 225$ to spend on such a day, I'd like to know what's the program of that day.

As I wrote in an earlier post, it is not only expensive, but inconvenient to attend. After reflecting on it, the cost in money and energy required outweigh any benefit I might get out of it.

I do belong to a small group of people who get together for coffee every two week to study French.

Again, I thank you all for your input and advice.