Year abroad in France

I was fortunate to receive a study placement at tours and also a work placement teaching in sainte maxime la sainte baume

I genuinely don't know which will be better for language learning, if anyone who has studied or worked in France has any insight I would be so so grateful. They only gave me 4 days to decide

Reply 1

MissDobalina

Hey Jess, I did French and German at uni and chose to spend the year studying in Germany (my uni made us spend the whole year in one country to improve as much as possible). I enjoyed studying, but I do regret not taking up a work placement. I think my friends who did found that they improved more, and were more independent. I chose to study because I was worried about health complications and my tutor told me the support would be better at a uni than if I was working, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. What really helped my language learning was getting an (unpaid) internship within the uni, it was great to connect with my colleagues and have more of a sense of purpose.

Hope that helps, obviously just my experiences and those of my friends! It's a really tricky decision to make and rubbish that you have to make it so quickly.

Reply 2

Hein6

Original post by Jesstudies

I was fortunate to receive a study placement at tours and also a work placement teaching in sainte maxime la sainte baume
I genuinely don't know which will be better for language learning, if anyone who has studied or worked in France has any insight I would be so so grateful. They only gave me 4 days to decide

Hi Jess!

I’m currently on my year abroad in St Max as an English assistant. I haven’t studied, so I can’t speak for that but I can tell you a bit about work. I speak English exclusively to the children which is not ideal for language learning, but I’d say that speaking and forming relationships with the staff has really helped me develop my skills. I wasn’t very good at listening before I came here, but now I can understand and respond to pretty much anything (although I do have my off days.)

Ultimately, it’s whatever feels best to you, and well done on getting those offers :smile: