Benjamin Elliott, France 2013
This year has been……………………………………….intense, but rewarding!
My course – Fashion Design – has been great. There has been so much to learn, so normally I would wake up around 7am and go to sleep anytime between 12am and 2am, including the weekends, but in a way its great because you get the chance to go deep into your work and the progress is phenomenally quick.
Benjamin Elliott
I’m not going to lie, at first the idea of speaking French as my daily language was daunting – I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t understand anything in my lessons as a lot of the language is specific / technical. Even going to the shops when I first arrived, I had to plan in my head what I was going to say before I said it (and even then I would forget and make a mistake)! But throwing myself in at the deep end was the best way for it, frankly. At school it turned out that no one else knew half the vocabulary either (as it was technical for them, too) so the teacher would always describe or explain what it was whenever he / she spoke about it, and being around my friends all day I picked up quickly the ‘young-words’ and slang etc, which made it so much easier to understand what everyone was talking about – at school unfortunately you only learn the formal french, which unless I’m speaking to someone’s Grandma, I haven’t found too useful this year!
Thanks to John Speak, paying my rent this year has been a little less stressful than what it would have otherwise been which has meant that I haven’t needed a job during the year so I have really been able to get stuck into my studies and make the most of term time.
However, when the summer holidays arrived I got myself a job in a bar which is brilliant. Not only is it great to have my own income of money, but also my french has improved to yet another level… even regarding my accent, sometimes people struggle to notice it, and when they do they rarely guess that I’m english!
Benjamin Elliott
Also regarding my language, I no longer have to think and reflect before I speak – some sentences are easier to say in french that in english… even to the point where I occasionally dream in french too…!?
Overall this year has been 100% successful. I came to France to improve my french, so that box is certainly ticked, and I’ve decided that I’m definitely staying here for the next two years of my education to really make the most of the city and the experience whilst its available to me !
Plus the weather is great.