“You
live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language,
you live only once.” – Czech proverb
Let’s be honest. Boarding a plane,
travelling thousands of kilometres to finally land in Paris to join the
Masters in Management Grande Ecole at ESSEC is not an easy ride. It involves
some inherent form of courage, a great curriculum and definitely a clear
willingness to improve your future in every possible way. It means being aware
that it is finally time to think big and walk the talk.
This is why, when you finally board that
plane holding your admission letter in one hand and the heavy luggage in the
other, you may be tempted to think that it is finally done.
Everything has been handled with great
care. There is a flat waiting for you close to ESSEC, VISA and passports ready
to be stamped and, finally, you have clothes for every season.
But there is something you forgot to pack:
a basic knowledge of the French language.
You are not convinced? Let me better
explain. ESSEC is an International Business School, meaning that your future
studies will be entirely in English. On the campus everyone speaks English. You
can write emails and communicate with people expecting a fluent level of English
from their side.
But outside ESSEC you will not always find
people speaking fluently English. This is particularly true if you want to
experience the real culture of France and not only the most famous touristic
spots in Paris.
So, what do we do now? Let’s assume we can
go back in time and let’s check out our options to learn some basic French
before landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Duolingo
If you want to maximize the ROI and have
fun during the process the app Duolingo is the perfect choice for you. It is
divided in levels, and it focusses on lexicon and basic grammar, but also on pronunciation.
You can use it wherever you want, and you can even compete with your friends.
It helped me a lot during my first weeks in Paris.SLOWLY
When I was studying English, I remember that
my teacher suggested having a “pen pal” as a mean to learn faster. Thanks to
the app Slowly, you can have many French pen pals matched to your interests
(art, science, culture) and practice written French. Your “message in the
bottle” will take the same amount of time that it normally takes to physically
go from your country to France and this is done to incentivize users to write long,
well-written and interesting messages.
French Cinema
According to research on neurosciences
& learning behaviours, you learn faster when you associate a word in a new
language to an image or an emotion instead that just to its translation in your
own native language. Cinema is the perfect way to do so, and in addition French
cinema is full of interesting directors and genres (who said la Nouvelle Vague?).
To start, try this list
of great French cinema masterpieces.
Alliance Française
If you have time and if you want to start
your experience at ESSEC in the best possible way, one of the options could be
to follow some class at Alliance Française. There are “ateliers” for every
level of language and for every topic like grammar, oral speaking, listening…
If you live in a big town, you can probably find an Alliance Française near-by.
If you are far from an Alliance Française, you can always follow their onlinefree MOOCs.
Real Life
No need to exaggerate and over-study. After
all, the best teacher is real life. When you will arrive in Paris, your level
of French will definitely improve much faster. Of course, the best way of
learning French is by talking with French people, exploring the country and its
history and experiencing the Parisian life and everything it can offers. I call
this last technique “learn by living”!
Written by A. Carletta, Student Ambassador for the MiM program
Written by A. Carletta, Student Ambassador for the MiM program
