French courses for adults in France

Every Monday we play host to adults of all ages who have come from the world over specifically to learn French in France. We ask them their reasons for coming to us to take French classes for one or more weeks, even, in some cases, a few months, and are always surprised to note the generally positive image France enjoys overseas.

Of course, the location of our French school on the Côte d’Azur enhances our appeal.  Our corner of Provence has been attracting and seducing visitors for over one and a half centuries. Queen Victoria, Czar of Russia, but also Renoir, Matisse, Chagall, Bonnard,  Picasso and other great modern painters,  as well as Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Yves Montant with Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura from the world of film, all liked to stay here, all helped to establish the image of the Côte d’Azur, making it the ideal location for a short break.

For adults who come to us to learn French on the Côte d’Azur, it is about taking advantage of their vacation to learn in a school of a proven standard which will facilitate their cultural discovery of this coastal area of Provence. It is about discovering the places where these artists have made their mark, the museums dedicated to them, picturesque villages which, having seduced the big names of cinema, modern art and literature, now win over anonymous visitors.

 

Choose carefree living to learn French

Our adult students cite the beach in Summer, the sun and blue sea all year round and, in winter, the ski resorts less than 65 miles from the coast. They are enthralled by the architecture of our old towns or that of the the hilltop villages in the hinterland, the grandiose panoramic views of the Mediterranean or those of the Mercantour National Park and the Vallée des Merveilles. They borrow the way of life from its inhabitants, peaceful or frantic to the rhythm of the festivals and other events such as Nice Carnival.

They taste the excellent cuisine of our region, between the County of Nice and Provence.....and enjoy life on the patio to taste it or have a chat with a drink at cocktail hour. This life that is the envy of the world, “Ah! You’re so lucky to live here!” “ is a sentiment shared by all our students. Although for many it explains their choice of our French classes in Antibes, many students are driven by more pragmatic and serious reasons for coming to France to learn French.

French: a dominant language in geopolitical activity 

The French language is an official language of the European institutions. It is for this reason that every year officials, EU parliamentarians and diplomats from European countries take specialist French courses at our school. Some come for other work-related reasons: “I work for an NGO which operates in French-speaking countries in Africa”, “I need to learn French because my company headquarters is in France”, or “because my company has a lot of French-speaking clients”. Learning French for employment and work is a reason often advanced by our adult students and this is when we become aware of their need to open the door to the French-speaking world. The French language opens up professional horizons sometimes way beyond Europe. This is something that prompt s many adults to improve their French, or start studying it.

18 to 86 year-olds: an intergenerational French language school  

Other much younger students arrive with the firm intention of taking French classes for a few weeks as an immersive experience. They often top it off with home-stay accommodation rather than in the residence in order to practice their spoken French as much as possible. This decision is often due to urgency. The reason given for learning French is often the degree of proficiency they must quickly achieve in order to take an exam or attend university back home. The DELF B2 diploma is often cited as a reason, since it opens up access to university in France for overseas students. Other older adults have different motivations. They have decided to liven up their retirement with enjoyable moments...by going back to school. Freed of the obligation of treating the French language as an important addition to the CV, these happy pensioners only see the pleasurable aspect of the language of Molière.

By becoming students again, they are rediscovering French for pleasure, something that is of particular relevance to them. And as teachers of French as a foreign language we find ourselves faced with these ideal students, those who assert that they have fallen in love with France and so are learning the language for love. I remember a charming gentleman who came every year, stayed a few weeks and decided to take the DELF at the age of 86 along with the young candidates at our school. They are all passionate. They are quick to register for excursions and cultural activities organized by the school to satisfy their thirst for discovery.

And also French teachers

The same love of the French language is also to be find in another quite specific group of adults, foreign French teachers. They come to our school to take a continuous training seminar.

It is true that they are less relaxed than pensioners who no longer have to worry about their work, but they share the same love of this language that they have chosen to teacher, the same appetite for everything about France, an admiration for all humanist values always conveyed by France, which give it global reach. This small overview of the reasons that prompt adults to want to learn French in a school in France shows us that they are many and vary depending on the age of our students.  18 and 86 year olds do not study it in the same way, nor for the same reasons.
But, no doubt, of them, the one I prefer the most is when someone says something like, “I want to learn French because my parents-in-law live in France”. What better motivation, indeed what better reason, than to unite two families, two cultures, through language?