Tuition
Learning +
Community
Learning:
Language
- Our teachers: Christelle Ricou-Bouille: highly qualified, with a skill, kindness and enthusiasm that we’ve rarely seen
- Other local volunteers, via the library and our social circle
- Levels: Beginner/ A2 /B2: Christelle will assess your level as soon as you sign up. This is a complicated issue as classes will not mix levels and costs vary with # in class
- Intensity: (costs rise with intensity, but shrink with #’s)
- Light: 2 weekly conversation groups + French in Action
- Intense: Light + 4.5 hours of lessons weekly in small groups with Christelle at her home
- Intense Plus: Intense plus 2 additional daily lessons of 1.5 hours (5 lessons/weekly)
Culture
- Arts & Culture Calendar for Culture with a capital “C”
- Culture Café: 1 morning weekly
- Conversation with well-informed locals on various themes
- French History, culture, politics
- Cross-cultural understanding: How Americans can learn to swim in the French world
Information
- Pre-departure online course: Where do I belong; how do I belong?
- Helping you choose the right town in France
- Helping you identify and strengthen resiliency skills for a move into another culture
- (Coming soon. hopefully available ) A searchable tool for finding lessons, advice, and stories of other experienced people on this same path,
Community:
With Locals
- Volunteer opportunities:
- The English-Language Library
- Anne’s Vineyard, a Food bank
- and other possible options: animal shelters, thrift stores & more as we learn your interests
We want to be ambassadors in our host country; we’ll strive to approach our tasks and conversations with a ‘beginner’s mind’ and gratitude and respect for France’s values and hospitality. Those helping you on this trip (Marilee, Christelle,The Library, many other friends in Angers) want to experience you as members/ambassadors to a much greater degree than as consumers/customers.
We will expect a lot of you.
That is kind of the point.
With one another:
- The biggest surprise is often that this — the connection with your fellow travelers. — is often cited as best thing about this trip.
- We’ll intentionally aim for a community that strives to align itself to higher values. We can definitely differ in many of our values but on this trip, as a community member we expect a commitment to:
- A balance between privacy and togetherness: no cliques, minimal gossip, general attitude of gratitude, a willingness to help one another, a sensitivity that we’ll vary in our level of ‘groupiness” and our level of expenditure.
Tuition cost for 11-week curriculum
(learning + community)