Tips from Studying Abroad in Lyon France

By Ashley C., guest blogger studying French in Lyon, France

Avignon:
This weekend I went to Avignon with a couple friends from the school (again, the proximity of Lyon to other parts of France just makes Lyon a fantastic place to study French). In Avignon, there are street artists everywhere and practically every wall, car, and building is filled with posters of upcoming theatre productions. It’s common to see a man walking down the street with a rolling piano, clowns singing opera, dancers dressed up in old fashioned dresses. It?’s just an incredibly unique place. I would highly recommend visiting if you study in Lyon. Price for the train: 44 Euros (a bit pricey) and 30 Euros for the hotel (when split three ways). If you do make the voyage, I would recommend going on the ferris wheel, seeing the big park, and just enjoying all the street artists around the central downtown. I would not recommend going to any cathedrals that are expensive (the rooms really aren’t that cool).

A sponsor of this site says that one of the benefits of attending an online school, is you can do it from any where; including France."

When something goes wrong (between student and teacher):
There is an instructor here who leaves the classroom every time we work on something. I wrote in my evaluation (we write evaluations of the teachers every week) that I wish he would stay in the classroom to help us, and I’m happy to say that he’s actually very different in the class now – he’s always helping us. This just to say, if you are unhappy with something in the program, you can let someone know and, usually, your voice will be heard.

What I wish I knew two weeks ago:

1. Do your homework. You have homework, even though it’s not assigned. Your homework is to fill out all the worksheets – and, believe me, you should do it even though no one asks for it the next day. The instructor will correct your worksheet if you want, and you’ll learn a lot from filling it out, answering it to the best of your ability, and carefully understanding your mistakes.
2. Make new friends (expand your social circle). I have a couple friends here that I just absolutely love and click with really well, but I actually have a hard time speaking in French with them. In the past two weeks, I’ve met a couple other friends who I really enjoy speaking French with and it’s really good practice for me to hang out with them (if I hadn’t left my comfortable social circle, I wouldn’t have met them).

Read all of Ashley's blogs from Lyon France.