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Best french courses in Dublin?

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  • 18-08-2009 3:29pm
    #1
    Livee
    Registered Users Posts: 15 ✭


    Hi, just wondering if anyone could recommend french courses in the Dublin area.

    an evening course ideally - Basic level.

    we're thinking about moving to france at some point! so need to get the language before we go. I have leaving cert french, many years ago (and I was terrible,) so starting over....

    thanks Olivia


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    #2
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,222 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    I would expect the Alliance Francaise to run good quality courses.


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    #3
    Ouchette
    Registered Users Posts: 243 ✭✭Ouchette


    spurious wrote: »
    I would expect the Alliance Francaise to run good quality courses.

    I did the Beginners 2 course there last autumn and found it distinctly 'meh'. I learnt a reasonable amount but there were some problems with it. All the questions were met with 'We'll get to that in week x' and if a student was having trouble keeping up, there'd be no extra help for him. On the other hand, if you wanted to use your book to read ahead, you couldn't because the books were absolutely useless. We started with a class of about 15 and were down to 5 or 6 by the end (no individual attention still. It was very much a stand at the front and talk teaching style.) About 4 of those who made it through the course signed up for the next one, but only after serruptitiously checking that it would be with a different teacher!
    It was good fun though. There was always a good atmosphere in the cafe before classes, when we met up to copy each other's homework over coffee :)


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    #4
    djcervi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 357 ✭✭djcervi


    I find your experience of the Alliance Francaise to be suprising. I did the leaving cert course myself for 2 years with them and managed to get an A1 in the leaving this year. I always found the French speaking influence to be great. What was your teacher's name if I can ask?

    There is the Sandford Language Institute http://www.sandfordlanguages.ie/

    I don't have any experience of them but they are a language school near me AFAIK.


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    #5
    Ouchette
    Registered Users Posts: 243 ✭✭Ouchette


    djcervi wrote: »
    What was your teacher's name if I can ask?
    Sorry, I really can't remember. A dark-haired woman with unusual dress sense. She was perfectly nice, it was just her approach that we thought could have been better. We might have just been unlucky and had an exceptionally wide range of abilities in the class, perhaps.


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    #6
    johnmacward
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭johnmacward


    Ouchette wrote: »
    I did the Beginners 2 course there last autumn and found it distinctly 'meh'. I learnt a reasonable amount but there were some problems with it. All the questions were met with 'We'll get to that in week x' and if a student was having trouble keeping up, there'd be no extra help for him. On the other hand, if you wanted to use your book to read ahead, you couldn't because the books were absolutely useless. We started with a class of about 15 and were down to 5 or 6 by the end (no individual attention still. It was very much a stand at the front and talk teaching style.) About 4 of those who made it through the course signed up for the next one, but only after serruptitiously checking that it would be with a different teacher!
    It was good fun though. There was always a good atmosphere in the cafe before classes, when we met up to copy each other's homework over coffee :)

    I have to agree with this. "Meh" is the right word. It honestly felt like school again where work was rote, there wasn't much fun or atmosphere, you get poor quality photocopies of material and while I learnt a certain amount (well, I wanted to, so that was very much my efforts I think) I didn't come out of it exactly excited for the next course.


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    #7
    johnmacward
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭johnmacward


    Ouchette wrote: »
    Sorry, I really can't remember. A dark-haired woman with unusual dress sense. She was perfectly nice, it was just her approach that we thought could have been better. We might have just been unlucky and had an exceptionally wide range of abilities in the class, perhaps.

    I think I had the same woman alright!


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    #8
    johnmacward
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭johnmacward


    Since I'm here, I might as well bump this and ask the question that's in the post since not much came out of this back in Deux mile neuf!

    Does anyone know anywhere else other than Alliance Francaise, where they had a good experience, learned something and felt they progressed. Of course everyone learns at different rates and so on however some positive stories from certain places would be a good place to start.


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    #9
    Chuchote
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭Chuchote


    Bumping this old thread because the night school season is coming up. Rathmines College, the biggest night school in Ireland (in the old Rathmines Town Hall with the clock tower) has some super French conversation courses taught by French natives – you can hear the students laughing and chatting as you walk by the doors, and they sound as if they're having a fabulous time (as I've been told by friends who did the course). The students do a lot of talking, and get very relaxed about it. They also have other languages.


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