middlebury college

Middlebury College Language School was such a great experience, and I can highly recommend their programs. Yes, it's very very stressful, and I probably got off pretty easy this year since I didn't have three content courses, but it's definitely worth it. I think we all hit a point where we just wanted to scream, break all the rules, and embrace English, but I think most of us succeeded in making it through.

Le chateau at Middlebury.

I think a lot can be send by the language pledge. Yes, I know all the problems that could go along with speaking French with other anglophones (or other non francophones), but I think it really depends. I primarily surrounded myself with others in the Masters program, so a lot of them had spectacular French. Plus, we were always with the francophone professors and their families, so there was no shortage of native speakers. And my French definitely improved. I had some serious issues with English.

I can't possibly go into detail about all my experiences at Middlebury. We'd be here for days. So some highlights:
- the final banquet where at the end we could speak English (which ended up being very hard). We swarmed on the profs! Especially our phonetics teacher. Haha. We had some crazy things for her to try to say.
- the dances with possibly the worst French music ever. But teachers dancing with students, the French kids teaching everyone Tecktoniks, and the loss of lots and lots of dignity for many. And clothes. At the last Spanish dance (yeah, we crashed other dances)... people lost clothes. Girls and boys. So bizarre.
- endless amounts of tea and coffee. I think I was 90% caffeine by the end.
- conferences by world renown people like Pascal Perrineau.
- dreaming exclusively in French.
- the shady Middlebury bar where one of the locals ranted about how much he hates immigrants like us. Umm... we're American buddy.
- meeting amazing people from all over the States and world.
- making good friends with my prof's sister from Lebanon. Always have a place to stay if I ever go there.
- going to the county fair with said person and watching her eyes pop out at all the fried food.
- the random camel on Route 7.
- and so many more!

I enjoyed my classes immensely.

Production orale: Oral production and phonetics. The bane of my existence. My accent sucks. I don't have an ear for sounds. You can repeat two similar sounds over and over again, and I'm never going to hear the difference. Until now. I can sometimes hear the difference. This class stressed me out, the teacher and I were at odds many times (but her sister was supportive!), and some of the projects were pointless, but I survived for the better. I definitely learned a lot, and I have improved.

Stylistiques II: Writing. Other slightly lesser bane of my existence. The teacher was amazing, but while my style is very clear and direct, he appreciated more creative writings. I can be creative, but only to a certain extent, and definitely not with every single thing we had to write. I wrote composition after composition. My writing certainly improved though. I think.

Histoire de France: History of France, but it turned out to be the Political History of France. Yikes! I took this for my French methodology class (aka how to write in the French style - totally different from the American way). However, I adored this class. The teacher is so intelligent. He really knows his stuff and is an expert in his field (no joke... I mean this literally... he also wrote part of our text). We were all terrified of him, but by the end, he really opened up and started joking with us, and he is hilarious! And I'm not being biased. He is an excellent prof. He loves to critique though (what French prof doesn't?). He could go on endlessly. But he gave me some major compliments. For our devoir sur table (terrifying test) where we had to do a commentaire compose (French style thing), I thought I did horribly. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I ended up doing very well, and in about four pages of writing, I made only three mistakes and they were little. He praised me for that. And then, we had dissertations. My subject was on why France didn't know how to decolonize its empire. I focused primarily on the political side (trying to appeal to prof's good side). A few days after handing it in, he said he wanted to see me outside of class. I must have had a look of pure panic on my face, but he assured me it was good. I opened my email in my next class, and my dissertation was there. I did an awesome job! I only made five mistakes in my dissertation, and they weren't even really mistakes, more like suggestions of better words. And he only had one small critique (unusual for him), and it was something I thought of doing, but was just to exhausted. I ran into him outside of our dorm (he and his family lived there too), and he completely stunned me. He told me that I write like a French person, understand the French method, write clear and directly (ha! Take that Stylistiques prof!), and have the capacity to do in depth research in French and history (ha! Take that Production orale prof!). I didn't know what to say. I'm sure I turned into a bumbling idiot and made him rethink his compliments. LOL. But coming from someone like him, it really meant a lot. I ended up getting a grade for the course that at Middlebury is only reserved for people who have a native's knowledge and skills and deserve the grade by their coursework. Score!! I highly recommend his class for anyone who goes to Middlebury.

So yep. That's a brief(ish) summary of my time at Middlebury.

Less than three weeks until France! Though I'm sad I'm not in Paris right now with the Middlebury crew. I'm also waiting for Claude to reply to my email... I'm convinced my emails always go into his spam folder. If I don't hear from him by the end of the weekend, I'm going to ask my students to tell him to look for the email. Knew having them as Facebook friends would eventually come in handy.