French at Stirling in 2020

The very last day of 2020 before the University closes until 6 January and I’m delighted to be able to bring the blog’s year to an end with the following lovely post from Emily, one of our final year students, reflecting on the strangeness of this past year:

‘I’ve written a couple of posts for the French at Stirling blog during the four years I’ve been at uni, and I find that they’re a great way to reflect on everything that’s happened over the semester. However, I don’t think any year has been more difficult to write about than 2020! What did we do, besides binging box sets and getting used to social distancing?

For me, the year got off to a great start; after Hogmanay I flew over to France to begin my semester abroad in Limoges, a nice wee town in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. This was a really fun experience for me, as the previous year I had been working as an English language assistant in a lycée so it was a good change to be the student instead of the teacher! When I was working as a language assistant I lived in a house-share with other French people and this was such a huge help in learning and improving my French, so when I was looking for a place to stay in Limoges, I knew I wanted to do the same thing. Funnily enough, I ended up in a flat-share with two other immigrants, Hung who was from Vietnam and Pedro, who was from Angola, and so we were all learning French together which was really nice (although the lads were definitely better than I was!).

Sadly, it wasn’t to last, and before the UK went into lockdown I made the decision to travel back home to stay with my parents in Argyll. This was quite a change of pace for me and a lot of other students too, as we’re used to juggling part-time jobs with studying and deadlines. For the first time since I was fourteen, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have classes and I only had one or two assignments – in short, I had more spare time than I knew what to do with. Like many other people, the spring and summer months of lockdown all merged into one big blur of zoom calls, starting new hobbies (then dropping them two weeks later) and following the updates on lockdown guidelines, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel when restrictions started to ease up towards the start of the autumn semester.

This semester has perhaps been one of the biggest changes to normality for students, with the majority of classes moving online, however, I have to say that I’ve quite enjoyed it – there’s something nice about being able to wear your slippers to class! Despite not actually being on campus at all this year, I’ve really been enjoying my last year doing French at Stirling and it’s been really good to have the normality of a routine again after months of not very much happening at all.

This year has been really tough for everyone in so many different ways, but hopefully with the new vaccine being rolled out we’ll get back to normal and be able to see each other in 2021 – maybe in time for graduation!’

Many, many thanks, firstly, to Emily for finding the time and the energy to have written this blog post after what really has been an intense semester. From all of us in French at Stirling, a huge thank you to our students for their commitment, enthusiasm and kindness these past few months. We hope you are all able to have a calm, restful break over the holidays and we look forward to teaching you all again in January. In the meantime, joyeuses fêtes!!

‘The best possible choice to combine my love of business and languages’

The semester is slowly but surely reaching its end at Stirling and this seems a good time to catch up with blog news. There’ll be updates to come on our schools outreach work and doubtless a few other bits and pieces between now and blog hibernation over Christmas but we wanted to start with this lovely article by one of our Year 3 students about her experiences at Stirling:

‘Bonjour à tous! I am Vasiliki, a third-year student in BA Business Studies with French. Rewind to January 2018 when I found myself in a gap semester after graduating high school, during which I took the time to apply to universities, visit campuses and attend random lectures to “find my calling” as they say. When visiting the university campus of Stirling, my intuition told me that this was the one and thankfully, I listened to my gut, because these past two and a half years have been a blast!

Initially I joined the BA in International Management Studies with European Languages and Society, which is essentially the same degree as I am currently doing, but with Spanish as well, in my case. After the first year and a half, I decided to slightly refine my degree in order to make it more business-focussed with additional modules from the Stirling Management School. As I already had an advanced level of Spanish, the idea of being able to spice up my time at university by taking up a different module every semester rather than having the same three broad subject areas each semester was appealing.

I was a complete beginner when I started French at Stirling, with my knowledge being limited to the classic baguette and croissant. However, the French department at university is absolutely fantastic not only at teaching, but also at creating this sense of belonging which makes you feel part of a community. Their commitment, passion and dedication for French and teaching is transferred to the students and they have all gone above and beyond to do their best to adapt to the new teaching methods and circumstances which have unfortunately been imposed on us all by Covid-19.  

In ordinary time, I would have been going away for a semester of Study Abroad in the Spring but, because of Covid, the exchange will take place online. However, it will surely be an intriguing experience to say the least. Undoubtably, I am disappointed that the exchange will not take place as normal, but I am excited for the different learning opportunities. Although I feel that the transition to online teaching has been smoother than expected, I am definitely excited to get back to in-person teaching (hopefully) in year 4.

To conclude, I love learning languages and I think that the University of Stirling was the best possible choice for me to combine my love of both business and languages. At Stirling, there are so many opportunities to immerse yourself in language culture, like societies, writing competitions, speaking buddies, etc. So, while we may be at a slight disadvantage with the fact that we will not be going to the host country for the exchange, there are definitely opportunities to improve our language skills and it is up to each of us to engage with them. I am confident that in the future there will be more chances to move to France.’

Many, many thanks to Vasiliki for having found the time at such a busy point in the year to send through this article and all good wishes for a happy festive season, and for an enjoyable – if also unusual! – Study Abroad experience in the Spring.