Adapting to Erasmus in 2021!

And following Emily’s thoughts a couple of months on from graduation, this next post comes from Ceinwen who is about to start the final year of her degree in French and who has been reflecting on last semester when she was an Erasmus student enrolled with one of our partner institutions in France but not able to travel over there:

‘Going into my third year during a global pandemic which caused major travel restrictions, the possibility that I would not be able to partake in my semester abroad was always in the back of my head. However, I was, and still very much am, an optimist. Of course, the reality that I wouldn’t study in France was there and when the news broke that my year wouldn’t be able to go, I was naturally a little upset, but I also understood how impossible it would have been. Despite this, I still did my semester abroad! It definitely wasn’t your blueprint Erasmus experience, but I still managed to vastly improve my French and even make some friends.

I completed an online semester (much like the online system we had at Stirling) at the University of Tours from January to early May this year. The course I did were a mix of specially-made modules for Erasmus students as well as modules from various departments at the uni itself. I went from French to English translation to French Children’s Literature and Psychology, all taught in French with fellow students from across the world. The courses themselves taught me so much about the French language, culture and even improved my time-keeping. Remembering that France is an hour ahead was surprisingly hard for the first week or so, I am so thankful I will never have to wake up for an 8am class ever again.

The module I think I got the most benefit from though was their TANDEM course. In this we got to chat to French students wanting to improve their English for an hour every week. One half in French, the other in English. I met so many students through this course and it really helped me become more confident with speaking the language as well as my cultural knowledge. I still speak to one of the girls I did this with today and even sent each other books in our target language at one point. We hope to meet once travel is safer and restrictions have been lifted more in both countries. I think a massive fear for me was missing out on meeting new people but programmes like this are so incredible not only for meeting folk but improving language skills in all areas! I am so much more comfortable using slang for example and understanding the speed at which some people speak.

I think it would have been so easy for me to become downhearted at the fact that I wasn’t going abroad like so many years before me have, but I think throwing myself into the experience anyway really helped. If I didn’t make the effort to engage with the online resources that I was so lucky to have in the first place, then there was no way that my French would improve. I am so thankful for the staff at Tours for being so understanding to the situation as well as making the courses accessible and easy to follow and for the staff at Stirling for providing work of their own too!

I’m excited to start back for the first semester of my fourth year with a new set of skills and a deeper understanding of the French language and culture. My advice for this coming year’s third years is to throw yourself into the opportunities presented to you, whether your Erasmus is in person or online. Also do not be afraid to go for it in conversation classes because the only way you’ll improve is by going straight out of your comfort zone.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t the Erasmus experience I was expecting, but the end result has definitely surprised me.’

Many thanks to Ceinwen for sending through this post. We’re sorry you didn’t get a chance to travel to Tours (we hope you will be able to in the future!) but it’s great to hear that you were able to get so much out of the experience all the same and we look forward to welcoming you back to Stirling in a few weeks!

French at Stirling: Confidence, Communication, Travel

We’re all getting ready to welcome our new students who’ll be joining us in just a few weeks, and to welcome back continuing students, but that also means saying goodbye to those who’ve just graduated and who are off to other things and other climes. It’s a busy time for them all but we’re delighted to be able to post this article by Emily, who just graduated in French and History and who has taken the time to reflect on her five years with us, before heading off to start a postgrad course in a couple of weeks:

‘It feels a wee bit strange writing this post for the French at Stirling blog, as it’s the last one I’ll write as a student at Stirling before I start a Masters at a different university. Honestly, I can’t quite believe it, it seems like last week that we were all lined up outside Pathfoot A96 for our first introductory lecture. I certainly don’t think that any of us then could have predicted how our studies would end up finishing this year with the pandemic!

Now that I’ve got the degree, I think I can admit that Stirling wasn’t initially my first choice, but in the end, it was definitely the right one. I remember coming to an open day way back in 2016 with my dad and loving the uni and its location straight away, and this only grew when I started my studies. First and second year seemed to go by in a flash, and although I maybe spent too much time going out and not enough studying, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. During these first two years away from home, I met some of the best people who have gone on to become some of my closest friends, which I think is just as important as good grades, if not more.

That being said, after reaching the halfway mark, I decided that it would be a good idea to take a year out to work in France as an English Language Assistant to improve my French, but more importantly, to eat my body weight in cheese and croissants. I was placed in lycée in a wee village in Brittany, and even though I’m not planning on going into full-time teaching, this role taught me loads, and it really was one of the best things I’ve done in my life so far.

However, it wouldn’t be entirely honest if I painted it as all sunshine and roses. Moving to a completely new country, having to speak another language and adapt to new cultures and customs can be really hard at times, and I know I had my fair share of ups and downs along the way. Despite the difficulties however, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it to any current French students who get the opportunity, because you get so much more out of it than just improving your French skills. I won’t use that gap-year cliché and say that I ‘found myself’ during my year abroad, but I feel that I did quite a bit of growing up while I was away, and that I came back a more independent and understanding person. Even if you learn nothing else while away, meeting new people that you wouldn’t have met otherwise and learning to understand their perspectives is always going to be worth it.

Taking a year out really helped my French skills, but after it I was really looking forward to getting back into uni. I think that a lot of people, myself included, feel the pressure being turned up in third year with results counting towards our final degree, but now when I look back on 2019, especially with everything that’s happened in the last year, I can’t help but see it as some sort of golden age when we could actually sit together in classrooms without social distancing, when in reality it was still quite difficult! In third year we also had the opportunity to participate in an Erasmus exchange, and so I spent that spring semester at the Université de Limoges in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It was nice to experience French education as a student instead of a teacher, and although it was cut short because of the pandemic, it was still a really fun experience.

And so, that brings me onto my final year at Stirling. I think everyone had their highs and lows during this year: not having to commute and being able to wear PJs to class was nice, but not seeing any classmates or lecturers and being stuck inside for a whole year? Not so good. Despite all of our classes and lectures being online, the staff in the language department did a really good job at trying to make the year as normal as they could for us. Hopefully we’ll eventually get an in-person graduation ceremony so we can actually see each other in real life instead of through a screen, and celebrate the fact that we made it through the toughest year of uni – during a global pandemic no less.

Over the last 5 years, the question I’ve probably been asked the most in regards to my degree is ‘what are you going to do with that?’, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s heard this. Still, I never get tired of explaining to people that actually there are so many options with a language degree, and you get a lot more from it than just a second language. It teaches you how to be confident, how to communicate effectively, and it also teaches you that making mistakes is okay!

So, what am I going to do with it? Well, the next step for me will be in September, when I’m due to start a master’s degree in publishing at Edinburgh Napier. I’ve decided to go down this route because I feel that I’ll be able to put a lot of the skills that I’ve learned through my degree into use in a career in publishing, potentially in international rights or marketing. But before all that, I’ll be working over the summer as an optical consultant and a French and History tutor!

Before I finish, I would like to take the time to thank all of the amazing lecturers that have taught and helped me over the last 5 years: Cristina Johnston, Elizabeth Ezra, Mathilde Mazau, Brigitte Depret, Jean-Michel DesJacques, Fiona Barclay, Bill Marshall, David Murphy, Fanny Lacôte, and everyone else in the Language Department who I’ve come across whether it be in an exam or just in the corridor! THANK YOU!’

Many, many thanks to Emily for such a great article and for the kind words, and we all wish you all the best for the postgrad course this coming year and for life beyond that. Keep in touch and best wishes!

The politics of Cannes from the grey Scottish countryside…

We’re about a month away from the new academic year starting at Stirling, from getting to know a new intake of students across our Beginners and Advanced streams and from being able to welcome back our continuing students across a wide range of programmes. Ordinarily, students coming back into their final year, in particular, would be returning with tales of a semester spent on Study Abroad. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of them, Study Abroad was conducted online this past year so travel has been minimal but they have all still been working away on their independent research projects while they’ve been away. Students like Morgan, for example, who is about to start the final year of her Languages and International Politics degree and who sent through this great post about her experiences in the Spring:

‘My study abroad semester this year was certainly not how I ever pictured it to be. Part of me still does not believe that I completed my full study abroad semester from the walls of my childhood bedroom. While it did not turn out the way I had hoped, it was still an interesting experience from which I learnt a lot.

As my university was in the south east of France, this is the area that my project focused on. Different things came to my mind when I thought about this region, but one of the stand-out events has to be the Cannes Film Festival. My independent research project focused on the Cannes Festival, in particular its relationship with politics and political events. It was a rather odd topic choice for me as I have never been particularly interested in films or film festivals. In the end though, this was one of the reasons that I chose this topic. It was an area about which I had limited knowledge so I used this opportunity to learn more about Cannes.

Once I knew that I wanted to write about the film festival, as an International Politics student it was an obvious choice for me to focus on its political side. At first, I was worried that I would struggle to find sources on this topic but the more books and articles I read, the more information I discovered. I certainly never expected to be doing research about a fancy location in Southern France from the grey Scottish countryside, but I would say that I enjoyed the experience of learning more about the festival as well as some important political events.

Pairing the two topics together ended up being really interesting and allowed me to understand both national and international political events through a new lens. While I wouldn’t exactly say that I love film now, my interest in them has definitely increased thanks to my project.’

Many thanks to Morgan for having sent through this great post (and apologies for not having got round to adding it to the blog much sooner!) and we’re looking forward to welcoming you back to Stirling in a few weeks!

Looking forward to the autumn semester

A little late with this posting but congratulations to all blog readers who have received results this week for secondary school exams! And for all of you who are planning to come to study with us at Stirling, we look forward to getting a chance to get to know you over the years ahead. In the meantime, though, please do have a look around the blog to find out more about French at Stirling from the perspective of our students, staff and graduates.

We’re still a few weeks away from the start of our new academic year but there’s plenty happening behind the scenes to get our modules and teaching revised and ready for the new semester. And, for anyone joining French at Stirling on our Advanced French module (in other words, anyone who already has a qualification in French), look out for news of our annual set of Bridging Materials over the next little while. Our colleague, Julie Hugonny, is working away on the updated version of these at the moment and they’ll be made accessible to all incoming Advanced French students in the weeks leading up to the new semester to help with the transition to French and Francophone Studies at University-level.

À bientôt!