The best last-minute decision of my life…

Continuing our Languages Week Scotland blog series today with a great post from Emma who is currently working as an English Language Assistant in France, taking a year out between Year 3 and her final year here in Stirling. The ELAs remain incredibly popular with our students at a range of stages of their degrees and, at any one time, we usually have 20-30 students who are off teaching English to school pupils (and sometimes University students), mainly in France or Spain, but sometimes much further afield. For the moment, though, it’s over to Emma.:

“Back in 2018, when I decided to study French and Spanish as part of the International Management degree at the University of Stirling, I had a lot of things to look forward to; making new friends, expanding my knowledge of my favourite school subjects, etc. However, the main part of my degree I really couldn’t wait for was to have unforgettable experiences abroad – improving my language skills, learning the culture – I couldn’t wait for it to begin.

I was due to move to Spain in September 2020 to participate in the British Council language assistant programme. However, at this time Covid-19 cases were rapidly rising, so quite suddenly I decided to drop out. It was too dangerous for me to move abroad at this time. I was absolutely gutted but held out hope for the Study Abroad programme the following January, when I was supposed to go to France for six months. But guess what! Covid strikes again!

It was at this point where I was giving up hope for moving abroad. I had reapplied for the British Council programme in Spain the following September, but things were not looking good when I was placed on a waiting list. A few months went by, and in July, during a family holiday, I received an exciting e-mail. I had been offered a place on the programme, in my second-choice country, France. I only had two hours to decide if I would go or not! It’s fair to say, I was rather stressed, and it certainly made the holiday unforgettable. However, I took the plunge, and six months later I am writing this blog from Rouen, the capital city of Normandy, in France!

I can wholeheartedly say that this last-minute decision was the best I have ever made. I had no idea what to expect, my French language skills were not great, I didn’t know anyone. I was terrified! I quickly made some other assistant friends, I moved into an Erasmus student house (with 11 other people!) and I quickly settled into my new life. As I was placed in a city centre, I wasn’t sure if I would have many opportunities to speak French. But to my delight, not a lot of people speak English. If they can speak English, I say I want to practice my French, and they are happy to help!

Rouen itself is a beautiful city. I had never heard of it before, and it truly is a hidden gem, especially the beautiful architecture, and just the general atmosphere of the city. Although it is the capital of Normandy, it’s still fairly small with a population of around 110,000, so for me it is the perfect balance between city and town life. Maybe I would have spoken more French in a rural area, however I think Rouen is perfect for me, as I do definitely have to speak French but I have met a lot of English speaking friends here, which makes it really nice to take a break from all the French!

After a week of getting used to my new city, I began working in two middle schools just outside the city centre. I was rather nervous as I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the pupils’ English level, but I was pleasantly surprised that they could understand me, and only required some French explanations from time to time.

Being here has really helped me see that I absolutely love teaching. From preparing the lessons, to creating fun games and worksheets (10-year-olds love a wordsearch), the whole job is extremely fun and rewarding. I feel a sense of pride when I teach the kids something and they remember, or when they ask me endless questions because they are genuinely fascinated by me. All of the teachers in the school are lovely, they are patient with me with my rusty French speaking skills and encourage me to speak when I am comfortable. I didn’t know if I would have many opportunities to speak a lot of French, since I would be teaching English, however I have tried my best to take advantage of any opportunity to try and improve my language skills. At the beginning it was difficult to gain confidence, but I tell myself – who cares? At least I’m trying!

As I only work 12 hours per week in the schools, I have a lot of free time to explore the city – or even further. I have been able to do a lot of travelling along the northern coast of France, and before Christmas, myself and some other assistants were able to go to Brussels for a long weekend (an amazing city). It is also extremely helpful living only 1 hour and 30 minutes from Paris, and next week I will be travelling to Berlin and Amsterdam during the vacances – the school holidays are a major perk of the job, as it is so easy to travel from France to other places. I’m hopeful that during the April holidays, I will be able to explore the south of France (and escape the rain!). I feel like my time here in Rouen is completely flying by, which is so unfortunate as I am having the best time here, I don’t want to leave! However, I already know that once I have graduated, I will reapply for the programme, but this time in Spain, and hopefully be able to create more unforgettable memories. I don’t know if it is possible to top this year though…”

Many, many thanks to Emma for this brilliant post and we’re delighted things are working out so well. Enjoy the rest of your time in Rouen and do continue to take advantage of all the opportunities for travel! More perspectives on language teaching will follow over the next few days…

Languages Week Scotland: Exchanging ideas through Erasmus mobility

In the Autumn, our colleague Aedín ní Loingsigh spent part of the semester on an Erasmus teaching exchange at our partner institution, the Université de Limoges. Languages Week Scotland seems like an excellent opportunity to post her blog article about the experience:

“This past November, I had the immense honour of spending three weeks as Visiting Lecturer for the University of Limoges Masters programmes in ‘Identité et Transferts culturels’ and ‘Management interculturel’. During my time there, I delivered a series of practical translation classes as well as interactive lectures and seminars on Translation Theory.

Given how brief my visit was, my aim was to design classes in a way that encouraged the students to use our contact time to explore connections between aspects of the content we were translating and the questions raised by certain theoretical approaches. An overarching question of much of our time together was the question of translator ‘neutrality’, including the issue of whether a translator should be visible and whether particular texts and contexts require a ‘suitable’ translator, and, if so, who that might be.

We began by looking at the translation theories and practices of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution feminist communities. At the same time, we translated a text written by Lou Sarabadzic on langage inclusif. It was wonderful to see students respond to the ideas of feminist translation and explore the gendered nature of language — and its playful possibilities. Suffice to say that in one class we had a memorable exchange regarding the ingenious and creative use one small student group made of the American term ‘period’ (full-stop) when discussing translation choices in English for an emphatic use of ‘voilà’ in Lou’s feminist text. We also had constructive fun looking at Google Translate in real time. We saw just how biased Machine Translation can be, why the study of gender in translation matters, and how we might translate in a gender-aware way.

We also spent some time looking at the controversy surrounding the Dutch translation of Amanda Gorman’s poem ‘The Hill we Climb’, which she read at Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. I was impressed with the students’ thoughtful and open-minded engagement with this complex issue and their willingness to look beyond simplistic representations of the debate. (I should say I was also impressed with their patience when technology failed and we had to try and appreciate Gorman’s powerful reading of her poem on my small laptop screen as opposed to the large projector screen.) We discussed whether it is possible to be ‘neutral’ in translating this poem, whether ‘translator invisibility’ is desirable for all translation contexts, and whether there is an ‘ideal’ translator for a text who fully understands the experience and position of the source-text author. Finally, we mentioned the idea of a translation collective where diversity of experience and opinion is maximized.

One of the topics I particularly enjoyed was tourist translation. We didn’t spend a lot of time on this, but I am keen to explore it more in the future, preferably on location! On one of my many delightful walks in Limoges, I took some photographs to discuss with students the linguistic landscape of the city. Not surprisingly, the city’s key sites have lots of examples of translation, not least the amazing Musée national Adrien Dubouché — an unquestionable highlight of my time in Limoges for the sheer breadth and informative layout of its porcelain collections. In class, we looked at some images of the Découvrir Limoges plaques visitors will notice as they explore the city, and we discussed the challenges and choices made in some of the very condensed translations of the source text.

We also looked at monolingual French signs that might be usefully translated for visitors. One of the most memorable things I saw in Limoges was evidence of an effort to highlight visually more of the city’s long history of producing decorative objects, most famously in porcelain. Scattered around the city centre, if you keep your eyes open, are public stairways with an occasional stone balustrade replaced by one in porcelain. Intrigued, I eventually found an explanation on a sign, but with no translation. So, one of our final tasks at the university was to translate this text. I have suggested to the students that they take their excellent collective translation further and suggest to the City of Limoges that they produce *paid* top quality translations for other public information signs, including, yes, the very funny one we also looked at encouraging people to clean up after their dogs — we never did decide what to do with the opening clause: ‘Pour favoriser l’intégration de votre chien….’ To be continued.

My time in Limoges was too short. I know for certain that I learned as much from the students as I hope they did from me. I know I enjoyed the company and the warmest of welcomes from staff more than I think I let them know. I came back to a university system in the UK about to go on strike. I’m not going to romanticise university life in France. But my own experience in Limoges showed me that, for now at least, university life there seems to have held on to the precious time that is needed for a genuine exchange of ideas. I hope to be back. Thank you.”

Many thanks to Aedín for sending this blog post and, more importantly, for having gone to Limoges in the first place. Our Erasmus partnerships remain incredibly important to us (as do our non-Erasmus ones!) and it’s fantastic when colleagues also manage to benefit from them. And thanks to our friends in Limoges for the great welcome! This new semester will also see other teaching exchanges – we’re looking forward to welcoming Ruth Menzies from the Université Aix-Marseille to Stirling in March and, as it happens, Cristina Johnston will be delivering a guest lecture (virtually) to students on the University of Passau‘s BA in International Culture and Business Studies tomorrow morning. More to follow!

Languages Week Scotland: Reading in other languages

This week is Languages Week Scotland which gives an opportunity to celebrate the signed and spoken languages used and learned across Scotland. We have decided to mark it on the blog by posting an article every day about a wide range of the language learning experiences of our students, friends and colleagues. To start us off, meet Iiris who is in the second year of her degree in International Politics and French at Stirling:

“Studying languages has pretty much always guided my study path and is how I ended up here in Stirling from my hometown of Turku, Finland. It all started with beginning to study English when I was ten. I absolutely hated it and made a point out of not participating or studying for it. It dawned on me that I was learning English even without trying, and the classes would go a lot faster if I just stuck my hand up. After that, I quickly began enjoying English, and when I picked up Swedish and Spanish a few years later, languages became my favourite subject. Instead of high school, I applied to the International Baccalaureate to be able to study in English and wanted to continue to do so at University. I chose Stirling because of being able to study politics and French as equals, which isn’t a given elsewhere. It has been really great, and I’m on track to becoming a polyglot soon, which is really important to me as an aspiring diplomat!

Every time I study a new language, I always just throw myself off the deep end and start reading books I can hardly understand. At first, it’s frustrating and takes a while to get used to, especially if you don’t know the plot or the characters from before. But after a while it becomes tolerable, and usually, after a hundred pages you recognize most of the words. At the end of the book, you know plenty of new words, new phrases and you improved your reading. So it’s definitely worth it, but how to get motivated enough to read a book you don’t understand? 

The first trick is always choosing a book you like! When I was first learning English, I frequented the Fiction in English shelf at the library and chose whatever sounded interesting. I really liked adventure, so I went for books like Young Sherlock or Artemis Fowl. Afterward, I went back to English class and confused my teacher by using words like bloody hell and ambivalent – but I definitely also learned more appropriate and useful words, and quickly aced English class.

Another trick is to have a translator app or a dictionary nearby. When help is near, you don’t get frustrated as quickly. You can download Google Translator on your phone, and then use the camera to scan and translate words and phrases you don’t understand. For this Spring’s Contemporary French and Cultures Course, we were assigned Simone de Beauvoir’s Les Belles Images and Faïza Guène’s Kiffe Kiffe Demain, and I wanted to get a head start and read them over Christmas. These two were the hardest novels I had ever read in French. Kiffe Kiffe Demain uses plenty of slang, and Les Belles Images is challenging to understand even for a fluent speaker. But using the Google scanner got me through tough sentences, and I was able to finish both novels in two weeks. 

I try to boost my learning by making a vocabulary of the words used in a novel. Authors often use similar phrases and writing patterns throughout their texts, which is also why after a hundred pages you already understand the author so much better. When reading Kiffe Kiffe Demain, I initially started by scanning almost entire pages to make sense of what I was reading. After a while, I didn’t need to check at all.

Another trick is to read a book you already love, but in the language that you’re trying to learn. The other national language of Finland is Swedish and I’m currently stuck in a limbo between advanced and fluent. I don’t get much practice in Scotland since I don’t have Swedish friends, but I try to fix that when I vacation in Finland by reading familiar books in Swedish. The Moomin are everywhere in Finland, and I used to read the books watch the series in Finnish a lot. Now, I read them in Swedish, and it’s great because I can deduce the meaning by context and I already know what is going to happen. Most importantly, I know the book is good, so I never get bored.

I take the same technique and use it when watching movies! I choose a movie in the language I want to learn and then choose the same language subtitles. If I want to understand the movie, I’m going to have to read – and quick. This helps your reading but also listening because you can try to listen to the movie and glance at the subtitles for support if you need it. Netflix is full of good French content like Lupin and Les Intouchables you can watch.

First and foremost, my motivation is just to improve my language skills, and reading foreign books does just that. One of my favourite books is Les Misérables, but I am not at a point where I can read it in French yet. But if I keep reading books in French, I will be soon!  Reading is such a good way to learn new vocabulary and phrases without having to repeat a single word to yourself over and over again. You also learn a broader vocabulary beyond what you learn in class, and you too can confuse your teacher by using étourdissante instead of jolie.”

Some fantastic language learning advice from Iiris and a great blog post – thank you very much! As the week goes on, we’ll be posting about everything from teaching exchanges to language assistantships via language ambassadors and much else besides. And since Iiris has mentioned the novel here, we might even post something about the reading group on Les Belles Images Aedín ní Loingsigh is running for our Year 2 students. Bonne lecture et bonne semaine!

Language Ambassadors (Virtually) Out and About

Back in November we posted about our fantastic Language Ambassadors who, despite Covid restrictions, were finding ways to engage with our great network of contacts across Scottish secondary schools. Well, as the new semester gets underway, they’re off again! Still online, for the moment, but working with a range of pupils across different schools to develop their interest in language learning and its many, many benefits!

Towards the end of last year, this had involved, for example, Ambassadors answering questions from S2 pupils at Dalziel High School via a series of online Q&A sessions. It also saw our Year 2 student, Cerys, who studies Psychology and French, recording a video about her experiences learning a language for pupils at Elgin Academy. As Elgin’s Principal Teacher in Modern Languages, Jérôme Lestienne explained, the impact of this kind of contact with our Language Ambassadors is crucial for young language learners because it gives them a chance to show examples of people using their language skills beyond school: ‘I usually invite local business leaders and/or former pupils to speak to our S3s about the importance of language learning. However, this year, we were not allowed to have guests so I put together a series of videos including Cerys’, former pupils’, current senior pupils’ and other videos from SCILT. All our pupils were very attentive as they seemed to be taken by the reality and opportunities linked with language learning. I now hope this results in a higher uptake into S4.’

And now, as we start our Spring semester, we’re working with many of the Language Ambassadors who had already volunteered in the Autumn, as well as having recruited new Ambassadors from across French and Spanish, from all years of our degrees, representing lots of different subject combinations. Next week, they’ll be helping out with Glastonbury Goes Global, a day-long event being organised for languages pupils at Dunblane High School, working with the English-based social enterprise Business Language Champions. The aim of the day is to enable pupils to combine language and communication skills with the organisational and management skills required to get a (virtual) festival off the ground. The event is part of Dunblane’s activities for Languages Week Scotland which is being celebrated across the country (and about which there will be more on the blog next week…). We’re also finalising arrangements for our Ambassadors to talk to pupils at different stages of their language learning over the coming weeks and are excited to see what new partnerships with schools will emerge.

We’ll post more about these events as they take place but, in the first instance, huge thanks to our Ambassadors for their hard work and enthusiasm, and to our school partners for their hard work and for making us feel so welcome!

New Semester Greetings

We’re back! On est de retour ! Semester started up again on Monday 13 September at Stirling and all of us, in French at Stirling, are delighted to be welcoming our students back to campus and to be welcoming all the new students who are starting out with us, with around 130 students across our Beginners’ and Advanced Semester 1 modules. We’re back in the classrooms of Cottrell and Pathfoot for much of our teaching, getting used to some of the new technology (for those of us doing the teaching… many thanks to our very patient students!) and getting back into the swing of in-person learning and teaching.

It really is great to see our students again and we’re particularly pleased to also be welcoming students who are here on exchange, either for the semester or for the year, after an academic year where that was so complicated. We’re looking forward to getting to know them more as the semester progresses.

As ever, we’ll be trying to keep the blog updated on a reasonably regular basis, with news about all things French and Francophone at Stirling! If you’re a student (new or continuing) reading this and have ideas for possible articles, please do get in touch. We’re always happy to hear from new blog contributors.

In the meantime, though, welcome back and we’ll be back in touch again soon with more news!

From an Erasmus exchange to a passion for teaching

As well as having an impact on our Stirling students’ experiences of Study Abroad, Covid also meant that, at least for us in French, we didn’t have the usual intake of a few French and Francophone exchange students we’ve enjoyed welcoming in previous years. We’re hoping to be able to do this again in the coming year but, in the meantime, we were delighted to hear from a former Erasmus exchange student, Julie, from our partners at Sciences Po. Julie spent a year at Stirling in 2018-19 and loved her time in Scotland so much that she’s coming back this year in a different guise!

‘I just graduated from a Master of Research in History from Sciences Po in Paris. I spent my year abroad at Stirling University. Coming to Scotland, I expected to fulfil my passion for Scottish history and enjoy the mysterious landscapes surrounding the city. However, as I have since learned, this country had so much more to offer. You can imagine my surprise, for example, when I got the opportunity to lead French conversations at the French department. My teaching experience was limited to basic French lessons that I gave to political refugees in Paris with a wonderful association, but it was in Stirling that I really discovered my interest in teaching at university level. Despite being the teacher, I was probably the one who learned the most during that year. As a student in History, I always loved to study not only other countries but also my own and to share this knowledge to anyone interested in our culture. Our quirks, heritage, our diversity.

My aim was to make students speak spontaneously about every subject with informal conversations. However, encouraging natural conversations is not an easy task, especially in a foreign language. I was faced with two main challenges. The first one was the age difference among the students. I was amazed that the students’ ages could range from 17 to 60 years old. This inspired me to adapt my methods and address issues that everyone could relate to. The second challenge was tackling the shyness of the students and encouraging them to speak. To achieve this, I attempted to set up a tolerant environment and go beyond the formal framework of the class. In order to overcome these barriers to exchange with each other, I found games particularly useful. It was an effective tool to get everyone involved, regardless of age or level of the student. During these games, they were more relaxed and had casual conversations with each other. They were able to talk about their life using complex structure and vocabulary. Adapting my methods to each class, taught me how to become a better professor and to answer the needs of the students more adequately. One moment in particular made me realize that I would love to teach as a career. One day a student came to see me at the end of the class and told me that she had a really bad day. I offered to talk about it with her, but she answered that the class already cheered her up. I discovered that a tutor could have a real impact on a student life and could care deeply about their problems.

I returned to Paris after my year in Stirling and completed my Master’s with a specialization in Scottish history. During my year abroad in Stirling, I fell in love with the country, its people, its heritage. This year, I applied for a Phd in few Scottish cities, determined to settle in. Unfortunately, I did not get a scholarship but I was offered the chance to be language assistant at the University of St Andrews. The experience I built at Stirling University will be very useful for the position. I strongly intend to reapply my Stirling experience to this new adventure. Although I will teach French to advanced students, I already know they are quite passionate about food and French peculiarities. I will devote an important part of my lessons to these topics but I’ll also teach them the ‘right’ pronunciation of the words… with a Toulouse accent of course!

In this strange world, I feel very lucky to come back to Scotland. I’m grateful for my experience in Stirling and can only hope that my students at St Andrews will be as nice as the ones I encountered in Stirling.’

Many, many thanks to Julie for finding the time to send through this blog post. We’re delighted to hear that your time at Stirling made such an impact on you and that you’ve found a way to come back to Scotland. Your work on the informal conversation sessions was very much appreciated by staff and students and we’ve no doubt you’ll do an excellent job at St Andrews too. We look forward to hearing all about it!

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!

Tips for starting out studying Languages at Uni

And, as promised, to round off today’s trio of articles, it’s over to Louise who has just finished her first year with us:

‘Hi/Salut!

My name is Louise and I am about to start the second year of my degree in Primary Education with Modern Languages here at Stirling. This is my first ever blog post, so I hope this turns out okay!

I wanted to talk about my first year studying French at Stirling as it was a little bit different from previous years (to say the very least) and share some advice that I wish I had known before starting university. I chose Stirling because although I want to be a teacher, I really love studying languages and wanted to continue studying French. I loved the fact that Stirling offered this opportunity as opposed to the standard Education degree. The campus is situated around a lovely loch and it just felt right for me to come to Stirling.

Unfortunately, my entire first year of uni took place online which kind of killed my dream of spending time with friends and walking along the loch between classes. All classes, assessments, and lectures were completed at home which was a weird experience. On the one hand, I managed to save some money through living at home for an extra year and it was really nice to not have to wake up at 5:30am to travel. Plus, I had all my home comforts and could lie in bed and watch lectures if I wanted to. However, the second lockdown meant that my first year lacked a lot of the social events and fun which everyone looked forward to.

Pandemic aside, my main worry about starting university was that my French was not good enough. I hadn’t studied French in over two years and didn’t feel confident in my abilities at all. I had nightmares about everyone speaking perfect French while I couldn’t string a sentence together. But I needn’t have worried! The lecturers provided resources to practice with before the course started so that we could refamiliarise ourselves with the language. This definitely made me feel more confident in my French skills and meant that everyone was starting on the same page so try not to worry if you feel the same way I did.

Here are some pieces of advice I wish someone had told me before I started first year:

1. It’s okay to be nervous

Going to university brings big changes for most people. It is perfectly natural to be nervous as you’re adapting to this new stage of your life. My advice would be to talk through your anxieties with someone you trust like friends and family. You can also talk to your personal tutor or one of your lecturers to let them know that you are anxious about starting your course. A problem shared is a problem halved!

2. Join a club or society

There are lots of societies and clubs available at the Student Union. Whether you’re an expert at something or just wanting to try something new, you’ll meet loads of new people and it’s a great way to take your mind off your work. I recommend the Language Exchange Society as it is a great opportunity to practice your French in a relaxed and informal environment. You can see the list of sport clubs and societies on the Stirling Union website and if you don’t see anything that tickles your fancy, you can always create a new society or sport club!

3. ALWAYS ask for help

There is always someone to talk to if you need help. If you are struggling with your course, PLEASE reach out to your lecturer or module coordinator. They are there to help you and they can’t help you if they don’t know you’re struggling. I really struggle with writing essays, so I emailed my tutor Julie Hugonny for help and advice on many occasions (thank you, Julie!).

4. Look after your mental health

Possibly the most important tip I can give. Although uni is exciting, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Make time for what makes you happy because it is so important to recharge your batteries and make yourself feel calm and content. I recommend going for a walk, catching up with friends (whether on Zoom or in person), reading, and meditation. If you feel like your mental health is suffering, there is ALWAYS someone who can help you. I recommend talking to your personal tutor, student support, a friend, or family. There is always a solution!

5. Have fun!

Work hard but make sure you’re having fun too! Enjoy your time at uni, don’t take it all too seriously and do what makes you happy!’

Many, many thanks for the brilliant post, Louise, and for the great advice for future students, whether of Languages or any other subjects, for that matter. Enjoy a restful Summer and we’ll look forward to welcoming you back when the Autumn semester starts up in September!

Semester Not-Quite-Abroad: Inspiration for life beyond University

Time for more (non-)Semester Abroad tales today. Following Pauline’s post last month, July is getting off to a fantastic start with this article from Isobel who has just finished the 3^rd year of her BA Hons programme in French:

‘When I first decided to study French at the University of Stirling, it was the amount of time abroad offered that really swayed me. In 2019/2020, I had the opportunity to be an English Language Assistant at a lycée in a suburb of Paris. Unfortunately, COVID-19 sent me home early. During the summer of lockdowns and restrictions, I thought to myself, “It’s okay, you still have your semester abroad next year.” For my semester 6 abroad, I was lucky enough to get my top choice University; I would be studying in the sunny south of France at Aix-Marseille Université. Suffice to say that this was not the plan that COVID-19 had in store for me…

An online semester abroad, studying classes at French times, while living in Scotland, is not quite what I expected from my semester abroad to say the least. When the decision to cancel the in-person aspect of our semesters abroad and move it online was made, I was devastated. I worried for my French language skills that I already felt like I lacked. What would happen now without this immersion in French culture? Nevertheless, it turned out to be a semester I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

The online learning that has resulted from this pandemic has certainly been a learning curve for everyone. From a lack of classes available for international students, to my own constant internet connectivity issues, it felt like one thing after another. In the end, at AMU, I took classes in translation and in FLE (Français langue étrangère), alongside an extra French class with the University’s language learning centre. As well as a 30-minute conversation class with Stirling. While it wasn’t your normal semester abroad, and it wasn’t quite the level of cultural immersion I had been hoping for, I realise now that it was a semester focused on language learning, where I could get to terms with the bits of the language that I had struggled with up until now. Even though my French still isn’t at the level I’d like it to be, this semester ‘abroad’ helped me become a little more self-aware to the fact that my French is miles better than it was this time last year. I am improving. Maybe not as quickly as I’d hope, but that’s okay. If anything, it just gives me more motivation to go back to France after my degree and get the cultural immersion I want. The lack of classes gave me plenty of free time to work on my independent research project that was compulsory for semester 6. In fact, this project turned out to be my favourite one I’ve researched and written throughout my entire time at Stirling.

While it was recommended that we write about the area we were in for our semester abroad, I never made it to Marseille. I have never been there, and I know practically nothing about it (which is essentially the main reason I wanted to go there in the first place). Therefore, I was lucky enough that my supervisor agreed that I could draw inspiration for my project from the place where I completed my British Council English Language Assistantship, Aulnay-sous-Bois, a banlieue of Paris. My experience of living in a diverse area such as the suburbs of France, as well as my personal values, led me to my choice of research topic. I have always had an interest in Human Rights, and I try to be as much of an ally and activist as I can. Therefore, I decided to focus on something that is prevalent in our lives – police violence against people of colour.

In the end, this project was an extremely enriching experience for me. Not only in terms of how much more I learnt about the Black Lives Matter movement and learning all that I did about systemic racism in France and how it disproportionately impacts people of colour who live in the banlieues of Paris, but also the way it impacted my French learning: I learnt so much vocabulary, including slang, and lots of grammar structures were really driven in. I read two French books, watched films, and I deciphered many official French reports. All of this culminated in over 12,000 words of research (which was practically a dissertation in itself), which I then narrowed down to exactly 2,470 words (in French). The funny thing is that it never felt like an assignment. It was so easy to get lost in researching a topic that genuinely fascinates me. I was extremely invested in this project because it truly meant something to me.

This project, along with many other experiences I’ve had here at Stirling, helped me to realise how much more I can do with my French degree. I am so proud of my project, and the grade I received, that I hope to use it as a foundation for my final year dissertation next year, hopefully being able to branch out to a similar topic from this project. This has inspired me to look down other paths such as working for international organisations, exploring the third sector and volunteering with charities. Even now, I have just completed a business summer school with EM Strasbourg in order to gain more experience in that domain.

I can say for certainty that I wouldn’t be in this position were it not for my online semester abroad…’

Many, many thanks to Isobel for this brilliant post and we’re really pleased to hear that you feel you’ve got so much out of the past semester, despite the challenges! We hope you’re able to enjoy a good break over the Summer and are looking forward to welcoming you back into your final year in the Autumn. More news from our students to come…

Semester Abroad – Killing time? Me too!

This past year has been particularly challenging for our Year 3 students. In most cases, they would ordinarily have spent their Autumn semester preparing for Study Abroad and then their Spring semester away at one of our partner institutions. This year was very different and, while our Study Abroad Advisors (Jean-Michel DesJacques for French and Jose Ferreira-Cayuela for Spanish) did a fantastic job matching students up with our usual partners, the changing conditions over the course of the Spring meant that the shape and form of their online contact with those partners varied quite a bit. The one thing that united all of the students on their Semester Abroad, though, was that they were all also working on independent research projects for us at Stirling throughout the semester. That’s a standard part of our Semester Abroad and the topics this year were as varied as usual, from Simone de Beauvoir to representations of activist movements onscreen and much else in between.

Anyway, we thought it would be good to get some perspectives on this unconventional Semester Abroad from the students who’ve actually been involved and we’re delighted to be able to post the first of these articles by Pauline, who has just completed Year 3 on her International Politics and Languages degree:

‘Studying on the beach on the Côte d’Azur, hanging out with friends and practising my French at the same time, learning more about the French culture and lifestyle first-hand. That‘s how I thought my semester would go. Well, it did not. Due to Covid and ever-changing restrictions in France concerning classes and in-person teaching, I was not able to go to SciencesPo Menton for my semester abroad. However, Menton was not lost. Online classes were still on and allowed me to experience a part of French teaching from afar. This was no real replacement for the adventure on the French Riviera I had hoped for, but it was better than nothing. So, I made the most of it and tried to do my best in classes alongside my French classmates. To be honest, I did not do very well. The topics were complex, assignments were usually based on personal opinions and the way SciencesPo is organised was unbearably chaotic and spontaneous for my strictly-structured ‘German brain.’ My favourite class was my C1 French class, since it was one of the few opportunities I got to practise my French. Although it was on a Wednesday at 7am, I did not miss it once, especially since it was tailored specifically to international students.

One major difference that distinguished Semester 6 from my previous Uni years was the workload. Rather than spending my time organising friends and hobbies around my daily studying, the latter was not very present. There was not much preparation needed for the classes I attended and because I did not have to bring back grades from my classes, the motivation to throw myself into assignments was lacking. So, I threw myself into the assignment that did count, namely the individual research project I had to complete for Stirling.

The work I put into my project could be seen as excessive. I spent most of my time this semester on research for a 2250-word paper. That probably sounds like a bad thing, but it was my way to kill time. It was easy to get into it, too, because I enjoyed learning more about my topic and perfecting phrasing, vocabulary and critical thinking. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to write about police brutality in France. I study International Politics together with French, so the political touch was a must for me. My supervisor, Aedín ní Loingsigh, recommended different articles and sources I could focus on. Among these was also a film by Ladj Ly called Les Misérables. Sounds familiar? I thought so too. I made the connection to the Victor Hugo novel, searched for police brutality and was guided smoothly to my research question: “La représentation de la police dans Les Misérables de Victor Hugo et dans Les Misérables de Ladj Ly.”

One struggle I encountered right to the end was the length of my project. The effort I put it would have been better placed in a dissertation than a 2250-word project, which resulted in 5000 to 6000 words at one point in the process. I was too enthusiastic. I had read so much, I had too much to say. Cutting down my arguments was probably the hardest part. It hurts when you have remove sentences in French that you’re really proud of because they sound so good and you used such fancy vocabulary. But I did it and I was proud of the work I submitted in the end.

Other than focusing all my academic energy on my project, I spent most of my semester 6 recharging and reenergising, climbing Scottish mountains and going for walks. And as good as that felt, I am more than ready for a semester where the thought of how to kill my time will never cross my mind.

Although my Semester 6 experience was not quite the one I had planned, it is still one I appreciate. The little insight I got into the French education system only inspired me to put studying in a francophone country on my bucket list for the future.’

Many, many thanks to Pauline for starting this series of reflections on Semester Abroad and for this honest account of the semester. We hope you have a great Summer and we look forward to being able to welcome you back to Stirling in the new academic year!