Lennie- Octobre 2011

Since 3 years ago when I started studying French at a local community college in Los Angeles, I’ve wanted to study French in France. Then this year, a one-week opportunity came along in October, so I started searching the internet for a suitable program. Because my community college classes emphasized grammar, writing and listening, but little on spoken French largely due to a class size of more than 10 students, I wanted to find a program that allowed me to focus on spoken French and provide lots of opportunity to speak French. Therefore, a structured half-day language school with more than 8 students, the norm in Paris, was not appealing. Then I stumbled upon Myriam’s program on the web, and I feel really fortunate that I did. A daily two-hour one-on-one lesson in the morning, sharing the every-day life of the French teacher the rest of the day, along with local excursions in the Basque country with her gave me ample opportunity to speak French. I spoke French from breakfast time at 8:15 in the morning until I went to bed at night! I couldn’t believe how much French I could speak. Myriam brought up various topics for conversation and I really enjoyed talking to her. After 5 days, I felt very confident of my ability.
Myriam is a very thorough and patient teacher. I had several questions on French grammar that I did not fully comprehend from my community college classes, and Myriam explained them to me very patiently until I understood. Studying with her was just like studying with my professors at the community college, but it was better because I was the only student. The program could be tailored exactly to what I wanted and needed. I had the opportunity to write (daily journals), learn intricacies of French grammar, improve my listening ability, and, most important of all, to have the opportunity to speak the language, and in other than a classroom setting.
I felt very comfortable staying at Myriam’s house. My bedroom had everything I needed for my comfort, convenience, and for doing my daily written homework. The wifi worked very well. Myriam cooked three wonderful meals (she was kept very busy!), including some Basque specialties. I loved the Bordeaux wine we had with our dinner! Most of all, I enjoyed the various conversations we had (in French!) during our meals in a relaxed setting in her garden.
She took me to visit Bayonne, Biarritz, Esplette, Ainhoa, and San Sebastian in Spain. I also had one afternoon on my own to visit where I wanted and it was a great opportunity to actually use French in a practical setting.
I vacation in Europe annually, and have been to France 4 times before, but I found visiting France with Myriam to be much more informative and interesting. And I had the chance to find out first-hand about French culture and customs from a native, which really added to my French experience. I hope to study with her again in the future. She is an excellent teacher, the program is highly effective, and I cannot recommend her highly enough.