Training, Immersion, and Everyday Life in Paris

It’s hard to pinpoint a favorite memory from my experience while I’m still living it. Honestly, this is exactly what makes study abroad special. You’re not a tourist—you’re living in the city. We were told to remind ourselves of this fact from the first day of orientation. When you choose to study abroad, you are fully immersed in a different country’s culture, and you’re not considered a simple tourist. That means all of the daily experiences are those of someone living here. 

You walk to school, take the metro, go grocery shopping, and engage with the city the way Parisians do. In that way, choosing a single favorite memory becomes difficult when I look back on my entire experience, because it’s simply become my day-to-day life. That doesn’t mean I don’t have good memories: it just means there are a lot of them. It’s not a weeklong vacation where you had a memorable night out or saw a cool museum.

 Some of my favorite moments from my studies in Paris, so far, include eating out at a classic French bouillon, sitting along the Seine on Île de la Cité under my favorite tree in Paris, and having weekly dinners with my host family. It’s really as simple as that.

Rather than shut a door on a major or experience, doing a Duke-Administered program will allow me to complete a double major in English and French. Taking four classes in French through EDUCO and the Parisian universities gives me the opportunity to complete a French major upon returning to Duke.

In addition to the academic benefits, this semester shifted the way I think about learning languages in general. Studying in Paris showed me how much faster my French developed when I was fully immersed, and it made me more motivated to seek out that same immersion back on campus. I plan on taking multiple courses in French per semester for the remaining year and a half I am at Duke. I also plan on staying connected with friends I met abroad. I’m coming back to Duke with a clearer sense of why I want to pursue both majors and how they complement each other.

My biggest piece of advice would be to take advantage of the host family option. I would like to think I was super lucky with my pairing, but I know from other students’ testimonials in my program that the host families have been great all around. 

At first, I was worried about the lack of downtime or privacy. In reality, living with a host family had the opposite effect, though this sounds counter intuitive. What I mean is that they provided me with a sense of security and comfort from the first day. I was not alone in the city; I had a home base to return to, in a completely foreign environment without my close friends. I ate dinners with them, conversed, became more confident in my French, watched films each Sunday as a family, and asked for recommendations. In the end, the familiarity with my host family gave me more confidence to explore the city alone.

How have your skills or knowledge changed after doing this program ?

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I experienced this while studying abroad with Duke in Provence this past summer as well, but a very memorable part of my study abroad experience has been the act of practicing French every day. I am not bilingual, French is technically my second language, and I did not start out fluent. It was an exercise for my brain to constantly force myself to speak and write in French. A lot of it required active translation in my head, and a lot of the time I would return home with my brain “tired.”

I also feel more confident navigating unfamiliar environments. I joined new fencing clubs and spoke to coaches entirely in French. I also did a home exchange and joined a completely new living style, all while trying to communicate in a foreign language. I learned how adaptable I actually am. That sense of independence is something I didn’t fully have before this experience.