Institut Francophonie

The lessons consisted of areas that do justice to the specific language skills. Listen/read and understand, defend your opinions, write texts, conduct dialogues or express yourself coherently on a topic. The teachers reacted to the situations that arose during the lesson, for example, a word or phrase was explained using a different context.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of competitive methods. This means, for example, when two groups or individual participants compete against each other by building sentences quickly and writing them on the blackboard. This method doesn't motivate me at all because it puts me under pressure and causes mental blockage. Several participants, on the other hand, have fun with it. But I personally value a well thought-out sentence structure. In this way, I remember what I have learned much better.

Staying with a local family greatly expanded my experience of the country's language and culture and gave me additional motivation to overcome my shyness to speak (which I had previously been quite shy about). I applaud this concept and recommend it to anyone who is hesitant to use their newly acquired language skills in real life. I was treated with respect, a lot of support and I felt at home. No hotel would have given me that feeling.

My class was too difficult from the beginning, but the director divided us into two groups which was good and helped a lot. Teachers were excellent with a thorough knowledge in the French language (as far as I can tell), and the location of the school was good, although the rooms were a little small. What I really missed were social activities, or at least tips of what was going on in Nantes during the stay. It's not so easy to find out on a website, especially when the language is foreign. Nothing were done to make us feel like a group or a team. But the staff was very friendly and helpful when asked.

I was a little skeptical to the housing at first since "my" family lives approx 5 km from the city center, but the family was really nice and the housing was great. So I wouldn't consider changing housing after I met them!

Family was good. Teacher was good. Class experience was good. Facilities were good. Nantes was enjoyable.

The Institut Francophonie is a great school to learn French. Nice and good teachers. I really appreciated perfect assistance and availability of the staff assistance.

A wonderful experience in the beautiful city of Nantes. My host family were kind and welcoming and the school is in a reasonably central location in a light and positive environment. My teacher, Florence, was super and I would really recommend it.

If you have the. chance to go to Institute Francophone in Nantes I would recommend you do it. The classes are a small size allowing for individual attention where needed. The teachers are caring and ensure everyone understands prior to commencing an exercise. Our accommodation was wonderful and our host could not have been more welcoming.

I think the Institut Francophonie is a great place to learn French.
The classes are a good size, the teachers are nice and helpful. I thought it was good, that they tried to speak French with you all the time and also got you to try to speak French and just helped with vocabulary and grammar along the way so it was a learning by doing thing. However I can imagine that this way of teaching might be difficult if you never had French before and basically don’t know anything.

The location was easy to find with google maps, once you figured out that it’s in a courtyard. You can easily walk there from the train station Nantes (15min) or you can park in the area if you go by car, though that is kind of expensive (I think for 3 hours about 6€ or more). So I would recommend using public transport, walking or going by bike. It is very practical that the school is so central. Before or after class you can go and visit Nantes without having to drive anywhere.

For me personally the course was a little slow. I was in A1, even though I had French in school for 5 years. It was okay, because I had forgotten a lot. Nevertheless it was just repetition for me while it was new for everyone else, so I sometimes got a bit bored. I’m sure I could have asked to be put in a different course but for the one week I stayed, it wasn’t worth the effort in my opinion. However I thought this could have been prohibited, if the placement test would have been more focused on understanding and responding than filling in the gaps with the right tense.

Another thing to keep in mind is, that most people are over 25 years old (even though the course is for people from 14 years up), though maybe that’s different in the summer (July & August).
Still everyone was very nice and the atmosphere was welcoming. Nobody would judge anyone for doing something wrong and I always liked going to class.

Overall I would recommend Institut Francophonie. I enjoyed my time there, though it could have been even better, if I had made a few adjustments in my expectations.

The school is friendly and hospitable. Three hours a day is enough. I really appreciated the speech practices, even though it was hard and tiring. This school is the best way to start talking.

The class was friendly and informal yet we worked really hard. The session involved an hour of conversation some detailed theory, exercises and games. We also had homework to do.

There was no English speaking - speaking in French was only allowed which was really helpful for my learning and development of the language.

The school itself was was in a quaint building and me provided everything that was needed. The teachers were professional supportive helpful and friendly. I felt very welcome.

I rated social as only a three because we didn’t do anything in the week that I was there but I’m not sure what ongoing social activities are organised but I was invited to join the group WhatsApp which was great for future contacts.

The location, facilities,classes were fine. The teachers are professional and they are doing the best they can so that everybody delelops in the group. The disadvantage was that the school due to coronavirus sanitary measures needed to transform its courses to online for two months, and this has definitely not helped the progress of our studies in french.

I liked it from the first day! Maëva, our teacher, was very helpful and tried to just talk in French (which, even for someone who never learnde French before, was totally understandable), she was also very patient and tried to support everyone based on their skills and French level.
We were just a group of five to seven people, sometimes mixed with another group to communicate, but mostly a small group, which helped to keep a well timed work/learn flow.
For just attending the French class for two weeks I have to admit, I feel like I learned a lot! Plus we got a book, which now is very supportive to learn at home.
In the end I have to say, the two weeks flew by too fast and I would have enjoyed to stay there much longer!

Wonderful teacher, comfortable space, interesting coursework. I had a lovely experience.

The theachers were amazing, really helpful, patient and involved. Really good structure and methods of teaching. I would recomend to anyonewho wants to start their adventure with french!

I enjoyed the time spent at the school. It was smaller than I expected, but the facilities were good and the teachers were very nice and skilled. There was nice rooms and an option to have coffee or tea every morning.

I love the new location near the hospital, a pity that I didn't enjoy. Rezé is not very fast, but we need to take public transport every day. The teachers are very nice but I would have appreciate more level of exigence, more corrections when we talked, more detail-oriented to improve. The classes in Rezé were small and very dark. It is great all the different activities that Institut Francophonie organised relating French.

I was very happy with Francophonie. I learnt A LOT of french thanks to my great teacher Florence and her way of teaching language in a very dynamic way. It was very helpful to be in smaller groups as well. We did a lot of speaking practice which was not only necessary but also always very fun and educational since the discussions in themselves were always interesting and every student could contribute with their unique point of view. I learnt not only a lot of french but also a lot about France, french people, french culture and the viewpoints of all the other students from different countries. The facilities were good, and in the end of my stay Francophonie moved to an even better location in the center of Nantes with very spacious rooms and a welcoming reception area. I have no negative critique at all, it was a joy to study french at Francophonie!