Why Study Abroad
Information on Studying French Abroad
There is no better and more effective way to learn a language than to be immersed in a culture that speaks the language you are learning. Students, especially those staying with a host family, are surrounded by the language on a daily basis and are seeing and hearing it in the proper cultural context. Language learning happens most quickly under these circumstances.
Students develop skills in problem solving and with foreign languages; they gain geographical and historical knowledge; they're exposed to people who process information differently than they do.
Students can make professional contacts, gain a sense of direction for their future career, gain a sense of responsibility in working on a project, benefit from the close mentoring of a faculty member.
Students gain an appreciation of what we have in the U.S.; they develop confidence, a strengthened sense of personal identity, flexibility, and creativity. Students learn to rely on themselves and become more independent.
Students increase their interest in other cultures, become less ethnocentric, as they become more aware of cultural differences, develop language skills within a cultural context, become more culturally sensitive and accepting.