Université Laval

Since my academic and professional interests were,and are, focused on translation and languages, the language and communication aspect was a very important element in this living-abroad experience. At the end of the exchange program, I was satisfied with the results at the language level: I could easiy interact with local people and my translation and French language speaking and writing skills had improved notoriously.

In the beginning it was difficult to make myself understood, but I succeeded quickly, I started to talk. It was much more difficult to understand the slang but people from different regions in the country have the same problems. In the end I really liked to talk in French and now I miss it. I know, that I don't always talk without mistakes but I dare to speak and everybody understands what I mean and I am able to understand the others

Québec City is at least 96% French-speaking. This, and the focus on speaking in French at all times at the university allowed me to improve my French immensely. Socio-cultural activities and partaking in the nightlife gave me the chance to learn a great deal about Québec culture from the locals. (And to get used to that québécoise accent...!)

Since my french was already quite fluent before the study period abroad, I had no problems understanding or speaking the language, however in Quebec french is quite different from the one spoken in France (accent, vocabulary), but one gets used to it very quickly.

The only setback I had, was my own inhibitions about speaking French. I wish now that I had had more confidence to try the language more frequently.

English inside the campus and French in my free time. I knew english pretty good but I didn't speech a word of french. At the end I refined my english and I get started in french.