Please can anyone suggest a good beginners intensive French language course in the Lausanne, Rolle, Montreux, Geneva area?

Preferably a school that specialises in twenty-something adults/and or mature-ish Uni students rather than rucksack wielding, brace-faced high school kids trying to cop off.

Thanks

A very popular school is the Migros one. You can find an extensive list of courses on-line www.ecole-club.ch and they have schools in all cities. The courses are addressed to adult crowd, and you can find evening or day courses, once or twice a week, or intensively over a month or two, it depends how much money you want to invest.
As an alternative, you can look into the University's summer classes. I know Lausanne has a pretty good program in summer..

Hi. I suggest you The Wessex Academy in Lausanne - Rue de Bourg 43
021 323 54 36

It's a very good school, with good teachers...

Elvi

I don't know about french. I go to Benedict in Zürich for German and am very satisfied. (though its a bit expensive.) Migro schule is cheaper, and from what I know, equally adult-friendly.

Good Luck!

I am a student looking for french language school for duration about 10 weeks of time. i found the eurocentre in Lausanne (http://www.eurocentres.com/en/language_schools/), and the Ecole suisse de language in Montreux. (http://www.esl-schools.org/en/index.htm). i would like to receive some discussion about these schools. i am belonging to beginning level. thank you very much.

hello, i am looking for a french course too... all the information and resources are in french and I cant understand!! do you know of any school that has year round lessons.... if so how much does it cost approximately to study at migros? I appreciate any help on this!

Hello,

I tried Berlitz in Lausanne but did not like it, because the others in the group were more advanced than I am (ie, pretty hopeless). But here's the info anyway:
Lausanne
CH-10
Rue de la Louve 1
Tel.: +41 21 341.03.50
Fax: +41 21 341.03.51

Now I have private lessons at home via Skype with an outfit called Learn French at Home http://www.learnfrenchathome.com/

I find this much better - finally i can aspire to a low-level Delf exam!

PM me if you want any more details.

best of luck.

Ifage in Geneva is good private school and they have good resources there: videos, cassettes and a language lab. The website's only in French unfortunately, but you can try using babelfish.altavista.com to translate it.
http://www.ifage.ch/cours/langues/francais/

Across the French border is le Institut Français des Alpes (Ifalpes) in the picturesque, lakeside town of Annecy. It's more affordable than similar private schools in Geneva and my Swedish schoolmate was very satisfied with his summer course there.
http://www.ifalpes.fr/learn_french_f...es_ifalpes.php

Good luck and welcome!

Hi! I'd just like to share my experience of language schools in Vaud because I know it is difficult to decide which one would suit you best.
First of all, avoid Eurocentre in Lausanne at all costs! It is so expensive and the quality is poor. All they are interested in is making money and keeping you in a lower level class for as long as possible. At the age of 27 and with a good knowledge of french, I was being asked to spend a good half hour colouring in animals to help me remember the names!!! (Despite the whole class being way advanced for it)! Also, despite charging so much money, they have no materials and don't use a specific teaching method. In there publicity, they boast about having a language lab but its a lie! One week we had four different teachers and they didn't liase with each other so there was a lot of repetition. Eurocentre is crap, unless you are 16, want to pull another 16 year old and speak no french!

I then moved onto Ecole Club in Geneva, which was excellent. My teacher was fantastic and the other people in my group were lovely and my french is now very good (especially after a glass of wine)! It is also half the price of eurocentre. The teachers are so friendly and flexible. Normally, you have the same teacher everyday.

I know from friends that Ifage has had a lot of problems since Christmas and cancelled classes without warning, but they said that before the cancellations, the lessons were good.

Good Luck!

Hi,

I heard of a pretty aggressive lectures - based method that makes a French - speaker in little time. I understand these are oral presentations where everything that's being said is either repeated or translated for attendees to understand. But it is only for a couple people and rates are pretty high.


I was told the organizer is a private French Swiss teacher that has some page on Craigslist's Geneva groups website.

I have to say my experience was much the same with eurocentre in lausanne. They do not have books, everything is photocopied from random books. I received photocopies of the same text more than once. No teaching method is ascribed to. The director of the school has no experience as an educator, her background is business. I think that should tell what the focus of the school is.

In defense of the teachers, a mixed bag. Though, most tried to work with what they had, and a couple of very lovely people.

A friend of mine is studying at this very school and enjoys it very much. The class is small, the teacher patient and understanding, and the students, are serious,need to learn french in order to survive day to day.

hi! I'm having the same problem, thanks to all for the recomendation, I will choose one, then i'll tell how it was!

bye

Just make sure you don't choose Eurocentre!!! x

Hi all, thought I'd throw in a language that isn't in the topic title

At some point I'd like to start learning Spanish, and I intend to do this with a teacher because I know I will otherwise never get round to it .

Does anyone have any experience with places, preferably around Zürich Bellevue or in Seefeld? I know there's Berlitz which seems to have a good reputation (and I just got a membership for a gym in the same building - as if that helps ).

Recommendations welcome.

I am currently attending Migros Ecole in Vevey. I am just about to finish level two. The classes are all taught in french and are quite interactive. My partner and I are the only english speaking pupils! most people are spanish/brazlian/german.

It was dauting at first, but as long as you have a dictionary and are prepared to read up and do the homework, there's no reason why you should struggle. It started with about 12 of us in the class, but by the start of level two, there were four of us! so it has pretty much been a class of private tuition, especially when some of the other pupils dont trun up!

It cost about 500 francs for a level which consists of two 2hour classes a week for about 10 weeks and 50 francs for the books & cd. There are different options for how intensive you want the classes to be, ie you can have lessons every day or once a week, but this does depend on demand.

I have found them very worthwhile, useful and great value for money.

Hello everyone! Can anyone share feedback about the Summer French Language Course at the University in Lausanne? I will be spending 3 months in that area and would like to invest the money for the course wisely. I see a lot of people are warning against Eurocenter...But how about Eurocentres in Lausanne - is this the same school? How about ESL in Montreux? I will greatly appreciate any clarification from anyone. My boyfriend who lives in Vevey is not really familiar with any language schools and I would love to sign up for a great course with great teachers and adult students (above 25 years old).

Thank you very much!

I learnt french at Ecole Agora in Lausanne, and I would thoroughly recommend it. The people are lovely, the classes are small, the fees aren't as high as most other places I've seen, and if you need extra help with stuff then the teacher will spend some extra time with you at no extra charge (or at least that's what happened in the course I did). www.ecoleagora.ch, I think.

I heard about this ecole from my friend, and have registed for the French A1 course. It'll start on July 7th.

Thanks for the info. They claim to be the cheapest school in Lausanne. I met the director this past week, very friendly and seems to know about education. It is a family ran business, that is why he stated they can keep their costs down. Their is one strange thing that I did encounter: I was not allowed to sit in on a class (not even for 15 minutes). All the other schools I visited where happy to schedule a time for me to not only observe, but also be part of the class.