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Alliance Française: The People´s Choice

by David Applefield

For a sound grounding in the basics and a lively, friendly welcome to Paris, the Alliance Française is the institution of choice. Founded in 1883, this private, non-profit teaching organization sprawls between two buildings in the St. Germain neighborhood and is probably the largest French-teaching school in the world. More than 20,000 students attend classes each year in Paris and when you add up their students worldwide, the figure is a whopping 300,000. Many lifelong friendships have been made here and the amount of couples that found each other at the Alliance is pleasingly considerable.

Because of its size and solid reputation, many people automatically choose Alliance Française, with good reason. Many of the 135 teachers are excellent, there´s a language lab, a 15,000 book library, a housing service, notice boards with job and housing information, organized sightseeing tours, free conferences on French history and literature, a film society, a restaurant, a welcoming service that matches students with French families for a meal or regular chats, and the cacophonous, exciting atmosphere created by students from 140 countries. As Markovic Aleksandar, a 22-year-old from the former Yugoslavia says, "The best thing is learning with people from all over the world. I´ve been studying here for a year and a half and now I have friends from all the continents."

However, the Alliance´s explosive success has its drawbacks. Classes can have as many as 22 students and the relatively large class sizes means there´s room for a frustratingly wide range of abilities in a single class and shy students can be drowned out amid the hubbub. Still, many say the Alliance suits them just fine. Tammy Deacon, a British 21-year-old, has a class of just 15 students and a superb teacher. "We´re learning about grammar by talking about it-it´s a very good way to learn the grammar and improve your speaking ability at the same time," she says.

Marc Bailly, an Alliance Française administrator, explains that the school´s teaching leans toward practical, everyday, spoken French, although advanced classes spend more time on grammar and writing skills. Students say teachers use a variety of teaching methods spanning role-playing and sit-down learning, and homework usually doesn´t take more than an hour. In most classes, students sit in a circle, and although the teachers keep attendance records, it´s no disaster if you miss a few classes. The ambiance is relaxed and bantering, most students are between the ages of 18 and 30, and Americans, Japanese and Germans are the largest nationality groups.

Graduates of Alliance Française repeat one nugget of advice: Not all the teachers are stellar, so keep searching until you find someone that makes you keen to study. The school may balk if you make more than a few changes, but once you´ve paid it´s your right to find a teacher you like. Another important point is that enrollment occurs monthly, which means you´ll have new classmates and sometimes a new teacher every four weeks. This is an excellent system for people in France for a short period of time, or those who travel frequently, but if you want to study continuously for six months or more, the disruptions can become a nuisance.