How to Get the Most Out of a Part-time Evening Language Course
Friday, 20th March 2009
As an American student at 12 years old I was asked to choose a language as part of my everyday curriculum. Being in a school system in the suburbs of New York City I chose Spanish, as I knew this would be the language I would use most out of the four choices given – Spanish, French, Italian or German.
As an adult, I began to do a lot of business in Canada and found myself traveling to Montreal quite often. When I came to the decision to start a continuing education class, I chose French.
I began my evening language course weekly, two hours a session. This gave me lot of freedom during the week to attend my every day job and to socialize, but I needed some guidance on how to incorporate learning the French that we studied in class.
I began to set time aside three times a week to look over and practice what we learned in class. Usually this would run from a half hour to an hour each study period.
As each week went by, I thought back to my early school days when I could literally immerse myself in a Hispanic culture if I really wanted to, with so many places in New York where one could solely hear Spanish being spoken. I realized that in order to really utilize my French as an adult I was going to have to try speaking what I learned in my evening class in a French-speaking area.
During the course of my evening language program, I was lucky to have a few business engagements in Quebec. As Montreal is not that far from New York, I also went on occasion for leisurely weekends – it was like having a little piece of France right on my New York doorstep. I quickly realized that full immersion into the language was an excellent way to incorporate what I learned on my evening course.
Even if you take your language 2 hours a week for ten weeks, try to book your holiday to a destination where your evening course language is spoken. You will be surprised at how easy it is to get into the flow of the language. You will also learn more words and phrases just by being immersed in the culture.
More about evening language classes in the US and Canada
More about language programs abroad
Tags: french, spanish, german, italian, culture, learning, language, evening class, evening course, language course
Posted by Jessica Wingate under Types of Courses,
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