France: Language, Community, and Social Change

“Toulouse is welcoming, entirely unique, and the ambiance is incomparable—an ideal city for studying abroad. I am leaving with French friends whom I truly connected with, a sense of community, a true command of the French language, and the knowledge that I became completely immersed in my host city. After my stay I know I can not only 'get by' speaking French: I can debate, form true relationships and thrive in another language. I can’t wait to come back to Toulouse, my second home.”

-- Emma Delvecchio, Villanova University

Rapidly advance your French through intensive language learning and close engagement with the community through a local service project.

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Through this intensive language program, students can rapidly improve their French language ability. Students experience full language immersion through instruction at L’Institute Catholique de Toulouse, interdisciplinary seminars, and homestays in French communities.

Students interact with French scholars, community members, local organizers, and arts groups. The program’s Community Service Project provides students an opportunity to increase language skills while giving back to the host community.

The program is based in Toulouse, France’s second-largest urban university area. Toulouse is home to a world-class arts and cultural scene and is situated between the Pyrenees Mountains and Mediterranean Sea. Students also undertake several excursions outside Toulouse, including to the Pyrenees Orientales along the French-Spanish border.

Students at a North African pastry workshop

A Cultural Mosaic
With borders along eight European countries, colonial ties to West Africa, and territories in North and South America, France is a country influenced by myriad cultures. As one of Western Europe's leading asylum destinations, France is also home to a growing non-Christian immigrant population, with a significant percentage of immigrants coming from Muslim countries.

Within this diverse and evolving environment, students on this program explore the impact of immigration on French politics, economics, and arts, and the ways in which individuals and communities maintain both separate cultural identities and a French nationality. The program considers contemporary France's ethnic, religious, urban, and regional diversity and its complex post-colonial relationships with the Francophone world.

View a video clip of a France24 news story as a BBC reporter accompanies SIT students on their tour of an immigrant neighborhood in Toulouse.

Listen to Academic Director Isabelle Jaffé describe what it's like studying in France with SIT

Credits: 16

Duration: 15 weeks

Program Base: France, Toulouse

Language Study: French

Prerequisites: One semester French or 2 semesters of another Romance language Read more...