University of Wisconsin–Madison

France: Cate Ohly

Program: Institut de Touraine French Language, Summer

Cate’s Major: Kinesiology

Cate, a white girl with blonde hair, smiles at the camera while standing on the beach. She is wearing a white dress with small flowers and white tennis shoes.
This is a photo of me in Saint-Malo, a beach town in northern France. This was an excursion provided by the Institut, which also included a trip to Mont Saint-Michel.

How were your program academics similar or different from taking classes at UW-Madison?

French classes at the Institut de Touraine felt similar to French classes that I took on campus. The class sizes were similar to classes at UW, if anything a bit smaller, for example my class had about 12 people in it. The class demographics included people from many different countries, however most of them were college age Americans. The types of homework I received were pretty similar to Madison as well, although it did depend on which professor each student had.

What is your most memorable experience from your program?

One of the most memorable things from my program is all the new people I met and got to hang around with while abroad. I met people not only people from other countries but different US states as well, and I have lots of new people to reach out to now wherever I travel. Also, out of the 7 of us who went on the program from UW-Madison, I only knew one person beforehand, so this program allowed me to meet more people from the university.

Because I was in the country to study French, every interaction in the language — whether it went well or not — could be seen as a learning experience toward my progression of language learning.

What challenges or barriers did you face as you prepared to go abroad and/or during your time abroad? How did you work through them?

A challenge I faced while being in France was not being a fluent speaker of the native language of the country. Although, because I was in the country to study French, every interaction in the language — whether it went well or not — could be seen as a learning experience toward my progression of language learning. Also, having to speak a second language in a foreign country gave me insight to people who I interact with in the United States who don’t speak English, and how scary and unfamiliar it can feel. In order to work through the language barrier it was important for me to stay confident, and speak in as much French as I could, no matter how broken.