To become fluent in French, junior Audrey Johnston will be travelling to France for the summer of 2025 for a French Immersion program through Indiana University. The five-week program is designed to immerse the students in French, which means that they are not supposed to speak in English at all.
“It will teach me how to speak readily in conversation, and I’ll be able to translate things in my head quicker,” Johnston said. “My parents are going to be back here in Indiana, and I won’t be able to text or call them, so I can grow independently and get closer to fluency.”
To fully immerse themselves in French, students’ phones are taken away, and they are only allowed to have them back for an hour a week to email their parents in English.
“I’m not able to text or call my parents because if I’m constantly texting or calling them, I would be speaking in a lot of English because my parents can’t speak French, and it will diminish the value of the experience,” Johnston said.
When the students get there, they will not only be practicing French, but they are getting the opportunity to visit tourist spots too.
“We will go to school during the week for a couple hours a day, and then we will spend time on the weekends going to different places like Paris and Mont Saint-Michel,” Johnston said.
Students complete an application process to be admitted into the program.
“I am doing this through the IU Honors Program in Foreign Language,” Johnston said. “I first heard about this opportunity in eighth grade, but I had to grow in my language before I could do it. I filled out an application earlier this year, and I got in.”
Johnston said she is not just doing this program to get better at French. She said she has wanted to visit France since she was a little kid, and she wants to continue to speak the language in college.
“I remember when I was little I was reading a book about cool places in France, and I’ve wanted to visit ever since and see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and all sorts of different places,” Johnston said. “One of my goals going into learning French was to be fluent, and I also want to minor in French in college, so this will give me the opportunity to do touristy things and travel there which I’ve always wanted to do.”
