(École Suisse was one of the best educational experiences I’ve had in my life and I am so happy I chose to go there to learn French. Located in the bustling 10th arrondissement, École Suisse offers a dynamic and engaging language teaching pedagogy which really improved my French - even though I was only there for three weeks!
Unlike most language schools, classes here are not rigidly structured, but are instead more of a fluid dialogue between the professors and students. For example, maybe while discussing how to use the past tense in French a student starts talking about the museum they visited last weekend - before you know it, the whole class is discussing their favourite museums in Paris! The professors really encourage these “detour” discussion and they use them to teach the class new expressions and grammar (as opposed to coming in with a checklist of pre-selected grammar points). I found this approach so refreshing and helpful - it really encourages you to develop natural conversation skills, which is probably the most important thing at the end of the day. Of course, that is not to say École Suisse shies away from teaching grammar, vocabulary etc - it just does so mostly through interesting, spontaneous interactions as opposed to boring exercises and drills. École Suisse is able to do this because class sizes are very small - none of my classes had more than 6 people. If you can, I would also recommend going to the afternoon classes as well - those ones are essentially a big discussion in French around a certain theme (ie. Education systems, pop music, movies etc) and they really push you to improve.
All this could not be possible without the teaching staff at the school, who are not only experts in what they do, but also very pleasant to be around. For all the stereotypes of tyrannical French teachers who explode into anger if you misgender a noun, there was absolutely none of that here. While classes were no doubt challenging, I always felt well-supported and encouraged by the patience and understanding of the professors. All of them are actually very funny as well, and you will definitely laugh as you learn!
Overall, I would highly recommend École Suisse to anyone looking to spend some time in Paris learning French. The memories, friends and language skills I gained while I was there I will carry with me for a lifetime. (January 2023)
