La belle langue à la belle province

June 8, 2011 9:43 AM

Have you taken a French immersion course in Montreal? Can you recommend either the UQAM or U de Montréal programs?

I'm moving to Montreal this summer for school. I'll be taking a summer French immersion course to get my language skills back on track. I'm deciding between the UQAM Summer Intensive and a combination of morning and afternoon intensive classes at U de M. They seem roughly equal, but I'd love to hear if anyone has personal experiences with either one.

posted by awenner to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

As a very rough statement, UdeM is a better school, and is located in a very slightly less bilingual area. Very slightly. UQAM is downtown, which has its own pluses. In general, it will come down to your being willing to live the rest of your summer in French despite it being easy to do otherwise and not either program -- I have heard fine things about all the language classes.

UdeM is also closer to one of my favourite patisseries.
posted by jeather at 10:01 AM on June 8, 2011

jeather makes good points. I can't speak to the relative qualities of the schools, but if you're going to decide on the basis of neighbourhoods, here is what you need to know. U of M is in a pleasant residential area near parks and diverse ethnic restaurants. UQAM is in a somewhat seedy part of downtown close to Chinatown, Old Montreal and The Main (Blvd St Laurent).
posted by Jode at 12:11 PM on June 8, 2011

I did some French courses at UofM. I thought it was pretty high quality, if a little out of the way.
posted by dobie at 12:31 PM on June 8, 2011

Response by poster: Interesting. I hadn't considered the distance—we'll be living in Mile End or the Plateau, though, and I like the convenience of UQAM. I was mostly just checking to see if there were any reasons I definitely shouldn't do one or the other.

Thanks!
posted by awenner at 12:58 PM on June 8, 2011