Programme of study

Since arriving at Aix-Marseille, my Learning Agreement has taken many drastic turn in various directions. I was at one point signed up to study Catalan and Hindi until my Year Abroad tutor in Birmingham told me I wasn’t allowed to.

So what am I even studying this semester?

My degree programme at Birmingham is English (literature) and French which means that unlike most other people on a year abroad from the languages department, I can’t simply pick language and culture modules in my other languages. I’m also restricted in a way that Erasmus students from other general humanities departments aren’t: every module I take has to be taught in French.

Français langue étrangère

Walking into your first lesson on a year abroad and discovering it’s a test isn’t necessarily the best of welcomes, but thankfully the vast majority of the class passed it and were permitted to remain in the course. This class consists of two 90 min seminars per week in which we look at improving our oral ability to argue, construct opinions, and interpret analytically. The content is very similar to the UoB MFL CS2 classes, but with the added bonus of a tutor whose bluntness knows no bounds. When someone hadn’t turned up for the third lesson in a row, she struck them off the register. Ouch.

Thème Erasmus

A French-to-English translation class based around literary and journalistic texts, the content is interesting and requires a slightly less high level of French than the English department head made out in the welcome lecture. It runs as one 90 minute seminar per week. However, no translation you offer will ever be acceptable to the tutor who runs this class – someone who takes every opportunity to roast someone’s answer by finding the funny, misleading connotation it has. While it does make you think twice before offering an answer, it also makes everyone think five times before giving one. And she is surprised when there are no volunteers.

Questions de genres

This is a module in French literature from the Lettres Modernes department, one of two classes I have with actual French students instead of international ones. It is composed of a 3 hour seminar on texts specific to the seminar you select and then a 2 hour lecture on literary theory for everyone. The seminar I really enjoy, as it is based around the idea of whether genre is democratic, looking at ancient Greek tragedies and modern (French) versions of them. The Tragedy module I took in second year was my favourite, so it’s great to be able to look more into it. The literary theory lecture has very heavy content, but the lecturer so far has explained the complex ideas very well and put them simply, which goes a long way towards me being able to keep up.

Etude comparée des sociétés éuropéennes contemporaines

Rather unfortunately for Erasmus students, this class is 9am-12noon on a Friday, the morning after the official international student night out in Aix. Fortunately I have an excellent work ethic and wouldn’t dream of letting that get in the way. The themes studied are very interesting current politics delivered with fast-switching PowerPoints and a way to bring your own interests in. There is the option of doing a presentation to boost your overall grade for the module, and as long as it runs within one of the themes, you can have fairly free rein with it.

Allemand Intermédiaire

After lots of begging on my part to my tutor in Birmingham, I was allowed to take this module as it was the only 3 credit one that would fit my timetable and make up all my ECTS for the semester. I originally took German at GCSE several years ago and have been Duolingo-ing my way through to try and keep it up a little. When I visited Vienna in January with my mum, I was gratified to realise I wasn’t completely out of touch with the language. In light of a (hopefully) upcoming trip to Germany next summer with my uni housemate, I wanted to improve it anyway. There are some grammar points which are terribly old to me and others I’d never even heard of. Just goes to show that there isn’t one standard to which a language is taught.

Littérature française et étrangère

Again a module I obtained by begging and writing heartbroken emails – but this time to the module convenor, rather than my year abroad tutor. This is a comparative literature module on short stories to do with animals, and could not suit me more. We’ve already looked at an eighteenth-century version of Beauty and the Beast. The beauty of this class is that, as short stories, I don’t have to spend all my free time reading extensively long novels, as I did at Birmingham last year!

Generally across the modules, there is much more of a focus on being orally examined – through presentations either composed at home or in class, or through your participation level. While this will take some getting used to, it is a relief to know that this means there will be fewer written exams (something I have a horror of), and that any oral exams which aren’t in-class presentations are more likely to be on this side of Christmas than to take place in January. It would be lovely to have Christmas off for once!

A plus,

Zoe x