Yeah, I thought this was odd too, when I was thinking about enrolling at this place. I'd enrolled in other language schools before and had always been offered a free lesson to see if I liked it. Funnily enough, though, I liked ecole agora heaps more than I have liked any other language schools I have been to.
Sure. I heard that the class was small. There were only 6 people in my friend's class. It's pretty much like a private tuition. 3 hours per day, 5 days per week intensive, full immersion The teachers are friendly and patient. Finally, the fees are not high.
Its indeed a great pleasure to know about so many informations regarding learning french in lausanne as i was planning to learn or join a course over here...i just came to swiss a couple of weeks back..thanks a lot for the infos provided here...
I've been researching on beginner's A1 French in Lausanne and wanted to check with you on your experience with Ecole Agora. How did you find the method and the course material? Did you progress to A2 or B thereafter with them still?
Time is on my side so I did the analysis and true enough their price/hr is 30% less than Migros and UNIL (the 2 other schools I'm considering) and the rigor in terms of sched seems right for me at 3hrs/day everyday for a whole month. Was the 1 month enough for you to progress to A2?
Assuming you're starting from scratch, you're not going to get to A2 level in a month (see here , you typically need 160-180 hours of study to achieve an A2 level, apparently).
Thanks Wobbie! 60hrs in a month seems to be what the Ecole Agora is offering this July so that and some 20hrs self study should get me through A1 hopefully no? ... then yes to pass A2, using the ave. hours mentioned in your link, it will be another 160-180hrs.
Actually, I took up 6 units of French in university, but that was a "few" years ago and given my slow uptake of Deutsch those hours are probably not conservative for me
You also studied with Ecole Agora as well right? Did you progress to A2 or B with them still? What did you like about their teaching method or materials?
I started from scratch there and I stopped when I did the B2 exam. By far the best thing about their school is that it's so small and the classes are so small that you really get personalised attention, and the teachers are actually concerned about whether or not you are learning stuff or not (obviously the class size can vary. I was there for a year or so and my classes varied from having about 15 people at most, to me being the only one in the class some days).
One good thing to note is that you can always go to another 3 hours of classes each day for no extra cost (ie. say your class is in the morning. There are also classes in the afternoon, not at exactly the same level, but if you want to revise some stuff or do some lessons at a higher level you can go along to these additional 3 hours of classes without paying more. At least that was the way it worked when I was there. Possibly it depends on whether there is space and what your level of french is, but as far as I'm aware this shouldn't be a problem).
The textbook they use for the beginners classes is a really crappy-seeming old Alliance Francaise book that I was EXTREMELY sceptical about at first, but although it's hilariously archaic it does seem to have a good flow in terms of building grammatical complexity etc. There's a nice mix of reading/writing/speaking skills covered in the lessons (and a lot of boring phoenetic stuff at the beginning, which sucks but is invaluable for letting actual francophones understand your lame anglophone accent).
Yey!!! Thanks alot for really putting in so much detail in your post!!!
Hope you don't mind just one more question
...about moving up levels, did you have to pass an official DELF test (something administered by some sort of "governing body" separate from Agora) before enrolling for the next level in Agora?
I had positive experience with Club Migros, too. I started with the summer course (Mon-Thurs) with absolutely no background on french and it was good. After, there are semi-intesive courses 2 times a week either during the day or evenings. I took them in Nyon Club Migros and the teacher was really patient, students are nice and environment pleasant, too. You pay 1100 sFr over 3 mths and you have to buy your own books.
Ive been doing some searching for Language Schools in and around Lausanne Yverdon area and here is a list of all the details of the schools I have found inc contact details.
Sorry if this repeats any information previously submitted but at least its all in one place and up to date.
I have been attending INTERLANGUES, (Rue Haldimann 5, Lausanne)the last couple of months (A2) and have found them extremely good. My teacher is very tough, but I have never learn't so much. We do a lot of dictation and Q&A, so as long as you don't mind having red pen all over your mistakes and being put on the spot, you can learn a lot.
I have tried other courses with Migros, UNIL and Wessex, but the Interlangues course has been the most beneficial for me (and the most frustrating).
Bluefish, did you end up trying Ecole Agora? I've been researching to find the right school for an intensive French course. This one is much cheaper than other options so I'm a bit worried about the quality.
Has anyone tried Institut Richelieu, S& L Supercomm or ASC International?
I recommend the Institut Fazel. It's right in Lausanne Center, at top of Rue de Bourg at the Pont Bessieres. Having taken high school classes, college classes, post-graduate classes, Rosetta Stone, etc., I can honestly say it is one of the best language experiences I have had. Class times are scheduled essentially on-demand alone or with others, and the prices are a sliding scale depending on the number of students participating. Contact info is listed in the post above.