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| - I took their part time French beginner's class for 4 month. My instructor was Maxime Trudeau-Poitras. I had a great time there and I did learn a lot in class.
As of background, I had zero French background when I first started. I know only four French words/sentences before taking the class: oui, merci, bonjour and c'est la vie. During the class, I had a full time job which means I didn't have much time studying after the class. At the end of A4 class, I could have simple conversations in French to introduce myself and discuss what I did in the past and my plan in the future (within the topics that we had learnt and practiced in class). I am more comfortable in a French environment now.
Maxime is an excellent teacher. If the school will see my post, I recommend you to give this guy a raise (I'm half joking!). He has many years of teaching experience. He was knowledgeable and was really patient with us. I talked to many classmates and we all feel really lucky to have him.
My class had a great vibe. People were all very engaged and we had some good discussions. Also my class had a friendly environment. I did feel some pressure when moved into A2 class where we were required to talk more in French. However, classmates and Maxime gave me a lot of courage and I got use to speaking in French in my class (if it's outside class, I will still be nervous). If you are a beginner with zero background like me, you might be overwhelmed at first and I did struggled a little bit about if I should continue to the A2. But I am really happy that I stick with it. I think the class will be easier for those who had learnt some French in high school. But it is totally doable for people who have no background.
The class size changed from A1 to A4. In our first A1 class, we had like 20 people and in the end we had 5 people who completed A4. It works for me. Bigger class has better discussions and it was really fun. However, when you moved to higher levels, the smaller class size allows you to practice more and the instructor could spend much more time on each students.
I did recommend my friends to give the class a try if they are interested in learning French.
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