Intensive French (Short-term 1-19 weeks)

The school is geographically located in the center near the train, streetcar and shops. Everything was perfectly organized, from the room to the curriculum. The external events were also always interesting and we loved the beautiful area around Montpellier. Special thanks go to Maguelonne Dupuy. Our teacher was simply top class and taught us the foreign language with great expertise and with heart and soul.

The class was international. The school materials are well made.
The course was very demanding and often made us sweat. But we also laughed a lot and the atmosphere was cheerful.


Perhaps the texts should be sent to the students before school starts, or a printer should be available.
The 50+ course is not as computer literate as the younger generation.


The city of Montpellier impressed us with its beautiful old town, many stores, cafés and museums.
The new town, on the other hand, is a pure architectural museum. Fantastic new buildings, wide streets and lots of green space.
I was enchanted by my stay.

I thought my class was alright. My teacher was very nice but I found the grammar quite easy and I didn't think it was challenging enough. My house was fine. My host was perfectly nice and gave us a lot of freedom.

I enjoyed and had so much fun with my class.
My teacher was well planned, responsive and very nice.
The classroom was a bit small but worked.
Good coffee in the machine, but the queue for it was often long.
The activities we did all worked well and were interesting.
My family was absolutely amazing in every way.

I felt at ease with students who were my age group. It was a diverse group made up of several nationalities. Very friendly.
We spoke French only in the class and afterwards (well, most the time!)

The teacher, Lou, was absolutely perfect. She was patient, explained everything and made the class fun. I loved Montpellier too.

My only regret is doing the course for only one week. I should have stayed for the two weeks. Unfortunately, due to work commitments I couldn't. But I do hope to do a two-week course next time, in which case, I will stay in an apartment rather than a hotel.

What i liked
- Good and highly motivated teachers. They used daily discussion topics and gave good advice on sites to continue having french information
- Nice facilities with air conditioning
- Activities were good
- Classes had the right size of 4-7 persons
- Location of the school was perfect.

What could be improved:
- Activities could be promoted a bit more
- My student residency Kley was outside of the city. I liked that I saw a new part of the city, but i was far away from all other students that were in the residency Opera. Maybe I didn't read the passage where you said, that the residencies could also be out of the old town. Maybe you didn't write it. Communicating would be nice.
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Everything was very good at the school , teacher and students. My accomodation was not from the school, I looked for my own one.

I learned a lot of French, my time at ILA improved my French immensely!
I enjoyed the morning classes the most, because then you had time to explore the city in the anfternoon.
I enjoyed the activities the school offered, like the pastry tasting, that way you could experience even more of the French culture!
The teachers were great, they would correct us if we made any mistakes and they explained the curriculum well.
The location and facilities were great, were central and clean!
The housing was super! I really got to know my host family, and talking with my host mother improved my French! She was soo nice and really sweet, and made me feel welcome!
I met a lot of new people and made new friends, it was very nice.
It was over all a lovely experience and I would love to do it again!

My stay in Montpellier was great! I learned a lot and am very happy about my personal Progress. Yet i wouldn't recommend ILA as it is in the moment but would urge my friends to try out an other school in Montpellier.

The reason can't be found in the teaching. This was at least good. There were some hickups in the beginning but in general i liked the courses and the teachers. The Problem is "just" the school itself. The ILA Building in rue Joffre ist just not suitable at all.

The rooms are far too small (like really!). You cant go for the toilet without having your teacher and the rest of the class clear their seats to let you out. And hey: You dont want to go to the toilet anyway, because there s only one for 30 people (each floor) and the cleanliness is less than moderate.

Also, it was not possible for more than half of the class (including me) to connect to the internet. Even the teacher with lan connection had problems with the slow internet (helloooo? Are we living in the 2000er?). Another BIG problem was, that you cant air out some rooms and the ventilation didn't seem to work. The air was always horrible after aprox. 20 min. Opening the doors would introduce the problem of noise. So that was no good climate to learn!

I'm not sure why all the classes have been in Rue Joffre and non in the other building in the inner heart of Montpellier, maybe there is a construction site and normally it is better? IDK! But that hasn't been great!

Some good things about my stay: My host family was just lovely. The host was very keen to speak with me in French and this helped a lot to learn. The Building of the school is very close to the city centre. The Activities and excursions have been great. The teaching was good. And i absolutely loved Montpellier itself.
What would my recommendation be?

Go for Montpellier! Use the opportunity to stay with a host family! But just try an other school than ILA. I can just guess that the teaching in the other scools is also good. The Facilities can only be better ;)

Der Standort der Schule war super.
Besonders den Privatunterricht hat mir sehr gefallen.

I really liked how the courses were structured although this varied a bit from teacher to teacher, but overall I felt like I profited from the tuition. The classrooms were fine, but maybe a bit small when the classes exceeded 8 students. This affected the tutoring as well as you would not get to speak and practice as much with more students in the class. Also, I think it was not optimal to have a mixture of online and physically present students as problems with the connectivity and internet would steal a lot of time from the class and disrupt the flow/concentration of the students. I would recommend that the online students are isolated in their own classes as I think this would improve both the physical and online tutoring.

My experience at ILA has been positive, we had a great group of students and a great teacher. With the COVID-19 there has been challenges with the amount of people in the room, where not everybody felt comfortable. I think that there could be a bit more attention to the safety of all students and teachers.

I liked the content of the classes and it gave a good kickstart of picking French courses again and want to continue with it in my home country.

I really enjoyed my time at ILA and made great progress in French. The staff were very helpful and the teachers were great. I stayed in the student residences which were comfortable and well maintained.

The school was extremely good, and staff was well organised, classes on time and scheduled which I found very professional.
Teachers were very good, helpful and friendly.

Perfect location. Activities offered during my two weeks were excellent, I attended L'atelier phonetique and Piqnique quizz which was above my expectations.

My overall impression is very good. Activities within and outside classes were extraordinary.

My only concern was my first week when I started at B1 level, which was a bit too easy for me and students were not at the same page as me. They were all very young, 17-23 years old, so the level of discussion was a bit slow for me. Luckily ILA staff were very helpful and they responded to my request to change a group. So my second week I had an excellent class, and all participants were at the same level and perfect match for conversation.

I stayed in private accommodation.

In school we just repeated what I knew already. The free time program was full or not happening when I could go because we had school in the afternoon on certain days. The lady I was staying with was nice but we hardly talked. Both my brother and I did not end up with a family but with 2 ladies living alone and elderly.

Montpellier is a nice city but in July there are no French people around it seemed. I spoke a little in the shops.

My parents and I are disappointed because those two weeks were useless for my French and my free time.

My visit can be described as quite excellent within all the positions proposed: teachers, location, facilities, activities, and housing. I am absolutely satisfied with my visit and I am sure I have really improved my French substantially. The only thing to be mentioned with less superlative mark is my 1st coming to the resident place on Sunday evening, where I could find no Wi-Fi connection both in the lobby and in my room. But it is the only little minus in the entire excellent event.

I was happy with my decision for Adenet. The teachers are good and the facilities are great as well. I had a really kind family where I felt very warm but still had independence, so I got to spend my time also going out with new friends in the evenings. There were young ones, but mostly people chose to stay for a longer time than my week. There are many opportunities all around the school, and if you want to spend good time, you definitely can

I liked my teacher very much.

My first hébergement was in a basement apartment overlooking a yard full of junk and a moldy pool. The apartment was dark, uncomfortable and dirty. The bed was essentially on the floor and the mattress sunk in the middle. There was only a folding chair in which to sit. The door to the shower came off as well as the handle for the water. When I went o bed the first night, I noticed that the bottom of my feet were black. I was horrified. The first morning, I told the school that this was unacceptable. They were able to find me another hostess and it was a delightful experience. The whole idea of staying with a family was to speak more french. In the first home, I would have never seen the family as they lived above the apartment with a separate entrance.

I wasn't expecting a 5 star hotel, but I don't feel that a place that is clean, well lit, comfortable and functioning is not too much to ask.

I was leveled way, way, way over my head. I am at best an A2. I was placed in a B2 class. I could not understand a word that was spoken in the videos or what the other students were saying. I was able to understand most of what the teacher said thank goodness. I also was afraid to speak as my level was so below all of the other students. In the introductory session, we were told that we could change classes if the level was too easy or too difficult. I asked to be changed and they would not change me. They chose to keep the 50+ people together rather than level the abilities. I feel that it would have been better to have leveled the students appropriately and then had all of the 50+ students together for the activities in the afternoon.

Also, I could not understand the persons who led the activities.

I enjoyed the students in my class so it ended up being a pleasant experience, but I did not learn much French.

There was one student who was leveled inappropriately and she left that school entirely and went to one of the other 5 schools in Montpellier. I wish I had been so bold.

The classes were varied with many different teaching strategies for the various topics we discussed every day. The time passed by very quickly and at the end of each day we covered a lot of material.
Our instructor was amazing. She was enthusiastic and well prepared every day. She offered us many different ways of learning the language in a fun and engaging environment.

The facilities were OK but we were in the Annex and as you walked into the building it was not the nicest space. The classrooms were adequate but well equipped with computer technology and whiteboards. I liked that the agenda was on the board every day so we knew what we could be covering for each class. The location was very central to all trams and other items one might want in Montpellier.

There was some homework but I would have liked to do a bit more structured homework to consolidate some of the information we covered each class.

There were many different activities offered outside of class if one chose to do so.

I personally did not participate in many of them but was glad they were offered..

The housing was arranged by me personally so I cannot speak for ILA's accommodations. I rented an apartment that was very close by and enjoyed the opportunity to walk everywhere in town.

I am so glad I made the trip and took this course. The friends I made, the experience and the learning was outstanding I will definitely come by and next time I would like to stay little bit longer

The teacher was excellent! I really enjoyed the class.

Most teachers were great.
the activities were interesting
the 50+ group was great
Montpellier is a wonderful city

The school location is perfect -- in the middle of the old town and close to restaurants, shops and museums. Very to access on Montpellier's excellent tram system. My teacher was excellent, the curriculum was fun, interesting, and effective; all my classmates were on essentially the same level as I was so the class placement was very well done.

The afternoon and weekend activities were very well planned and very interesting.

I was not thrilled with the housing -- the apartment/hotel was adequate and reasonably comfortable but the room was not cleaned during my two-week stay and I was only given clean linens once (and was expected to change the bed myself). Next time I will stay in a regular hotel with maid service.

The professor was special, very patient and friendly and she really facilitated the learning experience. The activities were good and I feel that I learned more than expected. The location of both schools, and the facilities themselves as well were excellent. I just did one expedition to camargue which was not organized well and the activities were superficial and below average.
I spent only the first week in a family and this is what I have to say: 1) the lady seemed nice at the beginning but she was a bit rude towards the end 2) the house was too far from the center and I had to get a taxi to go home at night 3) she did not invite me to meet her family, when they were having lunch or dinner altogether at the house I was eating alone in my room, which was not very nice.

My husband and I began in a level A2 class for our first week. The class had ten students aged from 18 to 60+ who came from all over the world. Several had a very good foundation in French language, while some had only very basic knowledge. The teacher appeared to be planning on the day of each class. She did not assess oral comprehension of instruction. As an educator, her teaching methods were very limited and we did not feel it was a very good use of our time. The teacher always seemed in a rush to finish the class each day and rarely engaged students in relevant discussions. The facilities are basic and air conditioning is limited. Seating is very uncomfortable. The classrooms are clean, but the bathrooms were very poor and not clean on most days so far. We learned very little in class, but we did travel in the area and that forced us to use French to communicate. Our best advice for this level of course would be to conduct a day of review of verbs, basic grammar, conjugation on the first day, and provide homework to assist those students who need more. I took one private class, and that teacher was more engaging, but did not assess my abilities, and therefore it was not helpful and very expensive (48 euros for 45 minutes).

We started in a Club 50+ class this week and will continue next week. There were six students to start and only five by the third day. The teacher has obviously planned well, engages every student with humour, and uses technology well to illustrate and stimulate comprehension. It is only day three, but we think we are learning more in this course. The first activity was a simple tour of Montpellier which we had already done in the previous week, and which all visitors to the city could do on their own anyway. Tonight we have a dinner, and tomorrow we go to Nikes for the afternoon. We expected to have cooking classes, wine tours, etc., but these activities are not scheduled during our two weeks. We are staying positive to finish the next week and hoping to find some activities outside of school that will help us to practice French.

The teachers were the best part. They always talked French (many didn't even speak a word of English), and all the explanations were given in the target language. The schools location was fine, close to supermarkets and quick and cheap restaurants. Thankful for the air conditioning during this summer's ”canicule”. My host family was welcoming, not overly excited to accept another student.. but they weren't withdrawn or unfriendly.

In short, I would recommend the school to others.

I came to France having a little to no knowledge of French, came out with a pleasant experience because the teachers were amazing, the school was welcoming, and everything was good. The activities, method of teaching, and group made learning French easier than I would have ever expected. The only problem I had was with the housing. The person who received me lives very far away, which is very inconvenient for night and school life in general. The person didn't pick me up from the airport, it was very condescending (treated me as if I was completely dumb – the other girl who stayed there thought the same) and the house wasn't really clean, as she mixed her cat's plates with the eating plates, or touched the cat food with her hand and then offered me a slice of bread without washing her hands. I decided to completely skip breakfast after that. I didn't know if I could change my housing, so I didn't. The house was okay, but the lady and I didn't get along that well at all.

I had a good experience in ILA Montpellier, the classes, building and location were just perfect. I personally had bad luck the first week with a really bad professor, which fortunately was changed the next week. But the first week made me feel that the course wasn't worth the high price that it costs. I liked all other professors and the atmosphere is really friendly, so I could highly recommend learning French with ILA Montpellier!

I liked how the classes were structured - with grammar, listening and understanding, and small games. Some of the teachers talked too fast for me, so it was difficult to understand them, but when you told them about it, they talked slower.

I would have appreciated if you could have shown where the annex was located, because the first time I had class there, I was a little lost.

The activities were all great, and the price was good.

The housing was also good - the distance was fine, and the woman I stayed with was sweet and helpful.

In general, I enjoyed the experience very much. I'd like to say some things in detail:

Classes: They were suitable to the level of the pupils. I think that all of us we were in the appropriate level.

Teachers: They were well-prepared and very close to the people. They were also open to suggestions.

Location: The school was located in the best area of the city, just downtown.

Facilities: The building was old but, obviously, the apartment where the school was located had been renovated.

Activities: In my opinion, some of the activities organized for the school were a little expensive.

Housing: In my case, I was in a house with a family. It was my first experience and I enjoyed a lot.

When we arrived at our accommodation at 23:00, the administrator was waiting for us; he explained and showed us everything in detail. The accommodation was very clean and close to the school. I would suggest for the accommodation to provide some cleaning materials during the first days and to install air conditioner :-) Unfortunately, we did not know that it was possible to leave some food while living in the accommodation; if we had known, we wouldn't have thrown any away.

For the school, I have no complaints - everything was perfect. On the first day, they showed us the city, and explained all the rules in detail. The teaching materials, and classroom were okay. I liked both of my teachers. Thanks a lot to them! Few suggestions on the division of students by their level: Some students were not complying with the level they were enrolled in, so I would suggest to move people to the right group right after the first day.

Thanks very much!

It was the first time I was in the city of Montpellier, so I wasn't very familiar with the area. However, the staff and students were all very friendly and helpful so it made my stay much easier.

My housing was very convenient; there were many stores I was able to walk to. However, the only issue was that the rooms were VERY VERY hot and there were not enough fans for everyone. It was very hard to get to sleep because of the heat. Maybe for future students, investing in more fans for everyone would be a very good idea.

The classes were very enjoyable. The teachers were very caring and helpful as well.

It was really worth it. I learned a lot.

The location was good; it was close to everything. The classes were really good and we learned every minute.

My accommodation was very close to the school.

The teachers were amazing. They helped us a lot during the learning process.

Teachers were excellent: fun, involved, interesting and helpful. The class schedule worked well, and the location is perfect - extremely accessible from all corners of Montpellier.
To improve the experience: a larger variety of in-class activities. Perhaps more games, music, artwork, etc. could be incorporated for a more interactive learning experience. Housing was also good - simple, clean, and well-located.

I had a wonderful time at the school as well as in my free time. Met some lovely people from around the world! I love the French language even more now!
There was absolutely one teacher that was one of the best teachers I've ever met, her name is Judith - loved her!
Both the location of the school and the housing was good. The location of the housing was 10 minutes from school and had a lot of supermarkets near by. The location of the school was in the center of the city, so that was great.
I didn't go on any trips with the school. I did some trips with friends instead.

We had a lot of good exercises and things to do in class. We played some French games - very fun!

I grew as a person on this journey, made ​​friends for life and got a second hometown.

I liked my stay at Montpellier very much. The teachers were competent and friendly, and they did a very fine job.
It was a great experience to stay with a nice family.
I will not choose January next time, because I am used to houses with heating.

The classes were very helpful since the teachers were very adaptive to the class! Besides, the people in the groups, with students coming from several different countries from all over the world, were very nice to have met. Furthermore, Montpellier is a nice student city where one can do a lot of nice activities. Finally, the housing was perfect. My "famille d'accueil" was very kind.

The school is really nice, the classes are not too big, they are no more than 10 students. The teachers are really kind, they explain everything several times if you don't understand. the people that work there (talking about the office) are really nice, they speak several languages. The activities they have are excursions every Friday to different cities close to Montpellier, but I think they should stay for more time in those places because you only go a few hours... The location I stayed the first month was in a house with a family that help me to learn the language, they showed me the city, etc., but always treat me good and with respect... Then for the last 5 months I stayed in the ILA residence, which is close to park of Peroy. It was the best time ever I met really nice people of other nationalities. I made a lot of friends; we got so close just like a family... Everything we did was together. I think Montpellier is a great small city. The only thing I didn't like is the SDF: a lot of people asking money in the streets and cigarettes. Okay, some of them don't do anything to you but other ones attack you or scream bad things.... The weather in winter was really cold for me, but that is because I'm not use to it. In spring and summer it is great--all of the parks are green and the flowers bloom. In general I had a great experience if I can do it again I will . And in the end the most important thing was, yes, I learned the language!!! And I'm so proud of myself. Thanks for everything. I had a great time, learned too much.