Learn French in Paris or Nice with EF

The EF program was very informative and from the beginning, the staff was extremely helpful. I immediately felt at home with my host family and even though communication was a challenge at first, my classes taught me useful grammatical skills that I could practice at home and in daily conversations outside of school. I made lasting friendships with people from all around the world. The city was gorgeous and there are so many opportunities of travel. It is a place that honestly suits any person; whether you’re into partying or touring castles. Even if you get bored with the Nice itself, the train is extremely accessible, so you could easily take yourself to somewhere like Monaco or Cannes with only a 30 minute train ride.

This past summer, I spent two weeks in Paris, France with EF. Prior to that, I had studied just about two years of French in school. When I arrived to the school and my host family, I was very nervous considering I had never really spoken to a native French speaker in my life. However, my host mom was the best mom I could ever ask for, the teachers at EF were super charismatic, welcoming, and funny. I felt extremely comfortable in the environment. I also learned a great deal of French just from two weeks and was able to skip a year of French when I got back to school in Hawaii. My host-family's house was a little far, so sometimes it was hard to get to and from there every day, however that was only a minor issue. Nonetheless, I made so many life long friends that I still keep in touch with everyday. Not only did I learn French, but I was opened to a whole new world of people and cultures. I really got a globalized perspective on life from this trip. I am definitely going back next summer for even longer. It was an incredible and unforgettable experience and completely worth the money!

Translation from Spanish: The great experience of spending 15 days in Paris was overshadowed by the great SCAM and incoordination of EF, which ended up sending us to a 2-star hotel with BUGS and no alternatives. I'm not exaggerating.

Next I count it step by step:

This trip to Paris to learn French was a gift from my son to my niece and to me, knowing the great illusion that would make us. During the reservation process in Spain, we were informed about the EF residence where we would stay, with kitchen, common areas and very good looks. We fly to Paris with all the illusion of the world to spend the first half of July and what is our surprise to discover once there, that the residence is saturated and they will redirect us to a hotel. The “surprise” becomes perplexed when we see the state and conditions of this 2-star “Jeff” hotel and the room they give us: a fourth floor with a narrow spiral staircase that had a ridiculous elevator with room for 1 person and highly claustrophobic. Therefore, and despite my arthritis, we did not even use it because it gave me no confidence.

But the big bomb arrives in class, when they tell us that we cannot return to the hotel all day (without prior notice to collect our things, stored in the suitcases in any way by the cleaning ladies) because there was a BUG INFECTION in the hotel and they had to spray.

At that time I lost my patience and went with my niece to the address, to ask how it is logical that please change us to the official Residence, which was what was advertised when the course was paid. They tell us that it is impossible, so we are helpless in the face of the problem. I do not want to worry my family and we endure the return to the hotel with the corresponding fear and disgust of the plague of bed bugs. This makes us sleep very uncomfortable, waking up and not being focused on the course we wanted to learn.

And this does not end there. In 3 different days this scenario was repeated in which we cannot return to the hotel all day for anti-bed bug treatments, even with the appearance of bites and a student's hospital visit.

I had the opportunity to visit the residence and verify that they do have a kitchen, a normal elevator and, above all, hygiene.

As we did not have a kitchen, we were forced to eat out all the time, with the corresponding expense of money that implies, also in a city that is not cheap. We went with the idea of ​​having the advantage they enjoyed in the Residence of being able to buy, store, and cook our own food.

I don't have anything bad to say about teaching and teaching at school.
The teachers are of excellent quality and impeccable class education, a great dedication for all their professionals.

However, the schedules were not what they said in Madrid, where they assured us that the classes would be at 8 in the morning and from noon we would be free. At the end each day we had a different schedule, and also classes until 6 in the afternoon. In addition, the excursions were not coordinated with most of the classes, so in order to go you had to miss class.

In conclusion, the teaching is of quality, but the organization of EF is a DISASTER. From the beginning there has been great false advertising. We were not even mentioned the possibility of sending us to a place other than the residence, much less Jeff, a hotel that had nothing to do with the conditions of the official Residence, in which we were in fourth-floor rooms, with a Indecent and most outrageous elevator, infected with bed bugs.

It is not fair to pay for services that are supposed to offer and we find this amount of nonsense, which when we complained we were not given any kind of solution or compensation.

On the last night of our stay, the roommate next door cried to our room, because she went to get a bag and a bed bug fell on her shoulder. He spent the night in our room with a phobia attack. By the way, she intended to stay a month, but has gone to Malaga back, because they did not seek a solution to the problem.

Regarding the hotel receptionist and the person in charge of us at the hotel, they did what they could to please, but the solution was not in their hands.

Too bad for not being able to take advantage of and enjoy the excellence of the classes for being worried about something unnecessary and that it did not correspond to us as it is everything mentioned before.

Back in Spain, I have the conviction that EF takes advantage of the young age and inexperience of most of his students to deceive them in this way. However, I was an exception because at my 58 years I was fortunate to be able to travel to Paris for 15 days, and I was able to realize everything that happened.

I am not a particularly demanding person. Some of the problems that I have mentioned such as the disorganization of schedules or the lack of cooking can be compensated with the quality of teaching and the great experience of being in a city like Paris for a few days. Even the inability to go to the residence could have been resolved by sending us to decent accommodation, or attending to our request once the situation in the hotel became embarrassing. BUT NOTHING!

The saddest thing is that the problem of this hotel, looking for information, we know that they have it since 2017, it is in the networks. And EF knows it. My complaint is to the organization and responsible for EF. It is a shame after the money paid for everyone to go crazy and keep fooling people selling an experience that is not real.

Ana María López Martín

I've spent almost half an year in EF Nice and it was a nice experience. Many things didn't go well. I was very disappointed for the first weeks. The staffs in different countries don't communicate properly. I had to wait for hours in the Airport Nice for someone to pick me up and that was horrible! They told me that they were not informed about my Transfer. The classes were very unprofessional. They put me in a completely wrong class and I didn't understand anything they were teaching. And it took them 1 week to change the class. Also the host Family was really bad! It was tooo far away from the School and on the first day after class I couldn't get home. But they immediately changed the host Family for me. After the first month, everything went really good. I loved the students and the staffs, they were sooo friendly! I was a beginner and after Ive finished the course, I could speak without any big effort. They organize many activities, especially in summer. And ofcourse the places there are soo beautiful. Also there are really good clubs, but the drinks are very expensive. OVERALL IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE. But I will not go with EF the next time, because their prices are very high and their courses are not intensive and good enough for exam preparations.

I had spent 5 weeks in Paris during my winter break and I had an absolute blast. Yes there was mishaps and ups & downs, but I made the most of it with the time and money I was given. I had planned and paid for this entire trip myself and it was really up to me on what i did. I made friends the very first day and we are still in touch even months later! Exploring the city every night after class and creating unforgettable moments was definitely my favorite part. My french had improved greatly and I really took away a lot with the language and culture once I came back home. Thankfully I had an amazing host family who were caring and welcomed me with opened arms. EF provided me with my first study abroad experience and I can’t wait for many more!

It was actually the best experience of my life, because i met incredible people and of course because i learned French. Also if you have any problem, there's people that will always try to help you no matter what (Activity staff). Paris it's beautiful city where you never going to find yourself bored, you can find amazing restaurants, museums, clubs, parks and monuments. One of the things i liked the most and at the beginning i wasn't expecting is that there's a powerful mix of cultures, what i mean is that you will meet people from different countries and that will open your mind and teach a lot of things.
I recommend this program to people that want to do a real change in life, not only to learn or progress in the language, but also to know yourself more and live the most beautiful experience in your life.

My experience with EF Paris was really amazing and fun. Through this course I was able to meet amazing people from all around the world, and make great experiences and memories. The school is located in the center of Paris rihght next to the Galeries Lafayette; which is one of France's biggest shopping center with te most famous brands which is perfect for shopping. If shopping isn't an interest for you, EF offers you a lot of activities for the week as well as the weekends whre you can discover and learn more about Paris and contries that are close to France, like the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.
This program really helped me develope my comunication skills because before coming to Paris I was really shy when it came to speking french, and now I feel that's easier for me to comunicate with anyone in french without a problem. Something that really helped me learn more vocabulary was watching movies and tv shows in french with english subtitles and speaking with the staff at EF all the time in french.

I feel like I can speak for a majority of individuals who have travelled abroad and say that, travelling to a foreign country to learn a language is by far, one of the best investments you can make for yourself. Taking this trip to Paris was unbelieveably unforgettable, and choosing EF was a great decision on my part; as they not only helped me arrange my trip, but they managed to find the perfect host family not far from the heart and center of Paris and the EF language school. I truly enjoyed every second of my time spent in class since it offered a good amount of flexibility for my time at school and my time exploring Paris. The staff there was so helpful and inviting that speaking French was so smooth and I did not feel embarassed nor shy when I spoke. Additionally, I became aware of how well I was able to speak and improve my French during my three week stay in Paris. Lastly, the friendships I made were unforgettable and beyond what I was expecting!