Anasazi Bhakti

Oct 17, 2023

A dream experience turned into a nightmare

I signed up for the intensive classes in July and August and ended up having a very polarizing experience between the two sessions. July was a dream. I really was impressed by my teacher and group of students. I felt like the approach to the material felt very natural and was challenging as well. However, less than a week before the August session I was informed by the school that there weren't enough students and the intensive class was cancelled. I promptly signed up for a private tutor to suppliment the hours I would lose with going down to general french class. Friday before the new session started the school informed me that the intensive class was back on. I asked to stay in general french since I had already gotten a tutor and received a rude message back question how I changed my plans so quickly and telling me it was not possible for me to stay in general french and get my refund for the difference. This was frustrating since the school had cancelled the class less then a week before the new session and then brought it back again but I agreed. On my first day of my second session I realized there were only going to be two students, myself and another woman, so the school had been dishonest when they said they were cancelling intensive french because not enough students had signed up. Then the teacher we had for grammar was quite offensive. She yelled at us constantly and created an extremely hostile environment. This was so bad that the other student left after the first day because the teacher had made racist comments to her. The second day three new students joined and the teacher had me teach them what I had learned day one. For the third day she was out sick and our class was sent home. The fourth day she was sick again and the school placed our class in another class that was too advanced and working on material we had never seen. When I reached out again to the administration about how awful my experience was I received very delayed responses and was finally told I could join another class two weeks into the program that was only four weeks. I said that this was not a good option for me at this point since we were too far into the session and asked to just get a credit for future classes. I was told absolutely not. I was really surprised and disappointed that an institution with a reputation like Sorbonne's, who had provided such a wonderful experience in July, gave me no options, listened to none of my considers, and provided a half baked solution far too late. I unfortunately would never return to this school and would recommend that students avoid signing up for the August session. As someone who worked hard and paid for her tuition and living expenses while in Paris, this education felt like throwing my money away for nothing.