French and Francophone Studies

I guess this class serves its purpose with regards to exposing you to regular consumption of a wide range of francophone literature and media, which I did find pretty useful as my last class before going abroad. Prof. Tarjanyi is also very clear and organized in his teaching style which made it easy to follow along and understand everything. You basically have to watch a movie or read a short chapter of something and then write a brief response to a reflection question about it, none of which ever felt like an overwhelming amount of work despite the constant assignments. There is only one exam which is awkwardly placed in the first half of the semester and which basically requires you to memorize everything about each material that was studied + everything that was said in each lecture and discussion up til that point, but after that I pretty much lost all motivation to pay attention for the rest of the semester since it wasn't necessary for an exam anymore. The class discussions often felt pointless and people barely contributed. The material itself was well, selected although on some occasions pretty odd or even triggering, which was less fun. Some of the stuff we watched was also in English for some reason?? With like a French director or whatever but that was obviously not something I was looking for in a French class. Ultimately, I took it because it seemed like the most interesting out of the French dept.'s very limited 220 course options, and I'm pretty sure that remained true at the end of it, so I guess I wouldn't recommend against taking it if there's nothing else that catches your fancy more.

I guess this class serves its purpose with regards to exposing you to regular consumption of a wide range of francophone literature and media, which I did find pretty useful as my last class before going abroad. Prof. Tarjanyi is also very clear and organized in his teaching style which made it easy to follow along and understand eve …Read more

Zsombok is hands down one of the best professors at Middlebury. He is kind and a great educator. There are weekly tests, which require rote memorization. As long as you make flashcards and memorize everything you learn -- you'll be fine. There is no final, which also helps. There are a few projects, and then a final group skit. Homework is daily and extremely tedious in my opinion. It's a lot of work each night. But, the class is fun and extremely rewarding. To a complete beginner though, I think this class would be really difficult. Having a couple of years of passive experience with French made this class feel very doable (dare I say "easy"), but I can't imagine how I'd fare without that background. Very fast-paced.

Zsombok is hands down one of the best professors at Middlebury. He is kind and a great educator. There are weekly tests, which require rote memorization. As long as you make flashcards and memorize everything you learn -- you'll be fine. There is no final, which also helps. There are a few projects, and then a final group skit. Homew …Read more

I LOVE Professor Banks, favourite professor in the French dept. till date. She is clearly so passionate about the class and makes expectations very clear. There is a lot of work, no doubt–daily homework, 5 essays to write, and 4 tough exams (not cumulative though!). But I found the classes so enjoyable that doing the work did not feel like a burden at all.