Congratulations on choosing to study a foreign language, on deciding to join an elite group of students in the United States, and, perhaps most importantly, on becoming a culturally enlightened citizen of this planet! If French is your third language (many Central students are native speakers of such languages as Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, and many others), you probably already know the dedication it takes to reach a certain level of proficiency in a foreign tongue. If French is to be your next language (second, third, or whichever!), take the opportunity to make it as present in your everyday life as possible. Throw yourself into these courses more than you have any other: after all, you are not just learning new material, but a new way to express yourself in a whole new world previously inaccessible to you!

Explore every outlet available to you that would augment, even in the slightest, your language experience. Admittedly, learning a foreign language is not always an easy task, but there are ways to speed up the process and help fill in the gaps left by not being in a Francophone country and not having live-in tutors like you did when you learned your first language. Attend every class on-time, show up well prepared, and keep an upbeat attitude. Always read ahead to anticipate the next lesson (thereby eliminating possible comprehension barriers), and participate actively (language is, after all, a social phenomenon!). When learning new vocabulary, try to associate a word with an image or an action, instead of a translation: eliminate the middle-man that is your native language! Rent a French movie once a week, attend events at your local Alliance Française, buy or download French-language music and listen to it in the car, at the gym, or while you study. Try guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases through context.