French language courses are one of the most popular language classes taken by adult education learners.

French is one of the Romance languages that emerged from common Latin at the end of the Roman Empire in Western Europe after the fifth century CE, and here in Britain, French is the language of our nearest continental European neighbour.

The reason why French is a popular language to learn depends on who you are and on your motivation. You might be planning to visit France or other French-speaking countries on holiday, or to settle in either country or do business with the French-speaking world. Or maybe you are just fascinated by French culture.

Whatever the reason, as a language French is spoken as the first language by 77 million people worldwide, with a total of around 321 million French language speakers when you include those who speak it as a second-language. In addition to France and Belgium, French is also the lingua franca (almost literally!) in parts of Switzerland, parts of Canada and many parts of Africa.

Whether you are a beginner in learning French, or you have some experience of speaking the language, the part-time French courses we offer at Imperial College, including beginner French classes for adults and more advanced classes for those with some experience of speaking French, are designed to help you develop your language skills quickly and effectively.

Except for our daytime French Conversation course, our French classes are taught in the evening, making them ideal as French language courses for working professionals, but students on the French language programme come from many different backgrounds, from students and lecturers, to working people and retirees, as everyone is welcome.

The Imperial College French language programme is designed to help you get the most from the experience of learning a language, in a friendly and supportive environment. Classes are taught by expert French language tutors who have a great deal of experience delivering French language courses for adult education students, and they are the same tutors who deliver French language courses to students on the highly regarded undergraduate programme at Imperial College London.

Unless you have no proficiency at all in French, we advise you to take the French placement test pre-enrolment and contact Dr Tatiana Codreanu t.codreanu@imperial.ac.uk (Assistant French Coordinator) for a brief assessment to ensure you are taking the appropriate level of French.

In 2023 our adult education students rated our adult education courses as "excellent" with an overall score of 4.6 out of 5 in the student satisfaction survey. 

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