Alliance Francaise de Washington

I took classes here in the 1980s to prepare to visit my girlfriend in Paris. Straight up crushed it. Group instruction made all the difference in nailing pronunciation. My motorcycle made parking a cinch. My girl's family was impressed. If this place has lasted this long, they must be doing something right. Right?

Unprofessional and rude teachers - based on our experience, I would recommend finding a better option if you are interested in learning French.

Bassima was my teacher for my class level 104.A.2, which for me was the first French classroom experience since university days 40 years ago. I enjoyed it enormously and will sign up again. We spoke French the entire time, and the materials were very helpful & well-organized. French immersion schools abroad know about Alliance and respect their teaching.

I took the A101 course at Alliance Francaise this last October and the professor spoke in English more than half of the time and the class moved very slowly, which is all fine given we are all complete beginners. She was very nice and made sure the students were understanding all the topics. I then signed up for this A102 class and the teacher spoke nearly 100% of the time in French and moved through new material very quickly. He explained all new concepts in French and did not always make sure that what he was explaining was understood. The A101 class that I took absolutely did not prepare me for the A102 class. The professor used words and phrases that were never previously covered. Also, if you did not understand right away he would become very impatient. One time I said I did not understand something and he said scoffed and asked why? He did similar things with other students. His behavior was very upsetting and often times caused me to get frustrated and want to give up. I finished this course very unhappy. On top of my frustrations with the teacher, I never received my results for the end of the session test. This past week I moved to France and want to enroll in the Alliance Francaise program in Toulouse and having my test results would have been great in order to help place me in a course here.

Membership and the cost of classes are pretty steep altogether. However, the quality of teaching is good. Much better than taking a class at USA Graduate School, for examples. Their library is also fantastic. You can borrow books, DVDs, and audio. I only wish they had more higher level class offerings at their Penn Quarter location as it would be more convenient for me.

I've attended two beginner courses so far $400 each at l'Alliance and I'm pretty happy with my French and the teaching. They have a lot of day/time options at my level so it's been convenient and looks like their library has a bunch of options but haven't explored it yet.

The staff of this alliance françaice was very rude to me. I only wanted to take the B2 delf exam, but because I failed the begging test, and they placed me as a A1 student, they told me that they won't allow me to take it never, no mattering how much French I could learn. I won't be back, and I don't recommend this place for anybody.

Alliance Francaise has a very poor system for allocating students to levels in teen classes. We wasted a lot of money -- their classes are expensive -- because our daughter's class contained one student who was way behind all the others, and the teacher taught at that student's level. When we raised the issue, we encountered a dismissive attitude from a senior staff member. Classes for other ages may be good -- we have no experience of them -- but don't waste your money on teen classes.