An update, March 26, 2026
I decided to attend Middlebury Language Program for the French School. I am frightened by the tuition costs, but I think I can afford it and make it worth it if I use this as an opportunity to bring my French level to speaking fluency (b1/b2). It starts in mid-June and I hope to update about my opinions of the program + my progress which perhaps might help someone looking for information about Middlebury. If you are hesitant and in the position of applying within the next year, I can be your guinea pig.
I also spent around 10 hours fully subtitling Samuel (2024) so my family and friends (who cannot speak French) could watch it. I found that this was a great exercise because often with translation, you aren't trying to translate word-by-word or even phrase-by-phrase, but instead you are trying to convey meaning and story. Samuel's characters also talk incredibly different from textbook French; for example the question "Quelle musique écoutes-tu ?" might be "T'ecoutes quoi, comme musique ?" instead. So I found it very helpful to pick up some 'langage idiomatique et courant'. My pronunciation also improved marginally because I would speak the dialogue softly to myself to make sure the meaning I translated was correct.
bonus: I drew me and my sister in Emilie Tronche's style (it's so cute)
