If you are an absolute beginner, you can register for the A1.1 class. If you already know or speak some French, even if the last time was many years ago in high school, make sure to take your free placement test. You can learn more about our levels and how long it takes to learn French here.
Our policies have changed! Make sure to read them before you register.
For online learning: In the event of power and/or internet outages, here are some general tips:
– If you experience a power outage or a Zoom interruption at your home, please contact the Education Dept. via email: adultprograms@frenchlibrary.org or at (617) 912-0400. You might also want to be in touch with the teacher directly, to make arrangements to review any missed material.
– If a teacher loses connection during a class, please stay in your virtual classroom for a few minutes while the teacher logs back in. If your teacher is unable to make it back quickly, please check your e-mail for further instructions from your teacher or a member of the education team.
Find Your Class
B1+ | Portraits d'Auteurs | In Person
In this class, you will discover the fascinating lives and works of influential French authors, immersing yourself each week in a unique world of ideas, emotions and artistry. In this second part of the Spring Classes, you will discuss the following authors: Marie de France, Marcel Proust, Molière, Marguerite de Navarre and Michel de Montaigne.
B2+ | From War to Words: French Literary Masterpieces
As the French Library celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2025, this literature class was designed to evoke its foundation. Established in December 1945, the Library originated from “France Forever,” an organization developed across the US in 1940 in response to General de Gaulle’s call for all French men and women (and their allies) to unite to liberate France from Nazi occupation. To honor this remarkable historic genesis, we have selected five French literary classics that reflect the aspirations, ideals, ordeals, and memories linked to that period. These works span from the very beginning of WWII, with Yourcenar’s Nouvelles Orientales (1938) and Saint-Exupéry’s Terre des hommes (1939), to Camus’s emblematic L’Étranger (1942), and later works that delve into wartime memories through the shimmering veils of time and pain: Modiano’s La Place de l’Étoile (1968) and Duras’s La Douleur (1985). As Hitler’s Germany had already annexed Austria in March 1938, Nouvelles Orientales and Terre des Hommes offer two kinds of “tour du monde” that feel like one deeply humanistic expression of hope in the beauty of the world, both human and natural. With Yourcenar, it’s about traveling on the wings of mythology and folklore, with ten different destinations scattered throughout the Far East and the Mediterranean, and one final stop in the Netherlands, in the shop of painter Cornelius Berg, who is so disgusted by human nature that he has decided to paint only flowers. With Saint-Exupéry, it’s about sitting in the cockpit of his “Simoun” plane and sharing not just his unbelievable adventures and dangers, but also his unique point of view on life, either discovered from 10,000 feet in the air or within his own heart after his plane crashed and as death seemed inevitable. With Albert Camus’s L’Étranger (1942), we are now well into the war, with the story of a man, Meursault, who seems to feel, understand, or control nothing anymore, and who drifts from one event of his life to the next, possessed only with a perceived meaninglessness of existence. Could it be that an overwhelming feeling of horror and grief, caused by the recent death of his mother—the novel opens with the famous sentence: “Aujourd’hui, Maman est morte.”—made him unable to connect with his emotions or to make sense of anything? Fundamental questions remain unresolved but only deepen into a general sense of absurdity, as mounting violence and eventually murder lead the anti-hero and narrator of the novel to a tragic and yet absolutely inconclusive end. In many ways, it metaphorically speaks to the loss of the motherland and the ensuing barbarity, a dehumanizing process experienced both collectively and individually. Finally, Patrick Modiano’s La Place de l’Étoile (1968) and Marguerite Duras’s La Douleur (1985) look at the war from a distance, but the wounds they explore are still very much open. What happened? What was it? Modiano’s answer is like an autofiction on crack where the narrator, Raphaël Schlemilovitch, born, like Modiano, right at the end of the war (1945), is so obsessed by it that the tale of his own life, like after a slip through a spacetime fault (or maybe clinical insanity?), now takes place during the war, juggling real and fictional characters and places in an alternate reality where logic or chronology have been thrown out the window. Could humor, or madness, be the only response to the horrors of war? Interestingly, La Douleur is written in a completely different tone, and yet boils down to the same questions of time and emotional distortions. Marguerite Duras based this work on a journal she started in 1944, when she was living in occupied Paris and her husband had just been arrested and deported to a Nazi camp. Rediscovering these notebooks decades later, she distilled them into an ensemble of six short stories, creating an auto-fictional vision that imparts this poignant truth: more often than not, reality is too difficult to face directly, and the only way to own and share it is through the art of transformation.
B2+ | Advanced Conversation: la parole est à vous!
You are proficient in French and eager to enjoy the rewards of fun, real-life and intellectually stimulating conversations? This class is for you! Each lesson is custom-made based on themes that reflect your own interests, using various media and interactive activities and games. You will gain confidence, improve your speaking and listening comprehension, expand your vocabulary and polish your grammar in context, thanks to the personalized feedback of an experienced native French-speaking teacher.
B1+ | One Day Immersion
Looking to improve your language skills as quickly as possible? Can’t commit to a whole course session? Intensive immersion programs offer an exciting and effective way to learn a new language. Our One Day Immersion and Intensive One Week programs immerse you in the target language, allowing you to speak, think, and even dream in it! Unlike traditional grammar-focused classes, immersion programs emphasize practical usage and meaningful communication. During our One Day Immersion program, you will get 6h of French classes plus a lovely lunch (included in registration fee) with classmates and teachers!
A2+ | One Day Immersion
Looking to improve your language skills as quickly as possible? Can’t commit to a whole course session? Intensive immersion programs offer an exciting and effective way to learn a new language. Our One Day Immersion and Intensive One Week programs immerse you in the target language, allowing you to speak, think, and even dream in it! Unlike traditional grammar-focused classes, immersion programs emphasize practical usage and meaningful communication. During our One Day Immersion program, you will get 6h of French classes plus a lovely lunch (included in registration fee) with classmates and teachers!
A1+ | One Day Immersion
Looking to improve your language skills as quickly as possible? Can’t commit to a whole course session? Intensive immersion programs offer an exciting and effective way to learn a new language. Our One Day Immersion and Intensive One Week programs immerse you in the target language, allowing you to speak, think, and even dream in it! Unlike traditional grammar-focused classes, immersion programs emphasize practical usage and meaningful communication. During our One Day Immersion program, you will get 6h of French classes plus a lovely lunch (included in registration fee) with classmates and teachers!
B2| Intensive Week
Don't have the time to attend a full session this spring? Not a problem! Join us for our intensive week! 15h of French in one week. Are you ready for the challenge? PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION FOR THE SPRING INTENSIVE WEEK WILL CLOSE ON JUNE 12.
B1 | Intensive Week
Don't have the time to attend a full session this spring? Not a problem! Join us for our intensive week! 15h of French in one week. Are you ready for the challenge? PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION FOR THE SPRING INTENSIVE WEEK WILL CLOSE ON JUNE 12.
A2 | Intensive Week
Don't have the time to attend a full session this spring? Not a problem! Join us for our intensive week! 15h of French in one week. Are you ready for the challenge? PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION FOR THE SPRING INTENSIVE WEEK WILL CLOSE ON JUNE 12.
A1 (absolute beginner) | Intensive Week
Don't have the time to attend a full session this spring? Not a problem! Join us for our intensive week! 15h of French in one week. Are you ready for the challenge? PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION FOR THE SPRING INTENSIVE WEEK WILL CLOSE ON JUNE 12.
B1+/B2 | A la découverte de… Marseille
La ville de Marseille est pleine de mille et une légendes et secrets que même le soleil ne peut cacher. Le patrimoine archéologique, architectural et historique de la deuxième plus grande ville de France vaut le détour. Découvrez les calanques, la bouillabaisse, les fans de football, une escapade vers les îles, les poètes et la musique du Sud. Profitez de l'accent joyeux du sud et mémorisez quelques expressions de la région Provence-Côte d'Azur !