If you go to a school in a different country...like the conservatory of paris do you have to know how to speak french? I tried looking on their website but there is hardly and info.

there may be classes for those who speak english, prob depends on the professor, but if you plan to work or study in another country, don't you think you should attempt to learn the language?

C'est pauvre.
J'ai oublié la majeure partie de mon français.
Vous apprendrez que le Français ou vous n'apprendra pas.

The french people are very proud of their language and many do not know or refuse to speak other languages, English included.

My recommendation is to start an intesive course of French, the soonest as possible, unless you want to live there as a tourist (the bad part of it).

Good luck and welcome to the europe of tens of languages...

Even if they do offer a few classes in English, you'd be able to take advantage of much more than they have to offer if you are fluent in the language.

Besides, there are plenty of amazing conservatories and music schools in the US. There's the New England Conservatory, the Boston Conservatory, Curtis, Cleveland Institute of Music, Julliard, Oberlin, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music, just to name a few. Is there a particular reason you are interested in the Paris conservatory?

Several people I know who have visited France say that almost everyone knows English there. I bet that if you go, and are immersed, it would not be long before you were fluent.
You should follow your dreams!

Well that makes sense to learn the language of the country your going to study in...I'm just scared of getting lost!!! and i know that i wont be able to be fluent in french in 2years! unless i talk to someone else who speaks french...My mom mostly speaks german or english...and i live close to mexico lol...Yeah i know there are good schools in the U.S but there are some good schools in other countries too.

Intensive courses can make miracles. But you need lot of time to attend the lessons (and lot of money...) How much time do you have before moving there?

Well, I am a Spanish native speaker and I have learnt French for professional reasons and in more recently times I continue to keep much in contact with the language, because it is the only TV I can stand watching (ARTE), I love its cinema and we spend almost every holidays season there. It is a big, big pleasure to be able to meet french friends here and there and have a nice conversation with them (in French, of course).

It is true that French is somewhat difficult at the beginning, with its nouns genders (a novelty for English speakers), its three accents and a difficult pronunciation for us -not to mention its madding spelling.

To say that it gets easier after, well, it could be but then come the verbs which are also very complex and of course many other things. In any case it is a similar case with Spanish, they are close cousins, in a way.

This comments could discourage Kevalenox, but the fact is that there are no easy languages, albeit there are some extremely difficult ones (but not French).

French (and Spanish) are not so difficult and it is completely true that at least a minimum proficiency on French is important to appreciate the French culture and so much it has to offer.

The contact with French people (even in Paris ) is a nice experience and we foreigns always learn that there are many different ways of living, all valid and some very amusing. I consider life in a big city as Paris to be a thrill and very enriching experience. With due respect to N. Yorkers, I have the tendency to consider Paris as the true world navel (I know, a very polemic assessment, still more in these times)...

For many years it has been my project too move there, but now it is more difficult as I grew older (and my income reduced!)

Not a bad idea, we could play duets in the spare time (JJK, hope my wife doesn't read this)

I did take Chinese for awhile...but i got soo sick of it! I can be patient if i want to with a language...But chinese!!! omg! that is some hard stuff!...my cello teaher(when i was playing cello at the time)Told me to keep up my german so ill be able to find more jobs in different countries and stuff

Looks like Alieanne's & jose-luis's last few postings ought to be on a different sort of forum. I hope you'll be very happy together!!

Back to the original question. It is unreasonable to expect that classes will be held in other than the language of the country you are in. You really need to learn a bit of the language before starting a course then you will get fluent rapidly when you are there. I'm sure that if you show that you are trying most people will meet you half way. Also you have the language of music which is much the same anywhere although of course that doesn't help with buying toothpaste.

Good luck

Ian

It's just a little bit of humour. Thank you anyway for your wishes!

Learning chinese is extremely difficult and some consider it practically impossible, unless you were born in China in a Chinese family.

I have a friend of chinese origin but she lived for the most part of her life in France. She is studying the chinese (her parents speak it) but even for her it is very difficult and it takes many years (with trips to China included).
IMO there is not much interest to learn it (for the time being) unless you plan to be in the international commerce business, diplomacy or something similar.

For music, well, it would be better to train in western languages, as German, French and Italian. Spanish is also interesting, but for the music "market" you may have many more opportunities in Germany or France than anywhere else (out of USA, I mean).

German is very important if in the future you have the opportunity to work there. This is the experience of friend young musicians who are working in orchestras in Germany and (the german-speaking part of) Switzerland. I also know someone in an Orchestra in Holland and he had to learn Dutch, but that is another story (very, very difficult to pronounce correctly, but similar to German in the vocabulary and gramatics). Almost everybody speaks perfect English in Holland, at least at the level of culture you can expect in musicians.



<Added>

I forgot to mention this sugestion: try to contact the Alliance Française in some big city near you, or consult them through Internet. They can help much in finding you where to learn the language. It is a very serious institution and as far as I know, with worldwide presence.

It seems that there is a common sense in Europe (in general), that when someone is a foreign person who is fluent in the local language it denotes a profound respect for the local culture and therefore you are equally respected and admired.