March 18, 2020 -  Spring Term News

Dear Community Member,

These past few weeks, the Alliance Française de Seattle has faced a new, unprecedented global crisis with the outbreak of COVID-19. With the support of our instructors, staff, and community of students and members, we have had to make difficult but necessary decisions in order to respect the needs of our community and the directives of King County Public Health and the state of Washington.

On March 12, AFSeattle became the first Alliance in the US to offer 100% of its courses online. We would like to thank all our students who were willing to take this step with us—with patience, understanding and enthusiasm. It takes all of us to keep our mission alive and thriving.

Meanwhile, our community is suffering. This public health crisis will have an enormous economic impact—and already has impacted many businesses in Seattle who have been forced to close and/or lay off employees. We stand in solidarity with them and send our thoughts to all of them.

We have come up with a plan to keep offering quality services and to keep our instructors working. Let us keep on living and interacting with our fellow human beings, together in this newly imagined format. 

Read on!

Our Plan for Spring 2020

We are strengthening our service offerings while adapting to the situation: our Spring classes will all start online.

What's an online course? It is a live video conference with your instructor and fellow students that will follow the usual format and course plan.

Check out this 1-minute video to get an idea!

The group courses will be supported by two platforms: Apolearn (sharing resources, articles, comments, homework during the week) & Zoom (the live course at the scheduled time). Classes can also be recorded and shared on Apolearn.  Additionally, private and group course students will receive complimentary access to e-learning resources for self-learning on Frello.

Group online courses are limited to 6 participants for best quality. Textbooks purchased on our website will be shipped to you at no charge.

View the Spring course catalogue here.

If a course is full, please let us know your interest to open an additional session.

Do not worry about online courses. Our instructors have already started teaching online, and they are getting really good at it! Here is the most recent feedback from our students.

 
Average rating for online course effectiveness (Winter 2020): 4.9/5

"The Zoom tool worked really well. I was impressed. In some ways, the learning environment was better than in classroom, since it was easier to multi-task with note taking, looking at reference material, and generally being able to spread out and be more comfortable. [...] The ability to break out into groups that were private was great, because in the classroom there is too much cross-talk and distraction when we were in subgroups."

"I did not think I would enjoy French class using Zoom, but it was really excellent."

"[Our instructor's] use of Zoom to take the class online was flawless [...] The Zoom group sessions worked flawlessly for us to continue practicing with classmates. [The instructor] was as engaging in the online setting as she was in class, and taught exceptionally well without skipping a beat."

"I was only able to attend one Zoom session. I was surprised how effective it was. I am very happy that I attended this session, because it made me feel confident that if I need to take future classes through Zoom, the classes will be very worthwhile."

We are offering "demo classes" March 23-27. If you want to try out an online course before signing up, you can do so at no cost.

View our schedule here.

We are offering extra slots for online private courses. Our instructors can offer additional availability for private classes. These include morning slots, lunch break slots, or throughout the day.

Request a private class here.

We are offering payment plans adapted to your situation. Just email us at info@afseattle.org to register for a Spring course on a 3-month payment plan. 

What We Kindly Ask From You

Consider taking an online course to keep our instructors working. This could be your first, or the continuation of your studies at AFSeattle! This could be a group class, or a private class. We need you in order to support our amazing instructors—and you won't regret it: they are re-defining the concept of the online class!

Consider purchasing a membership to AFSeattle to support us during these times. It includes an account on the Culturethèque (a vast collection of French books, magazines, podcasts, or comic books), and many other fun tools to learn and practice your French independently.

Consider requesting a credit instead of a refund if you un-enroll. Credits are valid 12 months for any French course at AFSeattle. We are applying flexible un-enrollment policies for Spring (no fees).

Whether a French course, an exercise routine, or a walk outside, maintain rituals in your daily life. This is especially important now! Schedule calls with your loved ones more often, chat with your friends, and stay connected to the rest of the world. Together is what matters!

Other Important Information

As of Tuesday, March 17, our building has closed its doors to the public and our office is 100% remote. Therefore, we ask that you contact us by email only: info@afseattle.org. For private classes, submit a request here.

Our March and April events are canceled or postponed.

Due to a high volume of communications, please allow more time for us to get back to you and to proceed to refunds.

Thank you for reading and being a part of our community!

All the best,

The AFSeattle Team