Since early 2019, I’ve been teaching French for the International Center for Language Studies (ICLS) in Washington, DC. The school, an independent, woman-owned company, was founded in 1966.

Before we go on, I scoured the ICLS website looking for just the right featured image for this post. I do not apologize for my choice. And I bet the t-shirt hunk made you click.

I met ICLS’s Director of Language Services at an ACTFL Conference in New Orleans in late 2018 (I wish I could tell you about my straitlaced colleague who never drank and the epic effect of those two big bright blue things she drank one night on Bourbon Street, but this is not the place…).

A couple of months later, I was teaching online classes for ICLS to employees of the Pan American Health Organization. Then I got a very prestigious gig through them as a full-time contractor teaching diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute (US State Department) in Virginia. That lasted 16 months, at which point over half of the instructors at the FSI were laid off due to the pandemic. But ICLS kept me going with online classes for diplomats, proficiency testing, small projects, and one major project: developing a French curriculum (80 lesson plans from beginner through intermediate) as part of their accreditation process. Right now, from Bernay, I teach online classes for ICLS at the IMF.

ICLS recently asked me to do an Instagram takeover, so I showed their followers a slice of life in Bernay for 24 hours. (It was exhausting. I can’t imagine how the influencer types do it, running around making their lives look glamorous all the time!) ICLS also interviewed me as part of their blog series on “lifelong language learners.”

If you’re looking for a good language school, ICLS is a great organization all around: accredited, high standards, respect for employees, and highly qualified, ethical, and dedicated management.

They offer courses through their Lifelong Language Learning Program:

6-week online language classes for adults, meeting twice a week for 75 minutes. The courses combine language learning activities with travel and cultural themes in a relaxed and fun environment.

Or the more intensive Group Classes (for which I wrote the French curriculum):

A more intensive experience, the 10-week Online Group Language Courses are available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

They also offer English classes, English pronunciation for global professionals, advanced conversation classes for teachers, and lots more, including an internship program called “WIN in the USA“:

Internship opportunities with firms specialized in digital marketing, business development, and environmental research projects for international students and graduates.

Site: ICLS.edu
Twitter: @icls
Instagram: @icls_dc