Alliance Française de Chicago

Katherine Chapa _{on ChamberofCommerce.com}

Feb 5th, 2024

They pay to remove reviews & that is shady- I was a Student at AF in 06 & again 21-23. I had a situation a few months ago & wanted to wait to cool down in order to write a fair enough review, new year, new chapters. This school has dedicated teachers, some perhaps too dedicated. I enjoyed most of the classes & cultural activities that I attended since I'm a Francophile. However; I had a negative incident occur to me dealing with the school manager & I would like to highlight the efect papillon, of how incompetence, disorganization & miscommunication from administrator can trigger a downturn in return students. Specifically I expressed interest in the trip to the Loire valley that took place in Sep 2023. They advertised it late Spring & I filled the interest form. I told my friend about & she filled out the same form after I did. To further show my point I had told other people positive things about this institution before ( word of mouth is free advertising of course). My friend was sent a zoom which she had assumed I received but I never did, except from her forwarding it to me. From that video I could see that the trip in question was not filled yet & there was no published selection criteria on the site or stated in this zoom or any place with requirements to attend or qualify for the trip other than of course paying. It was also not first come first serve. After my friend showed me the video I contacted the school & told I was waitlisted which did not make sense to me. Shortly after my friend received a link to pay for the trip & I had not.This seemed odd seeing as I had been a consistent student having spent $4,800 on classes & cultural activities. My friend had until that point only attended free cultural events at the school & had not even taken her first French class. So it was odd that she was invited to pay for a French immersion trip & I the A2/B1 student was not.She passed on her payment link to me and I proceeded to pay $1,800 to attend the French immersion week only to have the manager refunded me immediately without trying to figure out what happened. I was told by email basically that my friend didn't exist when she quite clearly does & has since attended a class at the school. She did not call me to attempt to clear this up professionally but rather I was just refunded for that class & membership I had just purchased before that. So the message this act sent was basically that I was not welcomed there & it was a slap in the face. I feel as though she does not have the proper management training/ skills to be able to lead the school or plan any future trips successfully. If this was an clerical error then it is equally unacceptable. I have since attended Ecole Francaise and I finally feel like I have seen an improvement on my grammar & I've utilized other resources to continue my studies. It's too bad because AF still has more French cultural activities than other institutions in the area, but no one wants to go where there not wanted & I shouldn't give my money to a school that reacts snobbishly. U r just playing into a negative stereotype and I have been to events there where others have told me they felt some of the workers were snobbish so it's not something in my head.. There are reasons why people don't stay on as students aside from learning French as an adult is hard. This was not only dumb it's just bad business to not want to keep returning customers... And this was not the 1st negative incident with her although the first one was minor in comparison. Some months before this I called into the school to make a payment on private lessons I was taking & this person answered. She sounded annoyed to have to pick up. I let her know that I wanted to pay & when I asked who I was speaking with, just to know, because really how can I know over the phone who I'm talking to, it was the 1st time I ever spoke with her, she responded with "this is X" in an annoyed tone although I was trying to simply pay before my class. To me it sounds like maybe someone doesn't like there job & maybe they shouldn't be there.

Erika Marroquin _{on Google}

Jun 9th, 2023

Loving community all around.
Involving activities for adults and children. Volunteers are always welcome and they make everyone feel at home at all times. Check out their French classes and events ! Theyre all super fun!

Camille K. _{on Yelp}

Dec 28th, 2022

They run one of the best summer camps in the city. Every day is filled with color and art and quality food. It's really a wonderful experience for any kid interested in French culture (Who isn't!?). We've been to camps all over and this one is of excellent quality.

Kelly Houlihan _{on Google}

Nov 26th, 2022

Student field trips are a disappointing, expensive experience.
We did the Alsace Menu (#5). Everything is pre-measured and precut to save time (onions, bacon...and other dry ingredients) In the past, at least with the apple pie, students prepared that from scratch, peeling and cutting the apples. Now even that is also prepared in advance... they use apple sauce/crushed apples. For the price (roughly $30 per person), I would hesitate to call that cooking.
4 days advanced notice apparently isn't enough time to update the number of students attending a field trip and the Alliance refused to refund me $35...even though they combined our two groups and the chef only had to give one lesson instead of 2 and we used less materials (bigger groups, less pies). They consider themselves a non-profit, but I feel they did profit from our field trip... I would recommend looking into Cook au Vin for a more authentic experience. I know I will in the future.