Tilly

Please don't shoot me down. I bought my daughter a laptop for xmas; she's at uni and now not on campus in 2nd yr, (not so easy access to computers) so I wanted to do this for her). A couple of questions, may I? Next year (September) she will be at uni in France for a year. Will she be able to use the laptop, do I need to get, or arrange anything, so that she can? Most uni accommodation has internet access here, is it so in France? She won't say what she needs, so I have to pre-empt! Also, and this is not to do with France I am afraid, but is to do with me being a coward! I have heard about a card that you can get , if you have maybe a laptop, to connect to a mobile phone, to send e-mails etc. The truth is, I don't want to go into Curry's/Dixon's and have 19 yr olds look at me like ??? Is there a card that you can buy to enable you to connect to the internet with your phone, via a laptop? And when your child is in France, what is the best way of staying in contact? I ask because when she has been working there before, mobile phone conversations have been fraught with difficulties, and such a short distance, we must have been doing something wrong! Tilly

Oh, this rings such a chord. My 'time in France' was in the 70's. I loved Gerard Lenorman. Also Julian Clerc (sp?) My x-husband took all our music when he left, even the stuff, like this, of no interest to him. (They were on cassette) By the way, does anyone know a song, from the 70's It went...'Bien Sur, c'est difficile, mourire quand ont a juste vingt ans, blah, blah blah, ... Les cerises de Monsieur Clement'. A bit of a long shot, but it made a big impression on me years ago; regularly goes through my head. Well, those 2 lines! I just wondered if anyone out there knew it. I've no idea of the singer I'm afraid. All the best to those 70's (french) music fans out there. Tilly

Hi Rose, Tilly here. I honestly don't think that you need to worry. Universities here on the whole pride themselves on being multi-cultural and attracting all-comers. Prospectuses tend to 'boast' about how many countries they attract students from. I'm assuming that language (English), isn't a problem for your son, but even if it had been, courses are held during the summer before admission for anyone who needs to do some more in that direction and students can arrive early to do that. Coming from every corner of the globe, there will have been a huge variey of different previous learning techniques. University study is anyway very different to UK 6th form work, so it is new to all of them. There will be a whole department dedicated to helping with study techniques, etc; usually really well staffed and excellent. Well used by UK students too. Much maligned as the UK education system is: at university level,I do think it provides well. I'm sure your son will have a wonderful time. My daughter is at university in England, but next year she will spend a year at a French university, that will be very interesting! Tilly