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Studying in French as an anglophone? Mais oui!

Pursuing graduate studies in a second language is daunting but, ultimately, rewarding.

Samantha Yuen

February 05, 2026

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Graduate Matters

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Have you thought of attending graduate school in your second or even third language? Perhaps you question whether your language skills — written, spoken and listening — are up to par. This was my dilemma in 2020 when I contemplated applying to research programs in Quebec.

In Quebec, there are two parallel education systems at the elementary and high school levels: one in French, the other in English. Students are automatically enrolled for schooling in French unless they qualify for an exception. In my case, I was permitted to study in the English school board in the suburbs of Montreal because my parents were educated in English during the United Kingdom’s occupation of Hong Kong. Outside of my home, where I spoke Cantonese, English became my primary language of communication in school, in social circles and eventually in my career. Although my level of French was functional, I chose Concordia University, an English institution, to pursue my B.Sc. in biology.

Although the language of instruction was English, the combination of part-time work in the service industry and internships in molecular biology laboratories gave me opportunities to practice speaking formal French and to apply the language in my field. In one internship, I participated in a small research symposium. Here, I realized the need for French in my research and career when I faced great difficulty presenting my work to the local medical staff. Fortunately, it was also during this time where I met my current partner. He helped me gain more confidence in the language through immersion and compassion. Thanks to his support I further challenged myself to attend graduate school in Quebec’s official language.

For my graduate degree, I was accepted into the master’s in bioinformatics program at Université de Montréal. In this learning environment, university resources, mandatory graduate courses and communication with administrative staff were purely in French.

The first weeks of my graduate program presented a steep learning curve. The COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed the majority of learning online, deprived me of a potential opportunity to practice French among peers. As a result, I found it challenging to develop and maintain deep connections with both professors and classmates in French.

Lectures presented an additional challenge, since it was especially taxing to translate French live in my head. The mental effort was most demanding in math-heavy courses, because I was less familiar with this topic in my native language. Instead of connecting French terms to concepts that I already understood, I put in extra effort to simultaneously understand both the concepts and the new subject-specific terminology.

Despite the aforementioned efforts and obstacles in completing my graduate degree in my third language, there was a silver lining. Assessments could be written in English, while advanced courses offered either the lectures or the presentation slides in English. Throughout my studies, I focused on learning general and domain-specific vocabulary. For example, how to emphasize important concepts (pertinent), the origin of some information (est issue de), a strand (brin) of DNA, to attend (assister) a conference and the difference between semester and trimestre. These are useful today as I work in a French organization.

Working in a culturally diverse lab, I found it interesting to hear different accents and lexicons of French from across the globe, whether from Europe, Quebec, Africa or the Middle East. Immersed in this rich diversity of French, I learned not to be embarrassed and to ask for clarifications if I did not understand something. Although it’s true that having a high level of reading and verbal comprehension of French is advantageous for non-francophone learners in a French university, graduate school taught me that I wasn’t alone. In fact, many foreign students are learning French while doing their graduate research simultaneously.

Transitioning from an English undergraduate to a graduate degree in French was not easy for me. However, I am proud that I took a risk and plunged into an immersive French learning environment. I want to stay in Montreal for the foreseeable future, and I can see how my improved French skills support me in building better connections with people and improve the quality of work I provide professionally. For prospective students who are interested in doing graduate school in their non-native language, I suggest creating, or finding, an immersive space in which you can use the language as much as possible. Part-time work, volunteering, or casual social settings can provide opportunities to practice. Although these interactions may not be specific to your study or work domain, you can still gain valuable understanding of frequently used terms and expressions. You might even be surprised and find francophones who become your allies.

Samantha Yuen

Samantha Yuen seeks to improve personalized medicine as a bioinformatician and data curator. She holds a MSc in bioinformatics specializing in the analysis of high-throughput biological data.