Does the idea of learning French make you shiver? You are not alone! In today’s edition, we ask readers to give us their very best tips on learning French!
Whether you have improved your French with audio CDs, a tutor, or by participating in an intensive program–we would love to benefit from your experience. Thank you for using the comments box to share helpful ideas for language learning.
To improve your French did you use flash cards? Do you watch French films? Do you carry around a pocket-size French-English dictionary? Subscribe to the French version of Reader’s Digest? Do you attend a local French meet-up? Welcome exchange students to your home? Do you fall asleep to French music in hopes your subconscious will record it all by memory? Do you secretly follow Francophones at the mall, like I used to do?
Click here to read or to submit a BEST TIP FOR LEARNING FRENCH!
Thanks for forwarding this post to a language-learner who might be inspired by the many excellent ideas submitted by readers.
Thanks for keeping my book, Words in a French Life, in mind as a language tool. Here’s a review:
With its innovative and entertaining way of teaching the finer points of French, Espinasse’s memoir will be popular with travelers and expats alike. –Publishers Weekly
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
As an old man, I think I know the real answer for you “youngsters”. You just need to allow more time to learn any language! Sixty years is not enough for some of us. Some people take longer than others. I started learning French at school back in the fifties. To be honest, I should have worked harder at that time. It’s easier if you can start early. I persevered and dabbled for a few years, then became more enthusiastic again in the eighties (when we became involved with “town twinning (jumelage)” three-way exchanges involving Bishop’s Stortford in the UK, Villiers-sur-Marne (near Paris) and Freidberg in Germany). I also tried a little German and that seemed a bit easier. During that period, we met some fantastic people and one French family (now living near St Calais in rural Sarthe) remain best friends to this day. I have kept plodding on and I can now boast that I have improved very slightly. It helps that I pretend to myself that I am able listen to French radio, TV, and films but, to be honest, I still can’t understand very much. It doesn’t help that I am a bit hard of hearing but written French doesn’t come easy either! On rare occasions, when we are able to travel to France, I unfortunately still need help with restaurant menus but it’s always great fun having a go at making myself understood. Now, I’m seventy-five; there is less to be gained from ever becoming fluent because my wife and I are less able to travel. French is still a challenge – I recently purchased Kristin’s excellent audio lesson on French pronunciation and it immediately taught me that I have been getting many basic things completely wrong for over sixty years. Try it yourself – the programme has helped more that any other and I can recommend it. So, to recap’, my recommendation is to never give up. As someone once said, “repetition is the key” (and I would add, together with plenty of time)!
The Pimsleur Method worked great for me. It uses audio CD’s and lots of repetition. I checked the CD’s out of my local library for free to try them first before I bought them. I highly recommend checking your local library or college library and try some of the programs or methods they have available before purchasing one. If your library allows long term rentals of reference materials then you may not need to purchase the programs at all. 🙂
Here is a good site that reviews several different methods.
http://www.sirgo.com/best-way-to-learn-french.aspx
The best way is ‘all of the above’.
Lately I’ve been reading great books in French, either written in French or translated to French. If it is great writing it will pull you through all the dictionary checking you have to do. ‘Policiers’ are good too!
My next task is to begin writing in French.
I’ve been lucky to live near France for several years, so visits to France have been fascinating, even without much social contact.
Great writing, Kristin. I feel like I know you and your family.
I downloaded “Duolingo” on my Android phone. Every chance I get I practice!
Change your body language to help change your accent. It is very hard to sound one way and hold yourself another. Loosen up – practice stereotypical gestures while exaggerating accents. Try speaking English with a French accent. Just get out of yourself to get over being shy. Different languages bring out different sides of yourself.
For me learning french came in stages, part of which was immersion. I packed up and moved to Montreal 2 years ago. The best tips I can think of would be to first learn basic grammar,verbs, nouns etc…, learn the tenses and make it a point of every day to practice them for a bit. This can be done simply by reading lesson books or enrolling in a course. I learned this through 2 undergraduate courses I took. After that I would say find a conversation circle, which can be done at meetup.com and attend regularly to practice your pronunciation and speaking skills. Just practice and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, above all have fun with it and don’t give up.
For me learning French is a journey I am still on, and to help motivate me I created a personal blog to help chronicle my journey through the language.
http://speakfrenchwithme.com
Don’t learn individual words, learn sentences.
If you learn single words, you don’t know how to use them and have a hard time remembering them.
But if you learn sentences, you memorize easily and immediately know how to use the words you learnt.
Sign up for the mobile APP WordPowerLt French vocabulary. Everyday a new word and ways to use it, plus you can hear it spoken by a native French speaker.
Learning french language is not only learning different words for the same things,
but learning another way to think about things.
So its the best ways to learn french.
I moved to France last year with no knowledge of the language at all. After living here a year, I have muddled through putting together an apartment and figuring out daily life, mainly through sign language and smiling a lot. Uzes is a small town where, unless it’s tourist season, most people speak French. I’ve “absorbed” a lot, but still to shy to speak other than “bonjour”, etc. Now I have a French teacher who is a professional speech pathologist. So I am learning perfect enunciation — hopefully. It’s exhausting! My best way of learning is flash cards which I make myself. We try to do some type of learning experience every day — going out for lunch together or telephoning. The tips above are all excellent. “After you learn the verbs!” she says. Then I can get more out of my CDs from Rosetta Stone, “French for Dummies”, and the other courses I’ve invested in. Today I’m going to the library. Thanks for your ideas!
bonjour à tous et à toutes,
enseignante pour le français, de profession, je recommande toujours à mes chers participants de se connecter sur FIP à partir de 19.30 heures et vous serez charmés par les voix des présentateurs et présentatrices, qui ont vraiment quelque chose à dire et présentent leur musique – il s’agit de la meilleure radio que je connaisse.
Je suis en Allemagne, et je l’écoute en Streaming.
Patricia