5 great tips to learn French in 2018

Learning French has been known to have several advantages.In the workforce knowing a second language opens the doors to work in different Francophone countries. Learning French develops an understanding of other cultures and helps you communicate while travelling. The learning of a language has been known to delay onset of dementia as it keeps your brain active and engaged. Learning French in small groups allows you socialise while learning a language.

“To have another language is to possess a second soul”

— Charlemagne

1.Listen more !

 Watch French films and television programs, You Tube clips, download free apps. Duolingo is a free app and a good resource to learn French. Practice writing some phrases in your own language and translate them to French.

2. Speak French with a French native speaker

Find opportunities to immerse yourself in French while travelling to French speaking country or talking with a French native speaker. There is also lots of conversation groups that you can join for small fees. The best thing is even if you are time poor there are a lot of opportunities to meet people either face to face or online to chat or do French lessons.

A man who knows two languages is worth two men.

3.  Positive Mindset about learning French

Forget about how you felt when you learnt French when you were young, if it was a bad experience or you had a bad French teacher. When learning French you need to be positive toward learning and not fear making mistakes or fearing being judged. You need to have a go at speaking and making the new French sounds. Speaking French involves having your mouth, lips, tongue working differently and you ears listening to new sounds. You do create a visual memory when you speak a new language. Vouloir c'est pouvoir!  Where there is will there is a way!

A different language is a different vision of life

4. Repetition Repetition and Repetition

Learning to speak French is about repetition. Repeat the word, write the word down, listen to the word and use it again in different situations and do the same with some phrases. 

The limits of my language are the limits of my world

5. Focus on listening to words in French

As a lot of my students tell me they can read and understand the written words or phrases in French as some words are spelled the same way as in English but the sound is very different!  For some expressions you can learn them by imagining the feeling! I mean if you are hot in French we say J'ai chaud! which translates as I have heat. Imagine being hot which is easy at the moment in Australia so practice to say J'ai chaud!.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

Do you Fear speaking French?

I wanted to discuss this topic as this issue I believe is quite frequent when students are learning a new language. The fear is quite real for many students learning a language.

I have been Teaching French for several years and I have been able to observe adults and children learning French. I have seen students trying to repeat words and try to make phrases and simply having a go. I have also seen several students telling me that they will try to repeat the words only when they know how to pronounce the words. The fear of speaking the language is often due to the fact that those students worry about what other people might think or say. Overcoming that fear is very important in the acquisition of a language.

I do believe that when a student tries to  say the words in a foreign language out loud they get a mental memory of the sounds of the words. The sound of vowels that you will say might not be exactly like a French native speaker but as long as you are able to say the words and being understood that is the first step to be able to communicate. The student does not need to learn the correct spelling at first but should try to hear and repeat the sound. You will learn to speak French in trying to speak French. This article is written based  on my own personal experiences as a French teacher.

Learning a langage opens so many doors