Learn French Fast w/ These 5 Tips !
Over 10+ years I’ve taught thousands of private lessons and helped hundreds of people learn French!
Here are my top 5 tips to help you learn French faster:
1. Learn the basics
Kind of obvious, right? But don’t just learn random phrases, learn the basic structure of French.
You need to learn the pattern of the language and how to construct sentences you would actually use in conversation.
I show you how to do this in my French e-Course (17k+ students already enrolled!)
2. Practice conversation
If the goal is to speak French, then it’s only logical that you practice having conversations.
Yes, it’s scary and difficult at first, but with the right techniques it can be done.
You remember things better when you use them, so be sure to use your French!
Trying to memorize random words and phrases without aplying them in conversation is NOT the best strategy.
You can find language partners on apps like Tandem or HelloTalk (these are language exchange apps, you help someone learn your language and they help you learn French)
You can then practice conversation by sending messages on those apps.
It’s written down, so it’s a lot easier to communicate!
It’s all about baby steps and slowly inching towards using the language in conversation more and more.
3. Watch videos for natives
With the subtitles it’s fairly easy to understand what they’re saying, right?
Watching videos like this is how you push yourself to get better at French!
Let me explain:
You have to hear what French sounds like in order to get better at it. A great way to do that is on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
Find videos for natives in something that interests you like the news, pop culture, travel etc.
You can do this by typing it into the search bar in French:voyager, les infos, etc and then going down the rabbit hole and experimenting and seeing what you find.
Look for videos where the person is improvising in the language (nothing scripted! Those are harder to understand) and a lot of these have subtitles.
Look up words you don’t know on wordreference.com and note them down, they’ll probably keep coming back.
Maybe you’ll only understand 50% of what they’re saying in the video, but that’s how you get better! You have to push yourself and listen to how natives actually speak.
Look at the context of the video, their facial expressions, tone, gestures, etc - all of these help you understand what someone is saying.
And because the topic of the video interests you, it will keep you motivated and make you actually want to watch it.
4. Learn to use what you know effectively
A lot of times it’s not about what you say, but how you say it.
You can say so much with a little bit of French if you know how to do it.
You speak a language with your whole body - gestures, facial expressions, tone, etc. These are all very important when speaking French!
Watch this video to see how Mick Jagger (frontman of The Rolling Stones) speaks French VERY effectively without saying so much.
5. Practice regularly, develop a routine
Speaking a language effectively is just practice.
Practice a little bit everyday and develop a solid routine.
It could look something like this:
Everyday: 15 min practicing with friends on Tandem / HelloTalk, 15 min watching French videos on Instagram.
Every week: Zoom call with a francophone friend to practice speaking. 30 min French / 30 min English (or another language)
I hope that helps you! Let me know if you have any questions