Speaking French is a Lifestyle, Much Like Health / Fitness
The reason why so many people struggle to learn French is because they don’t understand it’s a lifestyle.
You can’t just play around on an app or take a couple of French classes and expect to speak French well.
It’s really like getting in shape.
When you’re serious about working out, you have to spend time in the gym several times a week, eat properly, and get enough sleep.
Learning a language is the same way! You have to do the right things in order to get the best results.
So here is what I teach my private clients:
Listening - you have to hear authentic, spoken French regularly.
A good way to do this is by following Instagram accounts for natives based on your interests - like cooking, sports, news, etc.
I’m not talking about accounts French learners, those have their place. What I’m talking about is authentic content to help you learn how the language is actually used in real life. A lot of them have subtitles, so you can look up words you don’t know on www.wordreference.com.
Will it be easy at first? Probably not !! It might be very difficult for the first 6 months, but if you enjoy what you’re watching, that will help you push through it.
I also like instagram videos because they’re short, there are often subtitles, and you always have your phone with you, so you can work on your French in 5-10 min increments throughout the day, since a common complaint is not having enough time to study the language.
Pro tip - make a separate account just for French, that way when you want to work on your French you don’t get distracted by other content.
When watching videos, take notes and try to use the words / expressions you learn in conversation (more on this in a bit).
And don’t worry about understanding everything in the video! Context, facial expressions, gestures, and key words all contribute to comprehension! Just hang in there and keep practicing and you will make progress!
For more help with understanding spoken French, check out this blog.
Speaking - there’s no way around it, to speak French well, you have to practice speaking !! ( it’s kind of obvious right? Yet so few French learners do this regularly.)
How do you know if you speak French well if you never practice speaking?
You have to try to hold conversations in French, even if you don’t feel ready. It’s the only way to get better.
If you need help getting started having conversations in French, check out our free e-Course.
And if you need help finding French speaking friends to practice with, check out this blog.
So to sum it up, you need to:
Hear real spoken French regularly, not the academic stuff we get at school !!
Practice speaking French regularly
And just like working out, it takes consistent practice for maybe 6 months to a year in order to see results, so keep it up !!
If you have any questions, please send me a DM on Instagram ! I’d love to help you
À bientôt !
Charlie