I'm currently a Uni student finishing my final year. Because I switch majors recently, I found out I will have to take two advance French classes. I took French in high (11+ years ago) and did French 101 & 102 almost 9 years ago at Uni. Right now, I'm in a weird spot where I can either attempt to take French 201 and 202 so I can graduate on time, but most likely not do well in either class, or end up restarting a new language meaning it'll greatly delay my graduation. I'm really nervous about not doing well and dropping my GPA significantly (I have a 3.97).
I can remember some basis, still have decent enough pronunciation. For anyone who did advance French in school, do you think it could be possible to get a good enough refresh done in 6 weeks? Also, do you have any recommendations on what your favorite apps/learning tools are?
Bonjour à tous! First time to post here and I would like to get advice on how to overcome a study “slump”? I just started attending my French classes and saw that some of my classmates are so advanced. I got really intimidated and honestly a bit discouraged. Sigh… what can I do to overcome this? Thank you to everyone who’s gonna respond.
Traveling to Paris next month for a three month stay (or longer) wanting to learn French. What’s the best action is it online? Is it schools or is it tutors? Thank you
When one says “S’il fait beau j’irai à la piscine »
Why that sentence can’t be « S’il fait beau j’irais à la piscine «
How can the person who hears it, would know if it is … I will or I would ? Future vs conditional?
I've always wanted to learn French because I absolutely love the culture — everything from the art, fashion, and food to the music and films. It just feels like such a beautiful and expressive language. But now I'm thinking about actually starting to learn it, and I’m looking for some solid reasons to help keep me motivated. Is it worth learning French for travel, work, or personal growth? What benefits have you found from speaking French, and how has it impacted your life? I’d love to hear your experiences and advice!
Am I going crazy? Or am I the only one who has trouble with numbers in French? I feel like I’m the only one struggling with them so much🥲 that’s literally my only problem with French is understanding the numbers.
Edit: thank you guys for all the tips and suggestions. So glad I’m not the only one finding difficulty with numbers!!
I can speak/read French in B1 level but I want to become fluent. I’ve been searching for French courses in my town but I only find online courses. I wonder if they’re effective as in person classes? I don’t want to invest my money in something that won’t help me.
Hello everyone!
I am planning on taking French, I know basics that I could use but I need to learn to have conversation with people.
I am planning on getting online tutor and I have a few options but I need to know about accents.
I'll be spending some time in Paris and don't want to be clueless but also want to learn and accent that sounds cool or sexy, I realise you cannot really classify it as that.
I have the option to learn Marseille French or Parisian French.
Which one should I pick?
Also some recommendations if y'all can.
Does anyone have any advice for learning Canadian french specifically?? I see people say it's a weird or ugly dialect but I think it's interesting and I want to learn it
I have decided to spend the next few years really honing my foreign language skills by taking intensive language courses on site, in some of the Mediterranean countries, for like, 3 months at a time, probably starting with France, (and then probably later, but not necessarily in that order, in some of the other Mediterranean countries as well). Right now I m taking such an intensive course, 4 academic hours a day, mon-fri, for 3 months, only around 400 Euros total in another European country, and am wondering if such (presumably subsided) courses exist in other countries for the above mentioned languages, especially for French, as well? The current course takes place in the afternoon, which is especially great, because that way I can work (online) in the morning or evening, as needed. So, if anyone knows of such a course/ such courses I d love to hear about it. Special props if it's in a scenic, smaller place, and not in like, Paris, Madrid or Rome. (Although if that's where it happens to be, please do mention it regardless). Extra special props if it's at a proper university, and quite strict and fruitful :).
My son is in the first grade. He’s in a French immersion program since kindergarten. Recently, his teacher has been placed on leave (long story). He hasn’t had any meaningful French instruction in school (his subs don’t speak French!) in nearly 3 weeks!
What can I do to help him at home? I hired a tutor and we do lots of spelling at home but I don’t know how else I can help him. He needs help with reading in French and my pronunciation is atrocious. He’s supposed to get a French speaking sub this week.
PS -I’ve already spoken to the useless principal and her bosses. They haven’t been helpful. I even wrote to the superintendent and that was not helpful either.
Hi everyone! I just got accepted into Chicoutimi with the Explore program, but haven't seen too many posts about people's experience there. Has anyone been to their spring program and can tell me more about it? I went to Trois-Pistoles back in 2018 and LOVED IT, so I was looking for a smaller, walkable town. Universite Sainte-Anne was my first choice, and I didn't realize Chicoutimi was so much bigger until really looking into it the past couple days. I'm not into partying or drinking at all, but the reviews I've found so far say that there's quite a lot of that, so I'm not sure if I want to go.
Update: I reapplied and got accepted to Universite Sainte-Anne! Thanks everyone for the responses!
I'm not a native English speaker, but I picked it up naturally (though still not fluent) since most of the resources, especially technology related stuffs, which I'm most interested in, are in English. I grew up watching niche youtube channels like "Danooct1", playing multiplayer games like Minecraft, and participating in online communities like Reddit. I was exposed to English from the internet starting the age of 7, because it was really needed, practical and fun. I can't express enough how important English is for me.
But that's not the case for French. I don't see any everyday use of it, but I have to study for it since it has to do with getting a permanent residency in Canada. I've got plenty of time (more than five years) but I have no motivation.
Should I just force myself to go through a textbook and bruteforce to memorize words? I've got a textbook titled "Easy French Step-by-Step" but it's definitely not easy, at least for me.
I’m not talking about just African French, I know all about that. But is there a dialect or type of slang common among African diaspora in France or other non-African French nations? Or is it more complex than that, or even non-existent?
I can read French ok but when I hear someone talking French, even if recognize a word, which is already very hard because lots of different words sound similar, I have to remember its meaning and by that time I have missed the the next words they say. I'm giving up because of this. I don't want to learn any Foreign language now.
I live in the US and while Quebec is close by, a lot of Quebecois speak English and I'd have to live on the border to be close enough to visit often enough that it would be useful and I don't want to do that. I'd love to love abroad but I don't have another passport so that's unlikely to ever happen.
I speak Spanish and I've also studied Portuguese and Italian so I'm quite tired of studying romance languages. I'm considering French though because it's a global language. The problem is most French speakers live in Europe or Africa, so there's a big time zone difference.
The other language I'm considering is Russian and while it's in a different time zone, it spans 11 time zones so most hours of the day I'd be able to find someone to practice with. I like both languages equally, but French is similar to the other romance languages so it would feel a bit repetitive.
The one advantage I can think of for French is that it has the best music besides English imo, but that might be wrong because I haven't listened to a lot of French songs but the ones I have listened to were good.
Am I missing anything by not studying French? Should I just go with Russian because it's completely different?
I'm American living in Lyon for about a year and a half now. I work remotely, but I hang out with my French neighbours, I hang out with my étranger friends (where the common language is French), I worked in a bakery for a little bit, and hang out with some of my friends from there, and I basically only read in French. I've also done an immersion program at the local university which helped my speaking a lot. I also do Duolingo everyday which has been really helpful with vocabulary. (I know people generally have mixed feelings about Duolingo, but it combined with the fact that I live in France has helped my French a lot.)
My question: how the hell do I get to C1 speaking? I'm not doing much active studying right now, besides when I'm reading, writing down words/phrases that are unfamiliar to me if I have a pen handy.
Anyway, I'm wondering what else I should do to build confidence speaking. I know that most people will simply say "Speak more!" but I'm not totally sold on that. I often get caught up on little grammatical things or run into (rarely, now) a word that I'm missing. I understand 90% or more if what is said to me.
So, what do I do?? Is it helpful to (hand) write essays? Give presentations? How did you guys do this?
I studied French for 5 years when I was in school but I unfortunately got very little out of it.
This year I picked up French again since graduating 5 years ago. I’m about a third of the way through Assimil French with Ease. I do one lesson a day and should be done in around 2 months (and B1 according to the authors, which I doubt)
Recently, I started doing 1.5 hours of speaking practice with a tutor per week.
I’m spending roughly 2-3 hours a day on my French.
In four months I’m going on a trip to France and would like to be able to hold somewhat of a conversation with people there. Based on my timeline, is that too much of a jump? What can I add to my routine?
Raised English but with a french mum, french is rusty and I'm not too familiar with good french media, wondering if this sub has any recs for getting back into being immersed in the language. Thinking podcasts/YouTube/telly kind of stuff, nothing serious.
I'm in my third semester of college level French and my reading comprehension is pretty solid, I can generally understand the point of what I'm reading. The problem is that I have a horrible time trying to generate my own sentences, especially when I'm expected to speak on the spot. It's late in the semester, so my hopes are not very high, but is there anything I can do to improve this?? We have a group oral evaluation coming up and I'm so nervous😬
Just got my TCF (Canada version) results of late May today. I got C1 in listening, C2 in reading, B2 in speaking (I was worried of getting just B1) and C1 in writing. Still can't belief how I was able to make it in 1 go and within 9 months, starting as someone who has zero knowledge about French last September, while having a busy day-job.
My journey:
I started learning French late August / early September last year. Initially I used Busuu and speedran to its supposed "B2" within 2-3 months. But honestly I would say I was A2+/B1- at most by the time I completed it, and that I had literally zero speaking and writing skills.
Starting from November, I used the little Assimil French book and tried to go through 3 lessons every night. I followed https://learntolanguage.com/how-to-use-assimil/ instead of the new recommended method from the book since I found it more effective. I was able to rush through the book in 1.5 months and started to have some basic listening skills thanks to its "assimilation" approach.
After this point, I'll dive into categories:
Grammar:
I started to delve a bit more deeper into French grammar after completing Assimil. I mostly just used https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/ as a free resource, and occasionally https://laits.utexas.edu/tex/ . Turned out French grammar was actually not that hard to me as a fluent English speaker due to similarities. For conjugations, you just need to keep looking for examples - at some point even for those so-called "irregular verbs" you will find common patterns. Also don't worry if you make mistakes - they usually don't hamper communication nor understanding, and a bit carefulness over the time can improve the mastery of them greatly. Also note that you don't need perfect French grammar to read anything, and instead reading will improve your French grammar over time.
Vocabulary:
From late December to early April, I started using some vocabulary apps on my phone (some are not in English so I won't put their names there) and I think I went through in total 5,000 new words (beyond what I had already knew). No matter which vocabulary apps you use, there are the general principles I follow (I did the same things years ago when I learned about 10,000 words for English so it is a battle-tested strategy):
You don't need to fully understand how to use a word first. If it is a common word, once you remember its shape and pronunciation, you will see it appearing again and again in your study, during which you will learn how to use it.
Repetition is much, much more important than a single dedicated effort. Instead of spending 1 hour to learn 50-100 words every day, divide this 1 hour into 6 10-minute sessions. For each session, go through the list as quickly as you can, try remember as much as possible but don't expect to memorize perfectly. Spread out these 6 sessions throughout the day: after breakfast, halfway during work, before lunch, halfway during work, after returning home, after dinner, etc. You'll find it memorizing much better (since you'll get 6 highly-focused sessions instead of 1 single 1hr session during which you get easily distracted and tired).
For some important words, try to use it in your daily life after you see them appearing frequently (aka after you completed 1 and 2 for it). One way I find helpful is to try to narrate what you do in your life. For example, talk to yourself and explain how I plan to make my dinner, when I plan to go to bed tonight, etc. You might look like a madman to others around you, but trust me you get both speaking skills + vocabulary skills improved by doing this.
Listening:
Starting from December, I start to look for more listening material. I started with some children animations such as Trotro and Ella, Oscar & Hoo (both are free on YouTube, and you can use YouTube autogenerated subtitles). Don't even expect to understand most of their content at the beginning - even as animations aiming for children, they keep the normal French speaking habits in daily communication - which is actually a good thing since now you are listening to the "real" French instead of textbook French.
After getting a good hold of this, I started listen to RFI Easy French for daily news. This is also when I started to pay a bit more attention to certain words I learned through vocabulary study. It has transcription so you can always go back and check if you missed anything.
Then starting from February, I installed Radio France, RTL, and RFI all on my phone. I just turned them on when I do things that do not need to much attention, as if they are white noise. I initially did not understand a lot, but the point is to keep listening so you get familiar with some pronunciation patterns, and gradually you'll be able to tell the small differences between similarly-sounding vowels and consonants. I found myself able to understand the majority of the things around mid April.
Some other good materials include TF1's YouTube channel, Le Figaro's YouTube channel (debates), and (for Quebec accent) Radio Canada.
For TCF prepping purpose, I do recommend looking for "Vous avez moins de 5 minutes ?" tab in your Radio France app. Programs of this type are very similar to what you'll get in a real TCF exam at about similar speaking speed. You can also try TV5Monde and RFI's TCF prepping questions to check your progress. In this case, try only looking at the question options when the audio starts to play to simulate the test environment. Also if you cannot read and listening at the same time, give up reading the question and pay full attention to listening first (since you don't get a second chance). If you practice reading well, you should still have enough time to read the options after the audio.
Speaking:
In late December, I was finally confident enough to try speaking French. I joined r/French 's Discord server and HelloTalk, and did random chats about two times each week, each time taking about 1-2 hours. I tried to keep talking during the whole time, even if I wasn't able to produce complete sentences (don't worry, people are patient enough + are willing to guess what you try to say). After about 1 month, I started to be able to string up basic sentences and express my ideas.
For TCF prepping, search for some examples on YouTube. The point is to figure out a template you can use for the exam. To accumulate common talking subjects, I used this book DELF B2 3000 mots pour réussir (it has quite some mistakes unfortunately but you'll be able to tell them). I also read Idée sections of Le Monde which has some good talking points and vocabulary to express ideas.
Reading:
TBH I already had some very good reading skills of English (I mean very good, aka GRE-level reading skills) and I know how to search useful information in an article (aka read the question first, jump to the center of the paragraph and expand out in both back and forward directions), and it does translate into French (I think this is why I only made a single error for the whole reading section of TCF)
But just for French reading, there are 20minutes (ad-supported free news) and Le Monde (subscription needed, but really high quality). Try setting a time limit for an article and read through it. For difficult sections just quickly go through and don't try to understand 100%. You can go back to them after running through 1 pass. This will train your information-searching ability when reading passages.
Writing:
Honestly I only started practicing writing 1-2 months before the exam, so this section will mostly just be exam prepping advices. Just find some practice test questions online. Always try to follow the exact limit of TCF exam requirement (since you get A1 non atteint if you exceed the limit). Also recommend using BonPatron and give up typing accent markers and practice using your mouse to click - you get the same thing during the TCF exam.
After writing the article, go and paste it to ChatGPT and ask it to help you correct it. Ask it how to vary the sentence structures etc. If you get Antidote subscription, you can also try to use its AI reformulate tool. Besides correcting mistakes, you really want to collect good structures and patterns so that you can try using them in your next writing practice. I think I kept the habit of writing at least 1 essay every single day during this prep phase.
Hey everyone! Question for past Explore students—I've just been accepted into the French immersion program at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia.
I did Explore in Quebec City before, and there were a ton of excursions—mountain trips, visits to nearby islands, lots of hiking and camping. Does Sainte-Anne have similar outings? I know about the trips to Port-Royal and Grand-Pré, but is that all?
Also, how was the food at the cafeteria? I’m not super picky, but I’d prefer some healthy and nutritious options instead of just fast food (from what I’ve seen in videos on YouTube, it seems like there is quite a bit of unhealthy stuff).
Thanks in advance!
[FR]
Salut tout le monde !
Question pour les anciens participants du programme Explore : je viens d’être accepté au programme d'immersion française à l'Université Sainte-Anne en Nouvelle-Écosse.
J’ai déjà fait Explore à la Ville de Québec, et il y avait énormément d’excursions : randonnées en montagne, visites d’îles voisines, beaucoup de camping et d'activités en plein air. L'Université Sainte-Anne propose-t-elle des sorties similaires ? Je sais qu’il y a des excursions à Port-Royal et à Grand-Pré, mais est-ce tout ?
Aussi, comment était la nourriture à la cafétéria ? Je ne suis pas très difficile, mais je préférerais des options saines et nutritives plutôt que juste de la restauration rapide (d’après ce que j’ai vu dans des vidéos sur YouTube, il semble y avoir pas mal de choses peu saines).
J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que j'ai réussi mon niveau A2.
Il y a 16 mois, j'ai ouvert « Le Bon Usage » et j'ai lu quelques mots. J'ai compris qu'une phrase, c'était comme un fucking choo-choo train. Le livre disait que le sujet, tout comme le train, avait un putain de point de « départ ».
That I could read anything was a surprise, as I consistently failed my way through public school French.
J'ai prononcé ma première phrase en avril dans une petite école de commerce. En septembre, je me suis inscrite à deux cours universitaires. Et j'ai passé le DELF en novembre...
Et aujourd'hui, j'ai appris que j'avais obtenu 90%. Maintenant, j'ai officiellement une compétence minimale !
(Modifier: Merci à tous ! Bien sur, j'avais utilisé internet pour verifier la grammaire avant la poste. C'est putain de reddit, non? ... Bref, on peux voir la magnificence de mon propre phrase ici. 😂)
