The World’s Best Way to Learn French

If you are reading this, you probably have explored all possible ways to learn French – a French class, thoroughly flipping through textbooks and worksheets but you’re still not happy! Because you’re not exactly speaking like a native!

At this point in time, there’s a major mismatch between your desire, time spent and the results you achieved! What works for one may not work for another student. And it probably didn’t for you despite following all advice! Now what? Well, now we are left with the last option – IMMERSION!

We talk of the Classic Method: Immerse Yourself in a French-speaking Culture

Students could check out summer programs abroad with their university. For a longer duration, someone less than 30years or young students could choose to live as an au pair with a French family for a year (check out Au Pair World or Au Pair Paris for the process). If not that long a week or two travelling to France, Quebec, or any other French-speaking country or territory is a great opportunity to develop comprehension and speaking skills. Cut down your travel costs using Couchsurfing.com to stay (and speak!) with friendly natives. Or, exchange working a few hours a day for room and board by contacting hosts through sites like HelpX and WWOOF France. If you’re feeling really committed and are qualified, teaching English abroad is a great option. However, in the real world, not everybody has that kind of resources or blessings! Luckily, you can create the same opportunity without ever having to leave ton lit (your bed).

Rosetta Stone is one of the most popular language immersion tools used by beginners at schools, businesses and government organizations. The program works by using interactive software packed with images and sounds—giving you an unparalleled immersion experience which imitates the way in which a child learns their mother-tongue, no translation , no instructions. The online program offers you a variety of games, tools and resources and the ability to speak with other learners around the world. It also allows you to schedule 20 minute lessons with an online trainer! Rosetta stone’s new program for intermediate and advanced learners, encourages them to achieve a C1 level proficiency. It offers programs that last upto 30 minutes and booster lessons in between lasting anywhere from 5-15 minutes, to enable everyone to learn. On the flip side while its really good, it’s also a costly course. Watch out for their amazing offers and deals throughout the year! Rosetta stone also offers student

Assimil a language course founded in 1929 by Alphonse Chérel, includes both audio and a Language book. The book guides you with translations from French to English and follows on from the audio lessons with activities to further reinforce language learning. Each track in the audio resource is only a few minutes long, so even someone with a busy schedule can do it. The Assimil audio lessons are 100% in the target language and this creates a total immersion experience. Assimil uses a method that places great emphasis on learning sentences, to facilitates the native or natural way of learning -listening, repeating and then using knowledge and mind to figure out what the new vocabulary means. Assimil offers programs for Kids and Business French. The New French With Ease series is perfect for beginners and Using French can be used by Advanced Learners. You can test out your knowledge by completing the activities and follow your progress as you continue with the course.

FluentU app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play stores. It claims to use a natural approach, by using real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks with interactive subtitles —and turns them into personalized language learning lessons, that helps you ease into the French language and culture over time. It aims to teach French as it’s actually spoken by real people without scripted content. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly or play the mini-games found in the dynamic flashcards, like “fill in the blank.”. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. The clips are relatively short, between 1-10 minutes in length, and fits into your daily schedule. There are also longer mini-series and movies broken into instalments. FluentU is primarily based on audio and video materials, but there are plenty of text-based tools for active learning too.

Using methods invented by Paul Pimsleur, a French professor and linguist, Pimsleur employs interactive audio learning methods with native speakers pronouncing a sentence or having a discussion. With each lesson being up to 30 minutes long, focusing on core vocabulary, with the science of spaced repetition and the focus on most-used French vocabulary. The software does come with a booklet for a few sessions that use reading, however, the emphasis is on learning through the audio provided.

A polyglot linguist Michel Thomas developed a Learning method, based on listening rather than using books and memorization techniques. It relies on a mentally relaxed student so they could retain more information naturally. The course is entirely audio-based, in both French and English, and follows Thomas and two students as he teaches them sentence structure, verbs and vocabulary. Sans the long-winded explanations, grammar is presented in conversation practice that helps mastering the tricky verb forms and gives the listener a surround experience, while they are asked to repeat the words, and recall certain things. It’s all about listening and repetition, repetition, repetition. Nothing needs to be force-memorized and surprisingly it works! The course comes in various levels: (1) Start French, which is a basic course with 50 essential French words, (2) Total French, which is the ideal beginner course providing 12 hours of audio, (3) Perfect French, which is for elementary/intermediate learners and (4) Masterclass French which provides 2 hours of one-on-one French lessons with Michel Thomas.

This is great for learners who don’t have much time to set aside for language learning, and each lesson is under 10 minutes long so there’s no reason you can’t pop the CD into your car on the way to work or transfer the files onto your iPod and learn French while you go for your daily run!

If you understand why immersion works, you can make sure you receive the maximum benefit from your trips to francophone countries. And if you don’t have the opportunity to travel, just by knowing how and why immersion is so effective, you can create the same conditions at home and still make similar speedy progress.