What are some good tips for learning French?

French is also known as the language of love and is one of the five main Romance languages. Paris is often called “La Ville-Lumière” – City of light as it was the birthplace of the enlightenment. More literally, Paris was one of the first European cities to adopt gas street lighting. France has numerous famous monuments, museums, beautiful landscapes, historical sites, and galleries. The most famous is undoubtedly the Louvre and Eiffel tower, which reflects a country with roots deep in history and a wonderful heritage. French was spread to new lands in the Americas, Africa, and Asia as a part of French and Belgian colonisation beginning in the 16th century.  The majority of second-language speakers are from Francophone Africa, specifically Gabon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.

1- Create a study plan for yourself and set short and long term goals that are clear, realistic and measurable.

Planning your studies well in advance makes your learning journey easier. The study plan also helps you to monitor your performance and manage your available time. Divide the entire study content into smaller chunks to learn step by step. Avoid being overambitious, creating stress or burn yourself out of situations for yourself. Have complete clarity about your personal goals and why you are learning French. 

2-  Make time for a regular study schedule to improve your French

There will be some days of low energy with no interest in studying as compared to some days where you are enthusiastic and full of energy you can study vocabulary and grammar for hours. In reality, it is critical to research on a regular basis. Every day, try to learn French in shorter bursts but more often. 

3- Avoid all possible disruptive factors when learning

Ensure you have no distractions around you to disturb you. Turn off your phone and let your friends know that you are not available for the next hour or so. Even though it may sound a little rude, eventually you will realise the importance and see that your study sessions become more efficient.

4- Create some helpful study tools for yourself 

Start to write a journal or a diary so that you can capture the new words and phrases that you hear being used in day to day conversations. This will help you build your first-ever conversation in French. A study from textbooks, practice grammar; all for the love of French. This would be best required to improve comprehension skills in French and also to practice reading and writing the French language.

5- Learn via an immersive approach 

Label all the objects in your home with their respective French words to start identifying objects with their respective French names with articles, without building a translation facility in your head! Modify your technological settings, on your phone, tablet, or computer – change them to French. Incorporate small pieces of entertainment such as listening to songs, watching movies, listening to radio, podcasts, audible stories in French, watching TV shows etcetera.

6- Use online tools to help you learn 

Sometimes despite all such efforts, phrases or words stick in your head. This can be best accomplished by using Mnemonics. I also recommend you to use spaced repetition system apps such as Memrise, Anki to learn better, from pre-existing Flashcards or ones you create. Look for a native conversation partner with you who can help you improve your spoken French who are available at a time when you are studying and need help. You could ask them for feedback on your speech and accent and learn the way a street French is spoken by a native. They can also help you to correct your writing if you were to show your articles written in French for receiving feedback.

French is an official language in 29 countries spread over several continents, the majority of which are part of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a group of 84 countries that share the official use or teaching of French. French is also one of the United Nations’ six official languages. In France, it is the first language. One-fifth of Europeans who speak other languages natively will also speak French as a second language. French is also the world’s 18th most spoken language, the 6th most spoken language by an overall number of speakers, and the second or third most learned language. 

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