I got asked this question many times.
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Hey Nina if youāre here šĀ
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Whatās the BEST way to learn French QUICKLY?
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Before I try to answer this question, we need to talk about why itās the wrong question to ask.
There's two problems with this question
Hang on, don’t bite yet. Listen š
Itās not so much the question by itself that is wrong. Because, you know, I get it: you donāt want to be stuck in your learning.
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Thatās a great way to think! You know, I think being lazy (donāt take offense) is a quality.
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Because whatās wrong with looking for the most straight forward solutions? After all, if you decided to learn French itās not because of the actual study itself, but because you want to SPEAK right?
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But hear me out.
Problem numƩro 1 - There's no BEST way
Sorry to break it to you. Thereās no best, universal, for all kind of solution to āhow to learn Frenchā.Ā
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Sure, thereās things everyone should know. Because French has commun rules, and you need to learn them to communicate.
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But, the actual learning process is different because every learner is different.
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Nah, I promise I wonāt fall into the all āweāre all uniqueā blah blah. š
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What I mean is, thereās plenty of different methods to learn French and itās not a question of which one is the best. Itās a question of which one best suits you.
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It all depends on your style of learning. Some people do really well with grammar and a teacher, others need a lot of speaking, and some pick up sentences very easily from movies,ā¦
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So, thatās why thereās such a wide range of different methods out there. None being the BEST.
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Now, there are methods who are superior at teaching you specific components though.
Problem numƩro 2 - Looking for a QUICK fix is just wasting your time
Same goes for quick methods.
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Iām going to be harsher here though. Because methods who claim they make your fluent in French in 3 weeks are total BS.
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3 weeks? Really? Even people who completely immerse themselves in French and study everyday for three months canāt claim to be FLUENT.
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That all depends on your definition of fluency, but even then.
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So, please, stop looking for a quick fix. Thereās none.
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In fact, looking for a quick fix will probably just be a waste of time.
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I can hear you already. Cheeky ones š
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How long does it take to learn French? Depends on what you want to be able to do in French, but weāre looking at a year at least if you want to be truly comfortable when speaking French with native in a everyday kind of situation.
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Obviously though, if your goal is only to say hello and talk to your neighbour about the weather, itās going to be much quicker.
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Alright, hope I didnāt scare you. Because thereās other questions you can ask yourself (that you can actually answer more easily) and that will truly help you out.
What you should ask yourself instead
Ouiiii š
How do you go from āwhatās the best way to learn French quicklyā to actually getting a sense of how to learn French?
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Let me suggest you these two simple questions instead.
How do I select the methods that will work for me?
Ah! Yes, it almost sounds the same doesnāt it? But not quite.
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Instead of looking for the overall best, youāll be looking for the best one FOR YOU. Which is a totally different approach.
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To find the best methods for you, you need to know yourself a bit. As in:Ā
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- know how you learn the best,
- how your brain works,
- what interest you,
- how much time you want to put into your learning,
- what you want to able to do,…
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Once you think about this, you should have a pretty precise idea of what you are looking for.
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And youāll only need to choose a combinaison of methods or create your own:
- Learn by reading books
- Writing scripts and dialogues
- Watching YouTube videos and repeating
- Getting a teacher
- Listen to French music
- Following an applicationĀ
- Or a method: you can find a bunch of them on Amazon (affiliate link)
- Sentence mining you way around French
- …
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The list is pretty much endless, because anything you can do in English can be done in French šĀ
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Check out the school too.Ā
The Sound of French - A workshop to learn to listen to French
ebook + audio exercices
How can I make sure I'm able to speak French quite quickly ?
Now, for the time part of the questionā¦. I sort of answered already how long it is going to take you. But maybe, youāre not asking exactly that.
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Maybe, thereās one component you want to be able to do straight away, or at least, in the shortest amount of time possible.
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SPEAKING FRENCH.
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So the question you should ask is: How can I make sure Iām able to speak French quite quickly?
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Not: How can I speak French quickly?
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Some methods will tell you, you can speak from DAY 1.
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And yeah, itās true. As long as you can say Bonjour, you can speak French right? (See how everything is a matter of point of view ahah).
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But hey, you probably mean more than that, am I right?
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So, really what you have to do, is select the method that is based the most on SPEAKING straight away.
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Meaning, stepping away as often as possible from grammar to practice.Ā
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And, my personal recommendations for that are:
- Sentence Mining & Chunking (barbaric names for pretty simple concepts really)
- Audio Training
- Online Courses (specific and based on speaking)
- Tutors (tutors, not teachers; thereās a difference)
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Yes, all of those methods are based on speaking or communicating AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
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Because reading about French is not going to make you fluent. Yes, it helps. But really, learning a language is not that different from learning an instrument or a sport.Ā
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You have to do, to be able to do. (You can quote me, for posterity HA).
