Your day is already full, you have work and your family, and your friends.. But how to you learn French when you are busy?
You know the drill. If you don’t practise, you don’t learn, and your French will not get anywhere. And you will lose your motivation.
I know. Your life’s sooo busy… There’s so much to do and so little time.. Right?
Now, I’m going to be straight forward with you: if you don’t take time to learn French, you won’t succeed.
It’s crucial that you find ways to implement language learning sessions in your DAILY life.
Yes, I do say DAILY.
Sitting down 1 hour per week with a teacher is great, but you won’t see much improvement from it if you only do that
Now, that being said, it is possible to learn French when you’re busy.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to fit your French learning sessions in your busy life. We are going to talk about passive and active learning and also about habit making.
Allez hop.
Learning French when you're busy relies on ONE principle
Learning a language isn’t done by sitting down three hours a day in front of a book.
There’s much more to it than that.
In fact, you could totally learn French without doing it.
Learning a language efficiently is about :
- Knowing what you want
- Selecting the right method(s) for you to get there
- Getting there (AKA showing up to do the work)
Yeah, I over simplify things a tad. But you get my point.
So, in your case, being a busy person, it’s all about time management.
It’s all about finding out ways to study or practise that don’t require hours on end.
Now, to do that, you have to find windows of 5 to 30 mins in your daily schedule to fit two or three of the activities we’re going to check out together.
Let’s talk about the difference between passive and active learning and why it’s relevant to you
So what do I mean by passive and active learning.?
It’s pretty obvious, passive learning is when you’re not active.
No kidding…
For example, when you are reading a book, or watching a movie, or listening to the radio, you are not active. Yet, you are still learning right?
Active learning is the contrary.
I knooooow
You are actively learning French when you are speaking French, or writing a letter to your pen-pal… There’s some sort of action involved.
Now, if you are struggling to find time to learn French, you are going to be tempted to overuse passive ways to learn languages.
It’s fine, there’s nothing extremely wrong with it, and in fact, I highly recommend beginners to start there. But you’ll find that your learning curve is really slow.
In short, you’ll feel like you’re not making any real progress, and you might be tempted to give up all together.
Don’t.
You just need to tweak your language learning a bit.
You guessed it, you need some active learning activities as well.
They're probably the hardest to implement in a busy life. But they’re so rewarding, it’s definitely worth it.
Active learning is essential to learning a language. You can’t learn French solely by reading or watching tv. Sorry to break this myth.
Although, there’s a way to get much more out of your passive learning activities, so stay tuned until the end to discover how you can improve your French much quicker with passive activities.
So, now let’s take a look at the passive and active learning activities I recommend for busy people.
Passives activities for busy people 🛋
Listenning- Radio, Podcasts, Audio Books,...
There’s a myriad of listening resources on the web.
We’re talking podcast, radio, songs, even audio books.
The trick to fitting listening in your busy life is to listen when you’re doing something else that doesn’t require high focus.
If you’re putting on French music when you’re supposed to write an essay for university or do your taxes, it’s going to be wasted.
But, when you’re cooking, driving, cleaning,.. Activities you’re doing every day (or so I hope), you can (and probably should):
- Put on some French music to get used to the sounds,
- Listen to a podcast to learn some new words or a new skill,
- Listen to that book you’ve always dreamed to read.
You'll find a selection of French music here:
Modern French singers
MUSIC PART 3! Fancy listening to a bit of French music? Do you know the new famous French singers? We are going to talk about: The
Famous French singers – the classics!
MUSIC! Fancy listening to a bit of French music? Do you know the classic famous French singers? We are going to talk about: The classic French
Watching- movies and videos
Shhh, you’re probably watching too much TV anyway. So why not using that time to get in some French?
It’s a popular way to get into a language. And it’s not only beneficial for your language learning, it’s also good for your culture learning.
Now, it might be less passive than listening. But, then you get more out of it too.
It doesn’t have to be a whole movie (but if you are into movies, I have an article on the subject).
It can simply be, watching a YouTube video in French when you are having breakfast in the morning, or right before lunch.
Regarding the subtitles, put them in French as soon as you understand basic sentences, and don’t be afraid to rewind and watch the same scenes several times.
Check out these:
8 TED Talks in French you need to watch 🎤
TED Talks give us inspiration, make us think and… make us learn new languages? Try these 8 TED Talks in French if you are a French learner.
How to use movies to learn French 🎬 + 40 of the best french movies
How to use movies to learn French? It’s a good question. Because, just putting on one of the best French movies is not going to cut it. There’s a certain way to do it.
Reading- Books, Ebooks, Blogs, Guides,...
Yes, reading is still a passive activity. Well, it all depends on your level.
For beginners, it is probably more of an active learning activity. Simply because you’re going to check in the dictionary, trying to make sense (actively).
But for intermediate learners, it is a passive activity. Unless you’re actively looking for patterns in the sentences, or specific vocabulary.
If reading a novel in French tickles your fancy, go and read my article on the best books to learn French depending on your level.
But it doesn’t have to be a novel, it can also be a blog post, an article in a newspaper, or a short story.
Do that before you go to bed at night.
Check out these:
How to read in French
You’ve heard it – reading is one of the four pillars of language learning (alongside speaking, listening and writing).
So you’ve pick up a book. Now it’s time to read it.
Best books to learn French 📚 and my tips on how to read in French 📖
What are the best books to learn French for beginners? the best French books for intermediates? the best French books for advanced? I’m telling you how to read in French.
👉 You should pick one or two (or three) of these passive activities to do daily, and DO THEM! Remember to mix them up to learn even more efficiently.
Also, there’s a way to transform your passive learning activities into active ones, pretty easily. Without having to spend a lot of time on it, so stay tune until the end for my best tip.
Active activities for busy people 🤾♀️
Writing
Yes, practising can also be something you do when you write. So find yourself someone to send emails to, or to chat with on the web, or even send letters if you’re old school.
If you struggle to find someone, you can also just start a journal or a blog. In it, you can write about :
- What you did during the day
- Your job (if you’re learning business French)
- Things you’d like to do
- Your opinions
- Anything you want really.
Check out the Story workshop for that, it’s ideal.
Don’t go and write a novel (unless it’s your thing). A few sentences should suffise if you are a beginner. A bit more if you’re more advanced.
Again, you have to transform this into a habit to make it work (more on that later) so pick a moment of your day when you can write a few sentences.
WORKSHOP - Write a story in French
Learn to read and write stories in French
Speaking
Speaking is the most powerful of activities you can take everyday to make your French better.
I assume you’re learning French to speak it some day right? Well breaking news: to speak French you have to.. speak it.
I know it can be scary, but the more you’ll do it the easier it will become. Dive in my friend.
Get yourself a teacher to whom you can speak once or twice a week, and maybe a fellow French learner to have coffee with sometimes.
Speaking is tricker to do every day unless you live with someone speaking French or you can call someone else.
But try to implement more speaking in your weekly activities. It might be the most time consuming but it’s important. And if you are busy, you’re probably looking for very efficient activities right? 😉
Repeating
This is the trick to make your passive learning activities be more active.
Repeating what you hear :
- You’re listening to music? Sing along.
- Listening to a podcast? Mimic the words that come back often.
- Watching a movie? Act it up, copy the accents and intonations, exaggerate it.
- Reading? Read aloud.
Become a parrot.
It will help your accent, your understanding of French phrases’s structures, your pronunciation, and your vocabulary… (because it will make the vocabulary you encounter more memorable).
Don’t be afraid to be wrong, or to look ridiculous.
You should pick at least one of these active activities to do DAILY. As the passive ones, you should rotate them according to your goals.
You should pick at least one of these active activities to do DAILY. As the passive ones, you should rotate them according to your goals.How to fit all of that into your busy schedule.
You simply need a system, so that your practise becomes a habit.
For example (these are examples, create your own schedule around your downtimes and what you want to learn) :
EXAMPLE 1 (45 mins per day)
- When you’re having breakfast, you are watching a YouTube video in French or using your favourite application to learn French. (5/10 mins)
- On the way back from work, it’s karaoke time in French. (10/20 mins)
- Back at home, you chat online in French (if you want websites, check this article) -> try to use the words you’ve learned during the day here. (30 mins)
EXAMPLE 2 (35 mins per day)
- While you go to work, you are listening to a podcast, and repeating the words you are hearing. (Or you can use one of my audio trainings). (20 mins)
- After dinner, it’s time to read an ebook or a blog post in French or watch a movie. (10 mins)
- Right before bed, you are writing an entry into your journal about what you did today. (5/15 mins)
- From time to time, you are having coffee with a French native or someone who speaks French (30 mins/1h)
2 thoughts on “Finding the time to learn French ⏰ when you’re busy 🐇”
thanks , it’s so usufel article .
My pleasure Selma 😉