Amazing Victoria! I just trained a student to pass the B1 with success, it is no small feat! Bonne chance for the studies and un gros merde pour l'exam ;)
Wow, I just started my Substack journey and found your post! I was literally just thinking about how to enjoy learning French. Thanks, and happy to connect!
What a timely post! I’m relearning French because I was inspired by @henryjewelll on Instagram. I hired a tutor on @preply named Gil. He’s turned out to be a great gift because he has me looking at the world in a different way given our age differences. But I never want to have to explain my job to him in French again! That was hard. 😂
On the subject of learning to read French, I found a great 19th century textbook of French on Internet Archive which helped me quite a bit in my French studies, which I introduced and reviewed in this essay.
That's a great question, in general I would say the grammar(genders, conjugation..) and pronunciation, but it also depends on the language goals. I have some students learning French without learning the grammar, they still do learn it in a way but not consciously. French also has rules, once you know them it's easier, I'm learning Danish and it sometimes feel like there's no rules , especially for pronunciation 😅🤯
And in every learner journey, there's come a plateau, around level B1, where they know the grammar, can read and write but speaking is tricky, because it's daring. Which is why working on pronunciation can be of great help to become more confident while talking French.
Yes, I used to be quite fluent in Spanish but focused on English a lifetime ago, so now my Spanish is not lost, but I can't just switch it on and have a conversation. It's rusty, it would take some immersion for it to come back. What I do is I would read some Spanish poetry (Viggo Mortensen wrote some I'm really enjoying at the moment) and watch Spanish TV shows. 😀
Great advice! I love languages and I'm currently working on my French. What I do a lot is to talk to ChatGPT. I give it a prompt with my level and the topic I want to practiced and ask it to talk to me, correct my grammar and my pronunciation. It works for me! :)
I'm not that familiar with the Pimsleur method, thanks for mentioning it, there's a lot of linguistic method out there, maybe some learners will resonate with that one :)
Yes such a brilliant podcast! When I couldn't practice English in person, I was also talking to myself and having imaginary conversation 🙃 Still count as practice 😁
What an exceptionally helpful post, merci beaucoup!
Thanks a lot, I'm really happy you liked it! :)
Great timing as I'm going to be taking the DELF B2 exam in less than a month!
Amazing Victoria! I just trained a student to pass the B1 with success, it is no small feat! Bonne chance for the studies and un gros merde pour l'exam ;)
Wow, I just started my Substack journey and found your post! I was literally just thinking about how to enjoy learning French. Thanks, and happy to connect!
Bonjour & welcome to Substcack!
What a timely post! I’m relearning French because I was inspired by @henryjewelll on Instagram. I hired a tutor on @preply named Gil. He’s turned out to be a great gift because he has me looking at the world in a different way given our age differences. But I never want to have to explain my job to him in French again! That was hard. 😂
Hi Lisa! So happy to hear you've started your french journey! Getting a tutor is a great way to learn, especially when it comes to live interaction :)
On the subject of learning to read French, I found a great 19th century textbook of French on Internet Archive which helped me quite a bit in my French studies, which I introduced and reviewed in this essay.
https://jlmc12.substack.com/p/language-learning-through-time-part?r=e0m1f
Nice! Thanks for sharing!
Great piece. Just out of curiosity, what’s the hardest thing when you learn french as an english speaker?
That's a great question, in general I would say the grammar(genders, conjugation..) and pronunciation, but it also depends on the language goals. I have some students learning French without learning the grammar, they still do learn it in a way but not consciously. French also has rules, once you know them it's easier, I'm learning Danish and it sometimes feel like there's no rules , especially for pronunciation 😅🤯
And in every learner journey, there's come a plateau, around level B1, where they know the grammar, can read and write but speaking is tricky, because it's daring. Which is why working on pronunciation can be of great help to become more confident while talking French.
This is actually so helpful. I love this language but when I don’t use it I lose it, you know?
Yes, I used to be quite fluent in Spanish but focused on English a lifetime ago, so now my Spanish is not lost, but I can't just switch it on and have a conversation. It's rusty, it would take some immersion for it to come back. What I do is I would read some Spanish poetry (Viggo Mortensen wrote some I'm really enjoying at the moment) and watch Spanish TV shows. 😀
from my experience - the best thing is diving deep into the culture and everyday conversation, be it only “ça va? ça va!“
Couldn't agree more 👏
Merci for the great post! Formidable (one of my favourite French words)!
Merci pour votre lecture 😀 You know the song Formidable by Stromae? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_xH7noaqTA
I didn’t…Wow - loved it, what a video!
So glad I shared and really happy you like it! It's a great song and Stromae is a musical genius! https://frenchenpoesie.substack.com/p/when-music-is-poetry-3-french-speaking
Great advice! I love languages and I'm currently working on my French. What I do a lot is to talk to ChatGPT. I give it a prompt with my level and the topic I want to practiced and ask it to talk to me, correct my grammar and my pronunciation. It works for me! :)
Indeed that's a great new tool too! Some of my students use it as well. Also helped them with delf preparation!
Not recommending Pimsleur?
I'm not that familiar with the Pimsleur method, thanks for mentioning it, there's a lot of linguistic method out there, maybe some learners will resonate with that one :)
I always enjoy French I read it quite well and understand it - kind of- I just don't have any French-speaking friends to practice speaking it.
The Coffee break French podcast is a lot of fun I repeat things and pretend I'm fluent
Yes such a brilliant podcast! When I couldn't practice English in person, I was also talking to myself and having imaginary conversation 🙃 Still count as practice 😁
You can find someone to practice with for free on conversationexchange.com
How nice! Does it work like Tandem?
seeing this before my french exam(is this a sign??)
Haha it must certainly is 😄 and like we say in French: ‘Merde’ for your exam!
hi !! i’m actually french and i’m here for anything if needed haha !
btw, i have a youtube channel with vlogs where i’m speaking french and you can add english subtitles :) that could be a great thing to learn!
here’s the link!
https://youtube.com/@laliemcl?si=N_nL_EVMMC2biYl0