Tips And Benefits for Learning French Fast
Learning a language can be a daunting process, especially if you are starting from the beginning. You will definitely ask yourself some questions, such as how many words do I need to know to learn French fluently? However, if you follow some of our simple tips, it will not only make learning French a lot easier, but also save yourself some valuable time!
Talk to Friends and Locals!
The best way to practice your speaking is to converse with a French friend. Don’t be daunted by the prospect however! You will know and remember more vocabularly than you think. Not only are many French words shared with English, but according to Pareto's Principle, 20% of words are used 80% of the time! Having a strong grasp of basic vocabularly is so important, and will get you further in conversation than you think. Some of the most commonly used vocabularly can be found in our blog.
It is also important to remember that French natives will greatly appreciate your efforts to converse with them in their language. One of the hardest parts of learning a language is not knowing where you went wrong, and having a language partner who corrects you is the perfect cure to this. Don't be afraid to ask where you went wrong, or for missing vocabularly (if their English is good enough!). Learning 'on-the-go' is a great way to contextualize new words, and will help you remember them for future.
However, if you don’t have any French friends, don't worry! There are plenty of places you can find a language partner online. In exchange for helping them with their English (or other language), you can improve you French in return. As mentioned above, it is important that you get them to correct you, and you speak without fear of mistaking mistakes. You French language skills will improve faster the more you practice.
Travelling to France
If you are lucky enough to travel to France, use your language skills at every opportunity. Once again making a mistake is a part of your language learning journey! Go to the pâtisserie and place your order with confidence! Below are some essential phrases to take with you to France:
- Je ne comprends pas - I don't understand
- Que veut dire ça? - What does that mean?
- C'est combien? - How much is it?
- La carte/le menu, s’il vous plaît - The menu please
- Je voudrais parler français - I would like to speak French
- Comment dit-on __ en français? - How do you say __ in French?
If you travel with these in your pocket, it will make practising your French in France so much easier! Be sure to listen to all our lesson audio to hear native pronounciation of these words. Learning vocabularly is pointless without understanding how to pronounce the words properly!
If you really want to impress your French friends, you can even use some slang! Here is 4 of our favourite slang phrases:
- C’est nul - that sucks
- Perdre la tête - to lose one’s head
- C’est n’importe quoi - it’s nonsense
- Arrête de te la péter - stop showing off
You can find our more about the benefits and joy of learning French slang in our blog.
Little-and-Often Study
Don’t fall into the trap of long, arduous study sessions. It will greatly put you off developing your French language skills, and quickly make learning a chore. It is the whole reason why we launched Newsdle, and our partner platform The Chairman’s Bao! Textbooks often follow repetitive topics and themes, and we wanted something current and interesting to study.
Studying little-and-often will also keep things fresh in your mind. Try studying 15 - 30 minutes a day. It might not seem like enough, but you can easily pick up a few new words of understand a grammar structure in that time. You can even use that time to go over what you did yesterday. This will really help you drum it into your head.
Studying a language like this is also more realistic. We all lead very busy lives, why not fit in learning a language around you? Have a 20 minute bus ride to a friend's house? Pull up a lesson on our mobile application, listen to the audio and then test yourself with our comprehension questions! Studying has never been easier, so make the most of it!
Interesting Topics
Find a topic you are interested in using our in-built search function and learn the language around it! Learning a language will no longer seem like a chore if you learn language consistent with what you wish to gain from learning French.
Think about where you want to use your French language skills. Do you want to become a chef? An artist? Or simply just travel. It is so important to contextualize your study, and learning relevant vocabularly (to you) will be much more existing than studying a topic that does not bother you!
A great way to do this is by looking at the keywords of every lesson we publish. At the bottom of each lesson, you can see the keywords, grammar, idioms and proper nouns lifted directly from the lesson text! Learning the words relevant to your reasons for learning French will make the journey far more enjoyable!
You can find a small sample of our topics below, and there will always be something relevant for you to learn:
- Sport
- Science
- World Affairs
- Culture
- History
- Nature
- Environment
- Technology
- Business
- Crime
- Society
- Pop Culture
- Food
- Art
- Health
- Language
- Politics
Make Use of Resources
Revising vocabulary is one of the most painful things about learning French. However, with the advancement of digital technology, you have a wealth of resources in your pocket or at your fingertips to use at your convenience! Make the most out of our word hub, and practice vocabulary whenever you have a free 10 minutes, instead of scrolling through Instagram! These little study sessions will soon add up, and you will notice your French improve at a far quicker rate! As mentioned above, you can also listen to native spoken audio in every one of our lessons, so you have no excuse not to practice yourself!
You can also refer to our constantly updating blog posts for tips and tricks to learning languages, as well as interest points in each language. Check in daily and you can benefit from our always updated content, and find relevant news to what is being dicussed in the bars and cafes across the world!
Immerse Yourself
Even if you are not able to travel to France, you are now able to fully immerse yourself online. Watch French Netflix shows, listen to French music and watch French movies! These are all fun ways to develop your French skills by acquiring new vocabulary and phrases, as well as listening to French in context. It’s also great for picking up French slang, which you can show off to your native French speaking friends!
When studying in these more conventionally "fun" ways, it is important to take them just as seriously as you were if studying for a test! Here are some quick tips for learning French through music, movies and Netflix:
- Choose your goal, what do you want to get from the studying session?
- Pause, rewind and replay all the media you consume, to ensure you don't miss anything.
- Use the audio description feature, where available. This is great for learning adjectives.
- Get your notebook out! Record everything.
- Study at your pace. Don't dive straight into political dramas. Try cartoons if just starting out!
Don’t be Hard on Yourself
Take your time! Rome (or Paris in this case) wasn’t built in a day. It can be very easy to forget how far you are along on your journey. Celebrate every milestone, whether it is just having a quick conversation with someone at a bus stop in French, or understanding a French song in its entirety, pat yourself on the back! It’s not easy and taking the first step on your journey to fluency is always the hardest. Even referring to your old notebooks is a great way to see how far you have come!
We hope you have found all these tips for learning French useful, and can apply them to your own studying sessions. Why not discover how you can use Newsdle to help you learn French?
