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Whether you’re a teenage novice, adult learner or want your whole family to learn French in France then here are our top tips for the best way to learn French:
To summarise, as per our first language, the best way to learn French is the following order:
You’re going to invest a lot of time & money looking for the best French school in France so how do you find the right one for you?
It’s an important question: Should I learn French in Paris? One of the most asked questions that deserves some time to consider & look beyond the clichés but our simple answer is: not full-time.
Why not?
Simply because language learning cannot be rushed & if you’re stressed because the Paris waiter is impatient with you (did you see how many tables they serve?) then your brain will “lock up”. It’s the same reason that lots of us get anxious as soon as the teacher tells us that we will have to read the next paragraph from the French lesson. As the great polyglot linguist Michel Thomas said: “All stress inhibits true & effective learning.”
Does XPF have French lessons in Paris?
Yes but not in a language school or classroom. You will spend the day moving between locations (museum, metro/train stations, cafés); maximising your time in and around Paris immersed in real-world activities. Example day for our “Art Theme”:
Learning French on-line has grown exponentially since French apps burst onto our smartphones & Covid forced us to stay home or avoid crowded areas. App stores & online resources like Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook & TikTok etc. have masses of French videos, vocabulary, grammar & flashcard apps to keep you busy for “free”. However, good, structured content is worth paying for so checkout the services from Babbel, Duolingo, FluentU, iTalki, Memrise, Pimsleur, Preply if you prefer to learn French alone.
Do they help you learn new words, phrases & grammar? Absolutely.
Do we retain more conversational French & create more long lasting memories* when we travel to France & immerse ourselves in physical activities that interest us? Absolutely.
This is why, with XPF, when you have returned home you will review, on-line with your XPF guide, the photos & videos from your immersions together with the new vocabulary you were immersed in.
*Scientists can measure this ability to create new neurons (neuroplasticity) and we prove this every time we get a song stuck in our head (earworm); or hear a song that recalls a special memory with someone or in someplace.
You don’t need to know the science or read the latest linguistic research to benefit from our immersions but here’s a summary from Professor Stephen Krashen:
“The solution to our problems in language teaching lies not in expensive equipment, exotic methods, sophisticated linguistic analyses, or new laboratories, but in full utilization of what we already have, speakers of the languages using them for real communication. I will also conclude that the best methods might also be the most pleasant, and that, strange as it seems, language acquisition occurs when language is used for what it was designed for, communication.”
This is how we all learn our mother language; the brain creates an association of ideas with the sounds and images from the outside world. In addition, Sheltered Subject Matter Teaching (SSMT), focusses on what interests you, not the grammar rules &, when combined with stimulating activities, this results in more comprehensible input and natural language acquisition.
To summarise, as per our first language, the best way to learn French is the following order:
For those that want to delve deeper into the theory, science & research of second language acquisition we have collated a short introduction with some videos & links here.
Of course – we discover new words all the time. Just don’t get fixated on exact literal translations all the time because it will slow you down and, also, how you write English is not how you will speak in French. For example the French phrase for asking “What is it?” is “Qu’est-ce que c’est….”
My logical brain would be trying to translate word by word & I would get into my head that it meant: “What is that is?”
Even worse, I couldn’t even say the phrase because the sequence of letters shocked my eyes & my English tongue had no idea how to pronounce it easily. (But what a Scrabble hand!) The solution only arrived when I closed my eyes & listened to the phrase over & over before then using the phrase in daily life. At first I was trying to translate EVERYTHING instead of allowing my brain to hear new sounds & create new words; what the scientists refer to as neuroplasticity.
When your brain creates these new French words & phrase structures it will eventually “hear French” so that it will become unnatural for you to ask for more butter by saying:
“Puis-je avoir beurre” instead of the correct:
“Puis-je avoir du beurre“.
An example of this working in English is: “I like to eat A apple for breakfast but I don’t like to eat too MUCH of them each day.” Your ear tells you that that is not the right way to say it even if you don’t know the grammar rule; the same applies for French!