French is one of the most widely spoken languages across the world. Learning French is not just useful if you want to work, live or travel in Francophone countries, but it will also allow you to enjoy the wonderful food, history, culture, and arts of France, not to forget French fashion and entertainment.
Every language needs a different learning approach. As French has the same Latin script as English, it is easy to read and write, even for beginners. But a few tips to learn French will make the journey easier.
1. Focus on all four language competencies
Being able to communicate in a particular language is based on your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. If you can develop these four competencies well, you will quickly be able to use French wherever required. Learning a language must not be restricted to reading and writing, for it is oral communication that is of importance when you are working, studying, or living in French-speaking countries or interacting with French-speaking people.
These four language competencies can be developed using different mediums. Giving equal time and attention to each part one after another will help you gain wholesome language capabilities.
2. Focus on conversational French
Very often, we give more attention to doing grammar exclusively. Although grammar is crucial to language, it is best to study it in various contexts to understand construction as well as usage. Learning through conversation will help you think quickly, form better sentences, and respond appropriately. Writing emails, filling administrative forms, ordering food in restaurants, or asking for directions are actions that you will most likely need to do in French, if you are living, working or studying in a French environment. So emphasizing contextual grammar while doing oral practice is one of the most important tips to learn French.
3. Use multimedia
Why do we still remember nursery rhymes after so many years? Why are we able to use idioms and expressions from a language at the right time and place? Our audio and visual memory is powerful. This helps us understand and retain vocabulary or sentence structures easily and quickly. Listening to French songs, watching French television or movies, and conversational videos is an excellent way of improving your word pool, remembering vocabulary and understanding usage according to context. Documentaries are another interesting way of discovering the country and studying French through medium-paced audio commentaries. Using multimedia makes studying French more exciting and informative at the same time.
4. Read everyday
Most of the language that you speak today stems from listening and reading rather than memorizing or writing. Reading not only improves your vocabulary but also improves sentence formation and the use of idioms, phrases, and colloquial expressions. The most significant benefit of regular reading is teaching you to think in your target language. As a beginner, you are bound to think in your native language and then translate everything to French before speaking or writing it. As you read more, and consistently, you train your brain to think in the target language, vastly reducing the time taken to comprehend and build appropriate responses. This is key while communicating with natives or fluent speakers of the language.
5. Practice with others
Language cannot be studied in isolation. Communication is a two-way process, and involving more than one interlocutor in your learning process will help you achieve results faster. While self-study is essential, it is necessary to practice the language with your friends, teachers, or colleagues who speak the language. An opportunity to interact with natives can give students a better grasp of local accents, speed, and dialects. As long as you keep practicing and conversing in French, you can improve your language.
All these tips to learn French will make the learning experience interesting and easy, but staying in touch with the language on a daily basis is of utmost importance. A break from studying and revising, even for a few days, will put you back a few steps, needing you to start over. So, make the most of these tips and your time so that you can learn and experience one of the most beautiful romance languages in the world. Signup here today to attend a 30 minutes trial class from the comfort of your home.