How to become fluent in French?

“With languages, you are at home anywhere.” – Edward De Waal

When you learn a new language, one of the objectives is, for sure, to be able to speak it fluently and with no accent. However, what is the secret ? There is no secret, in fact.... No magic tool or application that will, in a very short time, make you speak French like a native person. The most effective tools are : a good teacher, a good textbook and your motivation to learn French.

A good textbook is very important! It will allow you to structure your work on the French language. If you are not an experienced language learner, you may be lost in a multitude of French materials that you can find on Internet. So, the textbook will easily help you to follow a clear learning plan. Nevertheless, you should not think that the time to speak French will come only when you’ve learnt a lot of grammar, vocabulary, etc. Most textbooks will teach you a basic vocabulary, greetings and you can already practice them alone or with your French tutor.

Speak French as soon as possible. At FrenchTutorAndExams.com, we will make you speak no matter what French level you have. By participating in conversations, the language quickly becomes something alive in your mind and even if you speak with mistakes, it’s okay… because it is part of the learning process. You should know that there is almost no possibility to avoid making mistakes in the beginning. The most important thing is just not being blocked by them and practice your speaking skills whenever you have the chance. Don’t be afraid. Your every little progress in speaking will make you feel more and more confident !

You should not be stressed and blocked while speaking if you don’t yet pronounce French perfectly

Learn French with a teacher. The process by which we learn our native language differs from that by which we learn a new and foreign language. As it’s a far more sophisticated process, having a good teacher will help you to make a real progress. When you learn French as a foreign language - sometimes, you are not able to identify your personal strengths and weaknesses yourself. A French teacher will make useful corrections and simplify some difficult grammatical constructions. In fact, having someone explain difficult concepts of the language will save your time and will not discourage you from further learning. Especially, with the professional help of a teacher, you should exercise your pronunciation, in a right way. Thus, it will be always better to study French with a native speaker, even if it’s the teacher’s personality and their experience that play the most important role altog jether. If you spend a sufficient amount of time on this, your French speech will be beautiful. Otherwise, this beautiful language will sound incorrect and awkward. That may be a reason, later on, for not being able to speak French fluently or being stressed at speaking French.

 

Spend your time on learning French.You have to identify your objectives in learning French and dedicate your personal time in order to achieve your goal. This doesn’t mean that you should do just reading or just repeating basic phrases, but rather having a complex approach. As a matter of fact, in libraries and in bookshops, you will find simplified books of French authors and can read them even if your French level is not advanced. And certainly, in our digital era it has become so easy to study a language online because you can find a multitude of materials on Internet. To become fluent in the language, you should spend a sufficient amount of time on video and audio materials. And when you are really motivated you will not notice how the time is passing by...

Pay attention to your pronunciation Pronunciation is the most challenging aspect in French language and certainly, it influences your speaking a lot. Please, pay attention to it from the very beginning, because your French skills, in general, will depend so much on a good pronunciation. A lot of French sounds don’t exist in other languages: the French “r” and nasal sounds are the most difficult ones and you will certainly do special exercises in order to master these sounds. And if you make an effort and if you listen with a good ear to what you are saying and then correct yourself, you will achieve good results! You have to know that your pronunciation will be improved with time and you should not be stressed and blocked while speaking if you don’t yet pronounce French perfectly. French pronunciation is, for sure, an easier thing for people having a musical ear. Because good hearing skills allow you to recognize and to copy a sound you have just heard. And when you learning French through popular songs, as we do during our classes, it can be a useful and a fun thing to do if you love music. We would strongly recommend every student to read actively, too. Certainly, during our French classes, we pay a lot of attention to pronunciation in order to allow you to speak almost like a native.

Understand what kind of language learner you are.Two different people don’t learn a language in the exact same way. Children don’t learn languages like adults. Some people are more keen on speaking while others - on writing and reading. Also, the pace of learning is so individual. Someone will have to spend a lot of time on learning a new vocabulary, while another will retain words easily and with minimal effort. It depends on student’s temperament, on memory skills, on the amount of free time a student has at his disposal. Some students are shy and afraid to make mistakes, especially, while speaking. Your French tutor should figure out what kind of language learner you are in order to make the learning process easy for you. If grammar is the hardest thing for you, you should certainly spend more time on it - together with the teacher as well as on your own... And yes, learning French will require some time-management skills like any other language. :-)

But, after all, why should you learn French ? French is an international language and the most-learned language, after English. French Arts and literature, French cinema are so famous worldwide that the French can be considered as a language of one of the greatest cultures in the world. The better you speak French, the more French artworks you will be able to understand and decipher and also - with fluency in this language, you’ll have great opportunities to study, to work, to do business - not only in France but in all francophone countries. Definitely, having good skills in French is useful if you plan travelling even if many people will understand when you’ll say something in English. You should know that, in general, French people prefer it when foreigners speak their language and will be delighted if you can communicate with them in French!

Maybe you already know - France is the most popular tourist destination in the world... ! And some time ago, before English, French was the international language. As soon as you speak good French, you can easily visit not only big localities but even little villages in the middle France where people will be able to speak only in French. Or, maybe, you are interested by another French-speaking country: Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and Monaco - the francophone world is large and includes 29 countries.

French is not an easy nor a very hard language to learn ! Please, don’t forget that French :

• is a Latin language and have much in common with Spanish and Italian
• is an Indo-European language like English. 29% of English words come from French ! which means that if you speak English, you already know a lot of French words without realizing it.
• has no cases, unlike German, Russian or Lithuanian.

Whenever you get frustrated with French, remember these facts. Anyhow, French sounds so beautiful and if you pronounce it “comme il faut”, you will enjoy every time you speak this language.

I hope that these ideas will help you to learn French.

Alice