Hello there! If you’re reading this, you’re either curious or you want to learn French, and lucky for you, I welcome both. This is my informal, unofficial guide to French. What are my qualifications? All A’s in three years of French, three National French Exam medals, and a constant desire to learn more about this beautiful language. Now, am I a native speaker? Not even close. Am I fluent? Kind of.
But some of you are on YWS way more often than you should be (I see you…) and you might as well make it worthwhile by learning a little something. Even if it’s just something that helps you when you’re writing a very pretty French girl into your novel. (Been there, done that.)
1) Practice practice practice and that is for literally any language you want to learn. If that means just doing Duolingo every day that's fine. Make sure you're having fun though. 2) Immersion is great. My favorite way is to listen to French music (AUTHENTIC) I might list out some artists later, but I'm feeling lazy right now so that's a job for future chem. You can also watch some tv shows in French. 3) Start a language learning journal. Seriously the best thing I've ever done. In fact, most of the stuff I teach people comes straight from my notebook, since in there I used to pretend I was making lesson plans. You can also just write down tips, encouragement, goals. Be as wild and creative or as basic as you so please. My notebook was done entirely in black pen. It doesn't take much. 4) Grammar can either be hell or something mildly annoying. It's all in the mindset. 5) Set specific goals like translating a song or understanding a poem. 6) Vocab will take you far. Quizlet is fine I guess but I like reading through articles and looking up words in a French-English dictionary (online ofc) when I don't understand them. And looking for vocab in areas that you are interested in is always cool.
Overall, learning French self-paced is kinda hard because you have to have discipline. Of course, I would not fully know the experience considering I took class every day for three years, but from learning other languages I can say that self-teaching requires a lot of willpower. You got this!
Well, future Chem, where are the music recs? I love to listen to that =D I remember I started learning French because the English subtitles to Miraculous bothered me so much since it obviously didn't fit the French voices and the show is originally French!
“Are you serious?” “Completely.” “You’re telling me that you'll get to sleep on a king-sized bed while we have to share a tiny room with two bunk beds.” “I want to sleep on top!” “Tommy, you’re not helping.”
Oh I know one Zaz song! We had that in school and I really liked it :3
“Are you serious?” “Completely.” “You’re telling me that you'll get to sleep on a king-sized bed while we have to share a tiny room with two bunk beds.” “I want to sleep on top!” “Tommy, you’re not helping.”
