How to relearn French?
February 17, 2023 11:24 AM Subscribe
I was nearly fluent in French when I graduated high school almost 20 years ago. I want to relearn French without really leaving my house or interacting in person with others. How should I do it?
Inspired by yesterday’s question about learning Spanish, please help me develop a learning plan for relearning French.
I’m an Anglophone from an English-speaking region and I did all of my schooling in (Canadian) French from grades 7-12. When I graduated high school, I was basically fluent. I haven’t really used it at all in the intervening decades.
Today, I can maybe understand 50% of the written French I read, maybe 25% of the oral French I hear, and I am really weak at speaking it and have a poor vocabulary (and very low confidence in my spoken French). But I do know that French fluency is buried in my brain somewhere and I can reignite it with effort!
I have professional reasons for refreshing my French language skills and will likely be interacting with Francophone colleagues about 3-4 months from now. I don’t have access to in-person French practice with native or fluent speakers in the short term, nor do I have access to any sort of immersive experience like travel to French regions.
I’m happy to cobble together resources like apps, library books, podcasts, radio, or TV shows. I just don’t know where to start!
How should I approach this?
Inspired by yesterday’s question about learning Spanish, please help me develop a learning plan for relearning French.
I’m an Anglophone from an English-speaking region and I did all of my schooling in (Canadian) French from grades 7-12. When I graduated high school, I was basically fluent. I haven’t really used it at all in the intervening decades.
Today, I can maybe understand 50% of the written French I read, maybe 25% of the oral French I hear, and I am really weak at speaking it and have a poor vocabulary (and very low confidence in my spoken French). But I do know that French fluency is buried in my brain somewhere and I can reignite it with effort!
I have professional reasons for refreshing my French language skills and will likely be interacting with Francophone colleagues about 3-4 months from now. I don’t have access to in-person French practice with native or fluent speakers in the short term, nor do I have access to any sort of immersive experience like travel to French regions.
I’m happy to cobble together resources like apps, library books, podcasts, radio, or TV shows. I just don’t know where to start!
How should I approach this?
Best answer: If you're still Canadian: cbc radio Canada made a "learn English/learn French" app called Mauril which by all accounts is not for beginners! Since you're not a beginner, it might be a great tool in your kit! A couple of my friends grew up in French Immersion, and have said they like it for boosting their French.
There is a podcast called "news in slow French"
I have a plugin on my browser that replaces random words in every website with Portuguese words. It's called Toucan. I'm sure they have French!
posted by euphoria066 at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
There is a podcast called "news in slow French"
I have a plugin on my browser that replaces random words in every website with Portuguese words. It's called Toucan. I'm sure they have French!
posted by euphoria066 at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I am really weak at speaking it and have a poor vocabulary (and very low confidence in my spoken French)
If improving your speaking is a priority (which I'll guess it is based on interactions with Francophone colleagues and your professional motivations) you'll want to practice speaking as much as you can.
If you're willing to spend some money, I'd recommend using italki or some other similar platform to get some 1:1 practice speaking. (I have no professional connection, I've just used it and had a positive experience.)
If you have a budget but it's tight, in your situation you should be fine with a "community tutor" (vs the "professional teachers" who are typically more expensive) -- given you're not starting from scratch you don't necessarily need an extremely organized pedagogical program, but just sheer conversational practice.
You can also filter teachers/tutors by where they come from (e.g. Canada, France, whatever) which is helpful if you want exposure to particular varieties or accents.
posted by andrewesque at 11:41 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
If improving your speaking is a priority (which I'll guess it is based on interactions with Francophone colleagues and your professional motivations) you'll want to practice speaking as much as you can.
If you're willing to spend some money, I'd recommend using italki or some other similar platform to get some 1:1 practice speaking. (I have no professional connection, I've just used it and had a positive experience.)
If you have a budget but it's tight, in your situation you should be fine with a "community tutor" (vs the "professional teachers" who are typically more expensive) -- given you're not starting from scratch you don't necessarily need an extremely organized pedagogical program, but just sheer conversational practice.
You can also filter teachers/tutors by where they come from (e.g. Canada, France, whatever) which is helpful if you want exposure to particular varieties or accents.
posted by andrewesque at 11:41 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Our local public library offers a wealth of free services accessible by your library card. One of them is Mango Languages. I've tried other apps; DuoLinguo just didn't really click for me, but I am enjoying Mango, and my 30-years-ago high school Spanish is coming back nicely. Perhaps there are similar options for you?
posted by xedrik at 11:45 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 11:45 AM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I can recommend two French shows on Netflix - Call My Agent and The Parisian Agency. They are both fun and present French in a business context, although I wouldn't do business like Call My Agent. :)
I had to reignite my french brain and my plan went sort of like this:
- I started reading in French for a short time and then longer each day
- I turned my car radio to Radio Canada
- I started watching French shows in French - muuuuch better than dubbed/animated
- I started speaking French where possible
I think you would want to add one of those discussion groups.
Alliance Française in Toronto would be my go-to for classes etc. and I see they have remote options - not sure how well they have made the leap to online but it might be worth checking out.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:46 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I had to reignite my french brain and my plan went sort of like this:
- I started reading in French for a short time and then longer each day
- I turned my car radio to Radio Canada
- I started watching French shows in French - muuuuch better than dubbed/animated
- I started speaking French where possible
I think you would want to add one of those discussion groups.
Alliance Française in Toronto would be my go-to for classes etc. and I see they have remote options - not sure how well they have made the leap to online but it might be worth checking out.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:46 AM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Reading and listening - This thread is a good resource for film and TV for those with intermediate level French. I've also found the Coffee Break French Podcast (in particular, the Magazine series) to be pretty good at providing just the right balance of immersion and learning. The podcast is free, with additional course material available for a fee.
Speaking and writing - I've improved in this the most by having a one hour lesson from an online tutor every week, in which we only speak French. We cover vocabulary and grammar. My tutor also gives me homework every week, in which she provides a written prompt that we correct together at the next lesson. As mentioned above, italki.com is a good resource for finding tutors.
posted by rhythm and booze at 11:47 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Speaking and writing - I've improved in this the most by having a one hour lesson from an online tutor every week, in which we only speak French. We cover vocabulary and grammar. My tutor also gives me homework every week, in which she provides a written prompt that we correct together at the next lesson. As mentioned above, italki.com is a good resource for finding tutors.
posted by rhythm and booze at 11:47 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
I used the Duolingo app to brush up a bit on my high school French before my first trip to Paris - it worked surprisingly well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:55 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:55 AM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Re: listening, RFI has a few different podcasts in simplified French for this purpose. They're kind of aimed at intermediate-level speakers:
Apprendre le français en écoutant: Des fictions, des reportages, des émissions, pour se familiariser avec la langue française en immersion sonore.
I subscribe to Le journal en français facile -- it's a 10-minute news roundup that comes out daily. If you're generally aware of the big global headlines of the day, plus some top news from France in particular, you'll have a good frame of reference for what they're reporting.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:57 AM on February 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
Apprendre le français en écoutant: Des fictions, des reportages, des émissions, pour se familiariser avec la langue française en immersion sonore.
I subscribe to Le journal en français facile -- it's a 10-minute news roundup that comes out daily. If you're generally aware of the big global headlines of the day, plus some top news from France in particular, you'll have a good frame of reference for what they're reporting.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:57 AM on February 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
I think this is what Duolingo is really good for. Duolingo gets criticized for not explaining grammar well, but if you're not starting from zero, that's not a problem. It might actually help. At the very least, it should get you to a point where you can be conversational.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:13 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by kevinbelt at 12:13 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm an American living in Quebec who has gone from zero to awkward-but-fluent French over the course of about 4 years. One thing that has been really helpful for me is playing Radio-Canada or other French Canadian radio in the background as much as possible. Even if I'm not actively listening, the intonation and vocabulary works its way into my subconscious.
But the only real way to get better at speaking is to speak, so you'll want to find ways to do that as well. You could perhaps start by reading books and news articles aloud. That won't help with your thinking-on-the-spot recall skills, but it'll help get your mouth and vocal cords acclimated to the language again. Bonne chance!
posted by mekily at 12:15 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
But the only real way to get better at speaking is to speak, so you'll want to find ways to do that as well. You could perhaps start by reading books and news articles aloud. That won't help with your thinking-on-the-spot recall skills, but it'll help get your mouth and vocal cords acclimated to the language again. Bonne chance!
posted by mekily at 12:15 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: There's a big difference between fluency as judged by your comprehension (you easily understand what is written and being said) and verbal fluency (where you can actively and with little effort access the appropriate words to convey your message) and it sounds like what you are looking for is verbal fluency.
Speaking as a sometimes mostly fluent person, the apps and TV shows and such are going to help a lot with unlocking the existing French in your brain, but they are too passive for it to transition into being an active skill that you can use so you can speak French with ease. They will definitely help the way the language sounds as and feels "right" it gets pieced together in your head, but there will be a wall - and in fact several walls - where you reach as far as you can get on your own. If you were once good at French, you're going to hit those walls pretty quickly with the passive forms of learning.
Once you hit that point, what you really need is one on one speaking practice - especially given your short timeframe; I'd limit yourself to one month of preparatory passive work and then just jump into one-on-one speaking practice so that you have any hope of unlocking what you have to work with by the time you need to interact with francophone colleagues, because it will likely be a slog. Especially given the changes to the way things are done during the pandemic, you should be able to easily find someone who you can pay to do one on one French speaking tutoring via a video chat platform. You can check kijiji or FB Marketplace and the link, but there may also be a local Alliance Française that maintains a list of French tutors.
posted by urbanlenny at 12:48 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Speaking as a sometimes mostly fluent person, the apps and TV shows and such are going to help a lot with unlocking the existing French in your brain, but they are too passive for it to transition into being an active skill that you can use so you can speak French with ease. They will definitely help the way the language sounds as and feels "right" it gets pieced together in your head, but there will be a wall - and in fact several walls - where you reach as far as you can get on your own. If you were once good at French, you're going to hit those walls pretty quickly with the passive forms of learning.
Once you hit that point, what you really need is one on one speaking practice - especially given your short timeframe; I'd limit yourself to one month of preparatory passive work and then just jump into one-on-one speaking practice so that you have any hope of unlocking what you have to work with by the time you need to interact with francophone colleagues, because it will likely be a slog. Especially given the changes to the way things are done during the pandemic, you should be able to easily find someone who you can pay to do one on one French speaking tutoring via a video chat platform. You can check kijiji or FB Marketplace and the link, but there may also be a local Alliance Française that maintains a list of French tutors.
posted by urbanlenny at 12:48 PM on February 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've been doing exactly the same thing - relearning my dormant high school French 20 years later - for the past year. I use Duolingo every day and listen to Le journal en français facile podcast Mandolin Conspiracy mentioned. I also really like Little Talk in Slow French, in which the podcast host reviews a different conversational topic each week with just enough explanatory English. The Duolingo French podcast is great, too. I also follow a few French news sites on Twitter.
I've found the key is to do some combination of these every single day. I often listen to a podcast while on my morning walk, then read the transcript and jot down any new vocabulary. I flip back through my notebook every week to review what I've learned.
But if you're looking to really be able to speak with colleagues, you need to practice forming sentences on your own. To do this, I talk to myself in French, narrating what I'm doing as I go about my day. ("Now I'm chopping peppers to make a salad, now I'm sitting down...") I also reconnected with an old friend who has a minor in French from college but hasn't used the language much since. We spend 30-45 minutes on Zoom each week, just talking about life and what we're reading/doing/etc, and I've found that's the best way to connect all the dots between Duolingo, podcasts, and what's still rattling around my brain from high school.
posted by writermcwriterson at 1:59 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've found the key is to do some combination of these every single day. I often listen to a podcast while on my morning walk, then read the transcript and jot down any new vocabulary. I flip back through my notebook every week to review what I've learned.
But if you're looking to really be able to speak with colleagues, you need to practice forming sentences on your own. To do this, I talk to myself in French, narrating what I'm doing as I go about my day. ("Now I'm chopping peppers to make a salad, now I'm sitting down...") I also reconnected with an old friend who has a minor in French from college but hasn't used the language much since. We spend 30-45 minutes on Zoom each week, just talking about life and what we're reading/doing/etc, and I've found that's the best way to connect all the dots between Duolingo, podcasts, and what's still rattling around my brain from high school.
posted by writermcwriterson at 1:59 PM on February 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
So my kid immersed himself in a language via tv and film and was able to learn enough to understand an extraordinary amount; he can read adult novels in that language now. From now on, all news, websites, radio, entertainment -- all of it is in French, and Canadian French, preferably. That would be a great start. No subtitles for tv or film. I bet even just regular listening to the news in French would be a good way to refamiliarize with it.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:02 PM on February 17, 2023
posted by bluedaisy at 2:02 PM on February 17, 2023
Best answer: News in Slow French has been mentioned, but may I suggest news in regular speed French? There's a Radio-Canada podcast called A La Une that's a short daily news digest (A la une literally means on the one, but colloquially means on the front page, like of a newspaper). Since you're probably broadly aware of what the topics in the news are you should be able to follow along and gradually start filling in some gaps.
posted by rodlymight at 5:48 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rodlymight at 5:48 PM on February 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
There’s a pile of language conversation groups on facebook or other social media. They meet on zoom or other remote meeting platforms. It’s really helpful. The best way to rekindle fluency is to talk to people. If you’re on social media, try looking for a French language group.
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:57 PM on February 17, 2023
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:57 PM on February 17, 2023
Seconding Mango Languages platform which can be accessed for free online through your public library card access. My partner has become quite conversational in Spanish without any personal contact this way. He's been quite deliberately at it for at least 4 years now.
posted by itsflyable at 6:03 PM on February 17, 2023
posted by itsflyable at 6:03 PM on February 17, 2023
Response by poster: Thank you all! I’ve made a casual/tentative learning plan to spend a month or so using the Mauril app and listening to/enjoying lots of French media including News in Slow French and À La Une.
And after that I’ll attend some virtual Alliance Française events in my area to nervously practice my conversational French. Merci à tous!
posted by rodneyaug at 9:04 PM on February 17, 2023
And after that I’ll attend some virtual Alliance Française events in my area to nervously practice my conversational French. Merci à tous!
posted by rodneyaug at 9:04 PM on February 17, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
Would the semi-immersive experience of watching French-language movies with French subtitles turned on be of any use to you? Having both speech and roughly equivalent text presented at the same time should help your brain dig out whatever French parsing skills it's buried since you were nearly fluent, and you can replay bits that appeal to you over and over while speaking the same lines yourself to practice your pronunciation.
posted by flabdablet at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2023 [5 favorites]