To ask how you learn a language?

Yes

Op I haven't looked for french specifically, but when I looked for apps or pre recorded courses (as opposed to traditional lessons) for Portuguese, I was surprised to find books on audible that for the price of one book contained a similar volume of course content to things like Pimsleur and Rosetta stone, which are ££££

I tried doing what people recommended such as watching TV in the language I was trying to learn but I just didn't have enough understanding of the basic language to get much from it, it only helped me become familiar with the accent. I used a combination of the audible audiobooks, which included common words/phrases, simple conversations + explaining basic grammar, plus free YouTube videos and children's books, before I was able to get something from tv & radio intended for native adult speakers.

In my experience Duolingo is useless for learning a new language.
However, I have been using it to remind myself of the French I did to O level in the 80s and have found it useful in terms of re-awakening the knowledge I already had and it made me more confident with basic interactions on holiday in France recently. I would definitely recommend an interactive class for new learning - what Duolingo is doing is reminding me what I learnt properly in class long ago!

Ah yes, the first ten lessons are for absolute beginners regardsless of which language you are learning. When you are thirty lessons in it starts getting interesting.

For French I would like to recommend "Learn French with Vincent" on Youtube. He is really good.

If you have Netflix you can search for movies in the languages that interest you on there. I think that the series with the master burglar was called "Lupin". I don't have Netflix anymore, so I cannot look it up.

Do see if you can find the movies or books "Le chateau de ma mère"or "La Glorie de mon père" by Marcel Pagnol. They are so wonderful.

For German there is also a lot of stuff on Youtube. Search for "German for beginners". If you like crime stories, the series "Der Alte" was good, but it is very old, so I don't know if it is still valid.

I’ve started (literally just started) with arabic, I’m using an app that starts with learning the alphabet phonetically (obviously the script is different so obviously a slower process). If I were learning something like french or italian I’d look for a youtube kids phonetic alphabet video. I think if you can get the sounds right, then reading and pronunciation should be easier. I do think reading is really important. It takes effort but it’s rewarding when you realise you can read something (even if I have no clue what it says).

Once I’m done with the app the plan is kids books and tv shows in the arabic dialect I’ve chosen. Sentence structure will be clear and short as a staring point. Happily I have a native speaker friend who is kind enough to sound out random words for me. I do think having someone for whom it’s a first language at hand is the most helpful way of learning. I’ve seen some forums where people buddy up to learn each others languages,

To really learn you need to someone to speak the language with. It’s very hard without that.

I learned French and German as a child, and we spoke Cantonese and English at home. But I struggled to learn how to speak Spanish as an adult. Duolingo for vocabulary and Babbel for grammar meant I could read competently but even 121 weekly lessons couldn’t get me speaking. The thing that worked was 30 mins a day of the Pimsleur app. It’s £18.99 a month but that’s cheaper than lessons. It’s very structured and they hammer the high frequency phrases. I’ve also learned some basic Mandarin in two months with Pimsleur and my Chinese homestay student says I’m quite understandable.

And you can get away with murder with a good accent, I always find.

you have to just stop worrying about making mistakes. You will inevitably make lots of mistakes - it's a foreign language!

Even in their mother tongue, speakers make mistakes - we change our minds about quite how we're saying things half way through and things like that, so get it wrong.

As an adult learner, I find it harder to remember vocab than when I was at school. I am very good at realising I have previously learnt that word, (whether I'm searching for the English or in the language,) and it can be quite frustrating! But when I get really tired, I can forget words in English, too.

The key is just clocking up hours and hours of input of the language (preferably by listening). Understanding the grammar in principle doesn't actually magically make you able to use it (especially when speaking, as you don't have time to think about it). Hearing and reading lots and lots of content demonstrating the verb tenses and grammatical structures is what makes you able to actually use them.

Also, yes, you have to just stop worrying about making mistakes. You will inevitably make lots of mistakes - it's a foreign language! If you hold back until you think your sentence is perfect, you'll never speak! The best motivator for using the language without embarrassment is emergency or necessity! If you have to make yourself understood, you will.

Honestly the only way to really properly learn a language is to be forced to learn it.

I have tried over the years to learn four or five languages but the only one I can speak competently is my ex husband’s mother tongue: because I spent a lot of time around his friends when that was the default and you had to speak that language to fit in.

The reason English speakers rarely speak other languages well is because they rarely have to.

That said if you are really keen there are all sorts of ways to get started. Duolingo will give you a foothold, language classes if you are more interested and serious. Its fun to learn even if you don’t become fluent.

A former learner of several languages, including Russian and German, and a former teacher of EFL, I fancied learning Welsh with Duolingo, but couldn’t get on with it after about 3 months. The format seemed to change - exercises in words/structures that had yet to be covered, that you were somehow supposed to absorb.
I can’t learn like that - I need written material to refer to (I used to write everything new down). So that was the end of Duolingo for me.

Do you have Netflix? Go to the kids programmes and change the language to whatever you want but keep English subtitles. It will be the basics but very repetitive.

@Afflt, ditto to writing out verb conjugations, etc. in order to learn them.

Ok, it was long ago now, but at school I had precisely one year for Russian O level, and another 2 for A level, and writing them all out (6 noun/adjective cases!) was the only way to ding them into my head.

Duolingo helped me learn the script (Arabic) but nothing about grammar, which made it confusing when compiling sentences.

I would use a proper teacher for that.

I live in Saudi so I try and read the names of businesses etc, on the buildings and walls on the way to/from work. Duolingo has definitely helped with that.

Bilingual person here 👋 (English and Spanish, with some French which I haven’t practised much) I would suggest you check YouTube for tutorials on the basics. Once you have that down, maybe check your local library for textbooks or old French schoolbooks where you can expand your vocabulary while knowing how to pronounce the words (you can double check with google translate on pronunciation when unsure) hope this helps!

I learned languages in school and whilst this isn’t obviously the same, it’s what I’d suggest if someone I knew came to me asking this question.

Have a look at the Say Something In website. It started with Welsh then added other languages. It uses a spaced repetition method.
www.saysomethingin.com/en/

We have some French friends who speak excellent English.- when we asked how they had learned, they said they got the basics at school and then just spent time watching lots of English Language programmes and films like Game of Thrones - initially with the French subtitles on and then later without.

Duolingo is great as an addition to another learning route (it is really helping to supplement DDs school French lessons) but doesn't work in isolation.

I would say duolingo is close to worthless. Actually speaking the language is the main thing - look up words as you go and you will broaden your vocabulary.

I would say an evening class to start out, then after a couple of terms try to find a language partner or one on one teacher to complement your studies. You need to both learn the grammar (which will be easiest in a class if you are not a confident language learner) and use the language in conversation. I have used italki in the past for language learning.

Also here to suggest Bitesize (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn) if you want to revise what you probably learnt at school, and see how much you still remember.

I often come across language textbooks in charity shops, so it might be worth finding a basic French one with the grammar, and maybe a dictionary? or an online one, like https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french ?

And yes! to using Netflix/ Youtube etc - ideally with subitles in French - especially to watch programmes/films/ about subjects you're already slightly familiar with/ interested in.

In most big towns and cities, there are language exchanges/ conversation cafes where you can meet up with other learners and/or native speakers to practise talking, maybe discuss books or watch films together, even if there aren't any formal 'classes' as such.

Good luck!
Bonne chance!

PS: archived, but may still contain useful content & links: https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

I did French O level and forgot most of it.

Have been trying to pick it up again and started with you tube listening to beginners language teaching, children's songs and stories and TV programmes . The songs can help build vocab. Then progressed to intermediate podcasts and some simple documentaries in topics I enjoy. I don't understand all of those by any means but some of them give people's names and age and how long they have been working for x and follow along the pictures for getting a sense of what's happening. You will understand the narrator well before the general public.

I find a multifaceted approach helps. Songs, stories, reading articles , learning vocab from you tube, you tube teachers, I really need to go to language classes but life has been hectic. Next year maybe. Would love to travel to France at some point too.

I had a German teacher - my very first one, who decided to start us off by translating a children's story - a fairytale. That has some particular structures (in English, we don't often use "once upon a time" elsewhere) and vocab like witch, spell, etc, which isn't as useful in most daily lives. I do expect to start learning a language with "hello, my name is... I live in... I work as a... I would like a cheese sandwich" sort of thing.

I also found in Germany - soap operas are hard: often fast, slang, speaking over each other. But I saw a lovely documentary about the history of tractors - slower speech, more formal language, lots of dates and numerical facts, so I could follow it (which is mostly why I found it lovely, though also I grew up on a farm and we had Deutz tractors.)

I agree that it depends partly on how you learn - I am much more like to do well if I see things spelled, and if I write them.

It also depends what is available- face-to-face classes are usually best, but can be difficult to find these days. But we also have the Internet now, and it doesn't really matter where you are for online classes (timezones can matter, though.) My Welsh classes have just restarted this week. I like doing a class because of the other people in group work in particular.

Duolingo is not a total waste of time - I have been learning Dutch from scratch, but I bought a grammar book alongside, because Duolingo is generally rubbish at explaining grammar. I think if I hadn't already done German, I would be struggling a lot more with the grammar and sentence structures. It's difficult to explain separable verbs at the best of times, but Duo doesn't even try, it just shows you the pattern, and it took me ages to get my head round them, even when I had an actual teacher at evening classes.

Duolingo can be useful for vocab, it's good for patterns. I have been using it to revise my school and evening class languages.

But as well as Duolingo and online classes, there are resources available all round the world - videos, websites, etc, etc, so you can do a bit every day. Back in my school days, you had to find someone who was going to France and ask very nicely if they could bring you back a newspaper. Now, you just Google. That makes the options way easier.

In your situation, I'd look for an online class and do a bit of Duolingo and maybe another course or practice site online. I think you need to get to about high A2/B1 level before websites etc in the language aren't too impenetrable, as they often have more formal vocab/grammar.

Don't forget Padraig Post. 🙃