Learning a language fluently-what works

[Whattodowithaminute]

We are just back from a lovely holiday in France and I’m now committed to learning French fluently. I have rusty gcse knowledge but really want to step up-what works? Im registered with duolingo to get started, do I need to go to classes? Read the paper/podcasts/watch tv...?!!

Memrise, all of my kids are on it and we do a weekly competition for top student on the leaderboard.

Using the language regularly helps, so a class would be good, but spending time in the country is probably the most helpful although not practical, I know.

Duolingo is ok but it won’t get you to an advanced level quickly. It is fun , I use it to learn Irish but as a fluent Spanish speaker I recognise it misses out a lot of elements.
If I were you I’d do some classes where you are able to practise conversation. TV, magazines even reading the news on the web will help you to immerse.

What I've found works is setting realistic goals. Things like 'go to 1:1 conversation sessions for 6 months' or 'complete duolingo course'. Because realistically you can only ever hope for improvement - fluency always seems just a bit further away from where you are.

That, and immersion in situations where you are forced to use French. Holidays, for example.

My DH is great this year on holiday after a year of daily duolingo, with GCSE level and a conversation class or two in the past. Nowhere near as good as me with A level and daily duolingo though!
My friend has been living in France for four years, primary aged children in school. She has A level French and great determination. She sounds amazing and understands everything. Says she doesn’t get or convey emotion AT ALL and feels like she never will. Kids are bilingual, especially the toddler.

The only way you would become properly fluent would be to go and live in a French speaking country I would think. You need total immersion to get to that level.

I have a degree in French and it was the year I spent living there that did it, rather than the other 3 years I spent studying it in England.

Netflix, setting all electronic devices to French, reading papers, free OU French course and a good conversation class. Talk to yourself in French. Do you need an au pair?

Immersion is key, the more you can immerse yourself the more fluent you will get.

first of all - fluency is very difficult to achieve, but a comfortable conversation level should be.

immersion is best
1:1 lessons
watching language tv + a computer learning programme helps as well

You'll need interaction so classes are a good idea. Things like holidays, podcasts, TV, books, papers etc are all a great idea. And bear in mind that it takes many years of pretty intensive learning to become fluent. However, I reckon 3 years should suffice to learn enough to have a good idea of what's on TV, in newspapers and very able to have a good chat with someone.

Think about how you learnt your mother tongue. You heard lots of simple phrases and repeated them, people pointed out things around you and said their names over and over til you repeated them, people asked you simple questions and modeled the answer. Try and copy this. See if you can find someone to speak French with, go to an evening class, repeat and repeat all the words and phrases you learn. Repeat repeat repeat. Read children's books in French.

I did this with a language, although I had already learnt a second language to fluency so kind of knew how it worked. With the new language after about a year I could manage an evening of conversation.

Agree with PPs re things like Duolingo, whilst potentially giving you a good level, probably won’t make you fluent and spending time in a country where the language is spoken is key.

I studied Spanish at uni, spent a lot of time travelling alone in South America, taught English in Ecuador for a short while and have a home in Spain (village in the mountains with no English speakers)........ and I describe myself as “just about” fluent.

It’s not just words, it’s tenses (subjunctive, for example, can be tricky for English speakers as we don’t use it much), colloquialisms, different adjectives, formal/informal pronouns, the list goes on.

My DH is learning Spanish just now and we sometimes watch kids’ tv on YouTube in Spanish (think Peppa Pig). Reverso Context is also a good free app he uses for Spanish - maybe they also do French.

Good luck, though, as too few of we British can be bothered to try.

Thanks this is helpful. Learning French is part of a broader plan to spend more time in France in 3 plus years which sounds like it will be very helpful from an immersion perspective. I’ll carry on accessing lots of content on duolingo, podcasts etc and enrol in a class in September.

Have a read of this guy's blog. He also has a book:

www.fluentin3months.com

I can recommend that if you watch films/tv in french you select the french subtitles as well.

I'm learning a language right now and do a combination of classes, babbel, tv, reading newspaper, cookery books and immersion.

I hope to be at a conversational level (A2) by christmas.

Listen to a french radio station. It’s having an ear for idiom as well. I’m learning a language and the gap between formal teaching and the back and forth of normal conversation is wide.

The other thing that I realised is that language is based in culture - the tv programmes, historical references, common understanding, sense of humour etc. You can have all the words but the meaning takes a long time. There are regional differences too, and between the young and old.

Great thing though. I love it.

Get an online Skype tutor/ conversationalist.
Dorling Kindersley French in five minutes
An evening class.
Read books or magazines in French.
Use French websites when planning holidays.
Engage in French when in France; locals will help you.

My in laws were/are fluent. My children are pretty fluent but, whilst I can converse, I’m still very much an English person using French. It’s not been a problem until recently as the children could always help out. It’s the phone that I find a challenge and we need to use telephones a lot (to operate locks) when on the boat we bought a few years back. I’m improving but a way to go still. It’s the regular practice I’m less good at sorting.

According to DH (who can pick up a language very easily) you listen to radio, read books and magazines, watch tv/films and practice as much as you can.

One thing I've enjoyed is downloading Mills and Boon type novels in French on the kindle - there are quite a few free ones. The vocab is straightforward and the grammar is easy - it feels like reading a 'real' novel but is so much simpler (even than reading children's/YA novels, I've found). You can use the inbuilt dictionary so can crack on through quickly. Plus you get to learn lots of words for 'manhood' and 'throbbing' and so forth.

Youtube for TV and podcasts for audio when you're driving around.

I speak Spanish, studied it from age 11 in school and lived there as a uni student, which was the peak of my fluency. I can still understand most of what I hear or read, but my fluency has dropped as I just don't speak it very often.

Radio, TV and films in the language really help - especially for colloquialisms and conversational use. Vocabulary takes a long time to develop, which is why vocab tests are often part of formal learning in school.

Reading online newspapers and magazines is very helpful.

It's one of my proudest achievements that I am so fluent in French that people would sometimes mistake me for a French Canadian or a Belgian! 😊 How did I get there? Years of living in French speaking countries...oh and morphing my chat/personality/interests to suit the locals. I said yes to everything and gained a massive vocabulary.

I learned much slang and sweaty words watching Italian crime films

Michel Thomas cds have been brilliant for me. I have a good ear for languages but have difficulty with the speaking aspect.
These cds encourage you to speak.
I speak Spanish( dh is Spanish) and I am still trying to speak French
French classes are great if you get the right teacher/ tutor.

Sky and Netflix have a fair few French tv series. I find it helpful to watch them .