Learning a Language - Advice

[Green6]

I am learning a language (French) from scratch ahead of moving to France next year. I would like to get to an immediate level and as quickly as possible, but lessons are expensive. I do think lessons will keep me more motivated than trying to learn by myself though.

I am thinking of doing a one hour lesson every Friday, and a 30 min lesson on Monday and Wednesday (effectively one lesson split into two).

For those who have learnt languages could I afk for your thoughts on this approach. Obviously it would be much cheaper for me to do one lesson a week.

You should aim to actually speak French as much as possible, can you join a Cercle Français (French conversation groups) to get some practice in? They are often run by local Adult Education authorities and aren’t too expensive.

Anglophone living in a francophone country here, and I can honestly say that the best way is to speak it as much as possible, with people who are as patient as possible.

I'd focus on your accent, rather than getting the word gender right.

There are probably 1000's of language videos on YouTube. My dc eat h them almost every day.
I've studied several languages, my advice:
an hour of listening to the language a day via podcasts/french radio;
an hour of actual study, attempting to learn verb conjugation, basic tenses and articles;
get a book you know, translated into French and work your way through it;
and once a week watch a French movie or tv show without subtitles.

What @Mumtobabyhavoc says.

Start off with infant and childrens' programs and work up. Read crappy magazines too. The vocabulary is limited which is helpful at first, but you'll get the feel for the grammar and general language.

I do think you need to have lessons, you need structured learning to start with and also someone to correct mistakes and answer questions. I go to a French class at the local council adult learning centre and it's great. Then there are so many online resources to back it up.

So long as you make the effort once you get to France, that's when you will really fly.