How to Actually Learn French
OH MY GOD I’m so tired of all these copy-paste self help articles. Feels like they were mindlessly churned out of a content factory.
And when it comes to language learning, they’re always just so vague and impractical, like, “find a way that works for you!” What?? What’s the way?? How?? Tell me!!! And, “start conversations with strangers!!” Like, please don’t do that, it’s at best annoying, and at worst unsafe, and anyway they’ll just switch to English once they hear your accent. And my favorite, “be confident!” Right, so I’ll just leave all this emotional baggage at the airport then??? Goodbye, insecurities, and thanks for all the fish!! So easy!
Alright I’ve expelled the bad vibes and got your attention, now let’s get to business. I sat down with Rachel, my favorite French teacher, to get some real actionable tips and advice on learning French. No inspirational fluff, no “just practice!” or “just start speaking!!” We discuss what to do, as well as ~how~ to do it. The information in the article can be applied to most languages, not just French.
Rachel’s from France, and she’s been teaching French since 2015, and learning other languages all her life. Her students are from all over the world, and she knows how to adapt her lessons to their background, needs, and levels of proficiency. Rachel is awesome and I highly recommend studying with her. Find her contact details at the end of the article.
Below are the six main highlights and takeaways from the interview:
1. Want to sound French? Work on improving your rhythm — not your accent.
DIVORA: How can I improve my accent? Because that’s something I struggle with. It makes me afraid to speak!
RACHEL: It’s not the accent, it’s the rhythm. At first I also thought it was the accent. But if you look at the phonetics, if you have two syllables, it’s like, DA-da. We stress the first syllable. So you need to listen to a lot of content in French and try to mimic it. The accent is nothing if you can do that.
DIVORA: That never occurred to me! How can I catch the rhythm then? Just listen to people and replace what they’re saying with gibberish?
RACHEL: Yes, that’s actually what we do when we’re small. Babies learning to speak are babbling and mimicking. The rhythm is there…
[She’s not wrong! A study analyzing the crying patterns of 30 French and 30 German newborns found that the French babies produced cries with a rising melody contour, whereas the German ones produced falling contours. This shows that speech prosody influences newborns’ cry melody. So we’ve been mimicking the flow of the sound even before we knew how to speak!]
…And I know some people with good accents, but the rhythm is so off that you can’t understand them. It’s the same with English, it’s all about where you put emphasis. Like, in English, you say, “deVELopment,” and in French we say, “dEvelopment.” If you mix it up, it’s difficult to understand.
2. Colloquial* speech is a must, not an add-on.
Spoken and written French are different, and what you learned in the classroom may not reflect how natives actually speak. The differences aren’t just in vocabulary, it’s also the grammar, and how phrases are pronounced or condensed. So if you’ve been studying French for a while and still have no idea what people are saying, it’s probably because of this gap. Here’s a list of informal speech that you didn’t learn in school, and a Youtube channel that teaches how French people actually speak.
Watching lots of French TV shows and movies could also help you pick up informal speech. But actors tend to speak quickly and mumble, so reducing the playback speed can help you understand what they’re saying. I like watching on .75x.
If you can’t find any French TV shows or movies that you connect with, you can watch things that you already like, just dubbed into French. Just beware that subtitles and dubs rarely match, since they’re often done by different companies at different times, and have different considerations. For example, subtitles have a character limit, and dubs need to sync up with the person talking.
*Colloquial speech is informal speech, the way a native actually speaks. This includes slang, jokes, popular phrases, profanities, and more.
DIVORA: What’s some informal speech and slang that a new learner must know in order to understand native speakers? Like, I know natives don’t always say “je ne sais pas,” (I don’t know), they say “che pa” (dunno.) And sometimes, the vocabulary is totally different. So I find that I can read whole books in French, and then go talk to French people and sometimes I just don’t understand them!
RACHEL: In French, there’s really a difference between formal and spoken language. The best way to learn spoken language is to watch movies and TV shows. Cop movies tend to use a lot of slang. But there’s also things we say all the time, like, to say, “the work,” we now say, “le boulot” instead of “le travail.” [“Le travail” is the phrase that’s usually taught in academic courses.]
As for “che pa,” this really is the way many speak. So you can watch videos at a slower pace and just repeat what you hear. I did that for a long time to learn English. I’ve spent hours doing this. Though there isn’t such a big gap between formal and spoken language in English.
But in French, of course, you won’t speak the same way with a client than you would with your friends. In French you have to say “vous” (you, pl.) instead of “tu,” (you, singular) with a client or when you meet somebody new.
DIVORA: Do you think it’s important to learn street slang?
RACHEL: I think you have to understand it. You need to know what people are talking about. I would say there are a few types of vocabulary that you really need to know: there’s book language, which isn’t helpful for speaking. And then there’s the neutral language, where you’ll be able to speak with everyone, no problem. And there’s the familiar or slang language, and that’s another one you need to learn. Not necessarily use, but you need to understand it.
3. Decide which French you’re learning, and pay attention to the differences between dialects.
DIVORA: What would you say are the biggest differences between the French from France, Belgium, other places in Europe, Canada, and around the world, when it comes to how native speakers actually speak?
RACHEL: Well you won’t have problems with Swiss and Belgian people, because there are differences, but it’s not that far off. The number system is also a bit different. Like in France, we say, “soixante-dix” (seventy), but that makes no sense. It’s basically saying “sixty plus ten.” But in the north of France, Belgium, and Switzerland, they say “septante,” which is much more logical. And some say “nonante,” instead of “quatre-vingt-dix” (ninety.)
But if you go to Quebec, there’s a difference in the accent, and their vocabulary is also quite different. I tend to find that they translate some things from English to French literally, word for word.
DIVORA: But you can have a whole conversation with someone from Quebec and understand them?
RACHEL: Yes, if neither of us use slang, and the accent isn’t too strong.
4. Pay attention to HOW the language is used.
Beyond learning how to speak, you need to learn how natives want to be communicated with. When speaking with unfamiliar people, like salespeople or bakery staff, it’s important to start the conversation with “bonjour” (hello), use the conditional tense, like “je voudrais…” instead of “je veux” (“I would like,” instead of, “I want”) and end the interaction with “au revoir” (goodbye.)
DIVORA: What’s something that’s very important to learn when it comes to culture? Because we can’t just use French the way we would use our own language. We’ve got to use it the way French people do! Otherwise we’ll just end up offending everybody and not effectively communicating what we want to say.
RACHEL: This is why I do a lot of roleplaying with my students. Especially with Americans. Because what makes Americans comfortable makes French people uncomfortable, and what makes French people comfortable makes Americans uncomfortable.
Like, for example, I had a student who wanted to go to Paris. But I saw he had this idea of Paris like it was wow! And I was like, he’s going to be so disappointed!
[Extreme disappointment when visiting Paris is a real thing, and can actually lead to some serious physical and psychological problems. It’s called Paris Syndrome.]
…So we roleplayed being at the bakery. And he enters the bakery and says, BONJOUR! And then it’s his turn to order and he says, “BONJOUR, COMMENT CA VA??” (HELLO, HOW ARE YOU??)
You’re not supposed to do that. You don’t ask how the person’s doing. You just say hello, and you need to be quick. And you have to know what you want before your turn. You can’t engage the seller in conversation, she’s not there for that.
So the most important thing is to say hello, use the conditional tense, and remember to say, “au revoir.” If you don’t do these things, they can get pissed off. Like maybe they won’t even answer you!
[You can learn more about culture and how to use French the way natives do by studying with a native French-speaking teacher, like Rachel.]
5. Talk to yourself.
Not everyone has someone to practice their new language with. And 1:1 tutor sessions can be expensive. Rachel suggests talking to yourself in the language, even narrating your own life. I started doing this and wow — it really works. Suddenly I’m realizing exactly which words and phrases I’m missing from my vocabulary for everyday things, and since I’m both the speaker and the audience, I have the patience and the space to go look them up.
RACHEL: You have to spend a lot of time studying and practicing. Consistency, it’s the most important thing. And studying on your own is one of the most important things. Like, you can learn with a teacher, but you really need to do it on your own too. And you need to talk to yourself, which is also very important.
DIVORA: You mean, like, try to think in French instead of your native language when you’re going about your day?
RACHEL: Yeah, and maybe set a time for it. You can say to yourself, “What did I do today?” or you could describe what you’re doing; “I’m pouring coffee in my cup.”
6. Learn by topic.
RACHEL: You can also learn by themes. For example, I love culinary arts, so in English, I spent quite a lot of time learning the vocabulary for food, and I watched videos on the topic on repeat. I also subscribed to some sites on the topic, and I did the same for health subjects.
DIVORA: This is fantastic advice. Thank you so much for taking the time, Rachel, it’s been a pleasure!
Want to learn French with Rachel? Contact her on LinkedIn, or send an email to: artademine@protonmail.com. You can also book a session with her on iTalki.
What do you think?? Do you have any practical tips for learning languages?? Share them with us in the comments!
