What's the best way to learn French?
These days there are more ways to learn French than you can shake a wobbly baguette at. Along with the traditional French class + textbook, you've got apps on your computer, apps on your phone, YouTube videos, podcasts, online tutors, immersion experiences... yikes.
So it pays to make a plan for yourself.
Learning a new language is a reasonably long-term goal, and you don't want to spend a year following a strategy that doesn't really get you very far. (Or worse — a strategy that gives you bad habits that are hard to overcome.)
So what is the best way to climb this mountain? Is there a combination of tools, or a routine, or a philosophy that makes everything easier? We set out to answer this question and it turned into a very long answer indeed. So we created this 7-part guide:
What do you need your French for, and how far do you want to go? What is your time-frame for getting there? These things impact on the approach you'll take to learning French.
It's a lot faster and easier to become fluent in French when you actively learn how the language works. We'll have a look at the different ways of learning French grammar.
There are four main skills to learning any language. The first two are our receptive or comprehension skills — reading and listening. Here's how to improve yours.
The next two important skills are writing and speaking — our productive skills. Here's how to improve your ability to "find the words", and then write them or pronounce them so that people understand you.
Getting a personal tutor isn't a magic bullet, but it could be extremely helpful at certain points in your study. Here's how to find a tutor, and how to use them most effectively.
Your grammar course might be your core learning method (or "main meal") but it also helps to have a few little "snacks" on hand to keep things interesting. Here are some of our favorites.
Once you've mastered the basics, there's a good chance you'll arrive at the infamous intermediate plateau. Here's what it is, what it means, and what to do if you end up stuck here.
