How should a beginner learn French?
French is probably the most internationally significant Romance language in the world. At the beginning of the 21st century, French was the official language of more than 25 countries. In France and Corsica about 60 million individuals use it as their first language, in Canada more than 7.3 million, in Belgium more than 3.9 million, in Switzerland (cantons of Neuchâtel, Vaud, Genève, Valais, Fribourg) more than 1.8 million, in Monaco some 80,000, in Italy some 100,000, and in the United States (especially Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) some 1.3 million. Furthermore, more than 49 million Africans—in such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia—use French as a first or second language, and millions of inhabitants of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia use it as their principal international language. Many creole French speakers too use standard French in formal situations.
Let's now discuss how beginners can get their hands on to the French language!
Beginners need to hold their ground and not be threatened and intimidated by a new language, its usage, nuances, nitty-gritty or its grammar. A beginner cannot aim at being fluent in French right away, but they are likely to step up working steadily by being patient, and consistent! Having said that beginners must never lose faith in themselves or their confidence!
Treat every interaction as important. Celebrate each little achievement, you make in French as a step towards the bigger achievement and be proud of it!
As a beginner, there are several things that you need to chalk out for yourself before attempting to learn a language. These are the most crucial steps that a beginner must ensure in place so as to aim for success! Of the many important things, it is important that a beginner sets realistic timelines for himself or herself, realign his or her schedule to fit in daily learning/practice time for the language, define and acknowledge the necessity to learn the language and finally determine their precise goals!
If a learner is interested in learning French with an academic perspective in mind, then I suggest learning it with books, through the structured lesson by the lesson plan, starting from the grammar rules.
However, if the need is to grow with the language then, I suggest, a beginner must learn to speak French in a first; just like a child mimics his parents and learns the language without having to read or write it, if and only if, they are truly interested in learning the language, whether for business conversations, travel, to speak with peers, friends, anybody! In other words, they must make French a way of their lives! To achieve this we recommend getting hold of as many reliable audio resources as possible online or offline. A learner could select from one of the spoken dialects that appeals to him/ her and pursue learning to speak the same. There are millions of relevant and appropriate audio resources such as podcasts, videos, audiobooks, music videos, songs, talk shows, news channels available to learn from.
French is a language that can be classified to an extent as diglossic, which means the way it is spoken, is quite different from the way it is written! This, by the way, is unperturbed by the many dialects that exist over and above. Modern spoken French and traditional written French are quite different. Hence, I sincerely recommend beginners to avoid the mistake of learning to speak French from the written resources, because they would find it very difficult to communicate with French-speaking people due to obvious differences between the spoken and written forms.
Instead, I recommend concentrating on your spoken French by enriching your vocabulary, improving your pronunciation, getting stronger clarity on alphabet identification and usage of words, expressions, phrases, commonly used slangs and connecting them directly with their meanings without having to translate them in the head from a mother tongue to French.
Maintain a diary or a journal to capture commonly used expressions or phrases that will help the beginner build small but meaningful conversations at the earliest. Focus on the “je” form of the verb and make a list of relevant day-to-day used exchanges. These, however, will not empower you to engage in complex conversations. So don’t fret over it. Stay positive and motivated, you will be there soon! Take a day at a time.
To study French effectively through audio lessons I recommend using audios that possibly are structured and addresses the following needs of a beginner:
Help a beginner, introduce himself, with appropriate greetings and politeness, asking relevant questions, ordering food, talking about themselves, their family, work and hobbies.
Encourages them to implement both traditional and modern French pronunciations.
Set the foundations of French grammar in a clear and logical, step-by-step manner: like building blocks, by giving plenty of examples so one can also learn the French context.
Helps the learner stay organized, enabling them to prioritize important aspects of language over other things.
Enables the beginners to achieve a decent accent.
I recommend enthusiastic and serious learners to join classes online or offline that follow the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) directives to have a better grasp of the French language. CEFRL is a guideline that is used to describe the achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and in other countries. The CEFR is also intended to make it easier for educational institutions and employers to evaluate the language qualifications of candidates for education admission or employment. It was put together by the Council of Europe as the main part of the project “Language Learning for European Citizenship” between 1989 and 1996. Its main aim is to provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing which applies to all languages in Europe. In November 2001, a European Union Council Resolution recommended using the CEFR to set up systems of validation of language ability. The six reference levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) are becoming widely accepted as the European standard for grading an individual’s language proficiency.
As a beginner, I recommend you stay focused on your priorities to speak good French, and not get lost in trying to be a nerd starting off with grammar that’s not going to get you any closer to speaking good French. On the contrary, the tough grammar is likely to demotivate you and deter you from continuing on your learning, presenting it to be too tough to learn! The Present Indicative tense is the tense, a beginner would use maximum, in most French interactions. So, present tense it should be! Refrain exploring the tenses of the past because they are likely to send you completely off tangent. Its more complicated and you may need a little more help than just the self-study. So do not try to jump the gun trying to learn the tenses of the past on your own!
Choose a learning method that helps you reach there sooner, with simpler, smaller sentences conveying the same meaning as complex ones. Remember, slow and steady wins the race; yes, it will be nice to be able to say one day in a restaurant: “I would be delighted if you could kindly seat us by the window, so we may enjoy the spectacular view”. However, as a beginner, you should be really happy with yourself, if you are able to pointedly, politely and smilingly put your needs across to the other person, saying: “une table à côté de la fenêtre. C’est possible ? C’est très beau là !” (A table by the window. Is it possible? It’s very pretty there!)
All beginners must time their learning in order to stay on track. With a lot of free resources, the online one is likely to lose focus, hopping from one link to another. This is especially true when watching YouTube videos. A huge part of your success in learning the French language will depend on time management.
Beginners are aware! Before you get into a situation where you have trouble understanding the French when they speak, and they don’t seem to understand you, please research well to learn the real French or the ‘Street French’ as some call it! Street French is quite different from the enunciated traditional French pronunciation (like a TV news host would use) – and it’s also likely to be different from what you have learned in school. Enunciated French version works great when you are learning traditional French pronunciation as this slower version can help you capture the right pronunciations to repeat! Introducing French politeness is a great way to start learning French pronunciation, and when explained properly, should also cover fundamental French grammar such as “tu” versus “vous”, some verb conjugations and introduce the notion of adjective agreement. It takes practice to master the French R. Or the difference between “u” and “ou”, “é” and “è”. You must aim to learn from a French school that explains how to form these sounds: how to place your mouth, your tongue, your lips, so on and so forth.
Your trainer must himself or herself be well versed in French to be able to explain the basic grammar rules to you clearly; because there are many rules such that if you don’t know them, you can’t invent them. As an example there is a strong liaison after the subject pronouns “on, nous, vous, ils, elles” but usually no liaison after a noun such as “les enfants”!
There are rules, and then there is the reality! On top of all the French liaisons, elisions etc which obey the pronunciation rules, the French also apply lots of “glidings” in speech. For example, the “ne” part of the negation is often silent.
Or “il y a” is pronounced “ya”.
As a beginner I would suggest you ignore the glidings, so the French can understand you when you speak. This would make you more respect-worthy rather than using a lot of glidings that may sound a bit weird coming from a beginner with limited learning! There are many more “street” glidings in French nowadays.
Finally,
In a short recap, I suggest, French beginners, must:
Set realistic goals for themselves,
Find a structured audio method that doesn’t assume you are a grammar genius and explains everything clearly,
Get plenty of audio practice: repeat, repeat, repeat,
Understand and respond appropriately to basic conversations in specific situations
Reach to a level of fast-reflex-responses when speaking and gain confidence to use your French in conversations.
and
Keep your priorities straight.