What is the easiest way to learn French?
French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, being official in 29 countries. These include Canada and Haiti in North America, French Guiana in South America, more than a dozen African nations, five European countries, and Vanuatu and several French overseas territories in Oceania.
French is one of the many Romance languages and it is also known as the language of love. French is not a very difficult language which most people will try to convince you to believe! At the same time, French reading isn’t quite as straightforward as other Romance languages you may have studied, or heard of! Unless you approach it in the right manner with realistic goals and avoid the mistakes that many first-time language learners make, you won’t find yourself on the fluency bandwagon!
Every new language needs time commitment; you can not achieve remarkable progress if you only put a few hours a week into it! I would suggest you have an initial plan ready so you approach the language in the most focused manner. Plan the best possible method to learn a new language.
My opinion
In my opinion, travel immersion is the best method to learn a language. All you have to do is to take admission into a college or university of your choice to learn the language, pack your bags to stay at that place for a minimum of six months or a year. However if this approach seems to have an overwhelming effect on you, due to the cultural shock or create anxiety to think that you would soon land up in a new country, and be unable to express yourself or ask for something due to the language barrier, then we suggest for you a classroom base immersion method which could be complete or partial. The classroom method ensures that you do not have to travel across the world to learn a language and you can do so from within your comfort zone. In the full immersion training method, all the classes are conducted strictly in the target language and students are provided with notes or CDs as a reference to follow and understand the lesson and context better. However, in the partial immersion method, the lesson is conducted in the target language but it is also explained in the commonly used language of the country.
Talking to a conversation partner from your neighbourhood or online via Meetup, italki, CouchSurfing could do wonders to your French learning. Speaking the language is the best ever choice if you wish to learn a language faster. You could choose to select conversation building words and phrases, conversation connectors and fillers to build your vocabulary and transfer them to flashcard apps like Anki that use SRS, Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS), you could use podcasts such as FrenchPod101, audiobooks, various online audios, various online videos, online French playlist from Spotify, all of these could be the real solid resources to build up your French language.
Adding to your confidence and introducing the fun element!
FSI USA mentions French in group 1 of languages that are supposed to be closely related to English And easy to learn for English speakers have a greater chance to learn French easily which has been prescribed as 575 to 600 hours that’s 23-24 weeks.
So stay assured, there are millions of people across the world for learning this new language despite its adversities and complications. Let’s see how they are doing it what are the easiest ways to pick up French
French has a number of cognates, that is words that sound and mean similar in French and English. And so you can say when you speak English you do speak a bit of French too but do keep a watch for the false cognates as well. Listen to French podcast, radio, news, watch French movies with English subtitles and English movies with French subtitles to get a hang of the idioms and phrases spoken, besides the native accent used. Capture the new phrases in your vocabulary and next time around when you watch these movies try to speak with the speaker using the same words so that you are able to figure out differences between your pronunciation and accent versus the speakers’. You can actually pick up the native French dialect as well.
Watch French TV talk shows, soaps and switch on the subtitles to speed up your learning. Read articles and books in French, starting with the kid’s books. LingQ can also be a helpful friend.
French immersion at home
Apart from this, I recommend you make a mini French at home with a few pictures that inspired you to learn French which with then friends’ names written along. Label all the objects in your home with their French names, write them on post-its and stick the post-its to the respective objects. This will also enable you to train your brain to associate the object with its French name instead of translating into English first and then to French. This will help you conduct your conversations faster when you are ready! Change the language of all your electronic devices and your social networking accounts whenever you’re ready Facebook would be your best friend in this case because it’s the easiest to surf around even when bilingual write a journal a diary so that you get into the practice of writing a few sentences in a day you could also choose to write a grocery list as a matter of fact with all names of all important items you set home
Finally. focus on the Easy Aspects of French!
Has no cases (nominative, accusative, etc), unlike Russian.
Is not a tonal language, unlike many African and Asian languages.
Shares a lot of vocabulary with English due to their intertwined histories.
Uses the Latin alphabet.
Only has two noun genders, unlike German, which has three.
And if so many people can, you can do it too!
Everyone who has ever learned to speak French was once a beginner in the language. Don’t feel deterred/ embarrassed saying wrong things and making mistakes. Push through this fear by speaking French even when you feel silly. You’ll learn French much faster that way.