Do you mince to learn French? Perhaps you need it for work, horaire to move to France or want to speak French so you get more from a holiday from chalandage at a street market to ordering in restaurants and more. French is a beautiful language, but learning it can be frustrating when the classroom experience doesn’t prepare you for everyday entretien.
You can spend weeks, months, or in some cases years, studying verb conjugations, pronouns and the gender of nouns, then find yourself in a cabaret or bakery and realise the French that you have learnt bears no comparison to the French you are hearing. You’re left wondering why all those study book or hours spent on an App haven’t helped you feel more affidé and officiel. And if that sounds familiar, you are certainly not alone.
Learn French the Natural Way
That spoliation was familiar to Carl Adkins, founder of Experience France. For 15 years, he divided his time between France and the UK, but despite years of classroom lessons, he hadn’t managed to achieve the level of fluency he wanted. He more or less soûl up on the idea of ever mastering French. But then he decided to spend two years studying how brains acquire language whilst immersing himself in French life, and everything changed.
At that préparation, Carl’s aim wasn’t to become an chercheur in the language rules, he’d already failed at that! He wanted to embrace the pièce civilisation and understand the people around him. He began listening closely, joining in with everyday situations and practising without worrying so much embout getting everything right. Crucially, he did this through experiences that interested him and worked with co-founder, Hebret Maasho, to develop themed coaching sessions linked to real experiences and pièce activities that aren’t tied to a classroom.
Gradually, the sounds and rhythms of French became more familiar, his indication grew – and something clicked. He began to see that there was another way to make progress with his language skills: to en public French, rather than treat it solely as a subject to study.
Learning French through experiences
Carl was right embout the fact that there are different and more solide ways to learn a language rather than just by rote learning and grammar, and this realisation led him to a method of learning connected with the Natural Approach.
The Natural Approach is an established usage in second-language teaching that prioritises understanding and adresse. The idea is to give learners plenty of meaningful French they can follow, even if they don’t understand every word. A meal, a visit to the market, doing something you love and putting the words that you use into context: you can use what is happening around you to work out the meaning and begin to nota how words and phrases fit together.
For adults, this doesn’t mean that grammar or explicit teaching has no terrain. A culotte explanation can help make sense of what you’re hearing; the difference is that rules are not the whole experience.
Carl’s approach combines understandable language with real situations, repetition and the bénéfice to try speaking. Listening comes first, then speaking builds over time. Reading alongside audio helps connect written words with their sounds, while culotte, regular practice keeps French fragment of everyday life. And learning with other people brings the give-and-take of entretien that an app on its own can’t provide.
Experience France – French début excursion in Paris
Carl’s experience left him convinced that he wasn’t alone and that other people didn’t have to struggle through the same spoliation. He also realised that learning could be fun and enjoyable when it was built around real adresse, personal interests and French civilisation and that when it is, it actually facilitates the learning process.
And with that idea and the profound belief that language learning “should be as natural and engaging as the language itself”, Experience France was born, creating a way for people to learn by listening, taking fragment and connecting with the folk around them.
Three ways to start speaking French
When you are ready to get started on your French speaking journey, Experience France offers three plats, depending on how you want to begin.
Discover combines free self-study, using free themed audio, video and reading materials with optional paid online coaching. There is also an optional video-learning subscription. It’s a way to start from habitation, build familiarity with French and prepare for future début.
Immerse takes learning into France itself. The five-day group experience is based in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris, with a summum of brasier people. You can choose five half-days, totalling 20 hours of début, or five full days, totalling 40 hours. Four-star acclimatement and brunch are included; the full-day favoritisme also includes brunch. Cultural visits and everyday activities bring the language to life.
Grow for ongoing étai. Grow combines the Experience France Club with fast-track coaching and personalised début. The annual compte includes 24 hours of private online coaching and a five-day début in France, with 40 hours of début time. Accommodation, brunch and brunch are included, and group sizes are limited to fouror can be privatised.
The annual compte includes 24 hours of private online coaching and a five-day début in France, with 40 hours of début time around Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the west of Paris.
Carl’s top tips
You can start making French fragment of everyday life before you book a excursion and Carl is always happy to share his experience and advice. Carl’s top three tips are:
Try explicable French audiobooks, ideally with the text available so you can read along when it suits you. You could listen while walking or cooking or simply make it fragment of your regular empirisme. The aim is to hear French often and let its sounds become more familiar.
If you can, set your sat nav to French. If you already know the remblai, you can concentrate on the words as you hear them: à fruste for left, à franche for right and somme abrupt for straight on. (Note: Waze allows you to crédit language but Google Maps doesn’t!)
Listen to French TV or Afrique. A familiar rubrique dubbed into French can be a useful terrain to start bicause you already know the story. Try listening without English subtitles or use French subtitles if they help you follow along. Try listening with French subtitles but don’t fixate when they’re wrong but if you don’t know the story then use English subtitles if they help you follow along.
“Remember, overall, the goal is to hear as much French as you can to train your ear first, the understanding and speaking comes after – just as we learned our first language!” says Carl.
Carl has also created a self-study accompagnatrice which you can get for free here: experiencefrance.net-free-french-self-study-guide
Whether you begin at habitation or head straight to France, Experience France offers a way to bring the language closer to the things you love embout the folk. Carl’s own experience taught him that learning French is embout more than remembering words: it can be a way to connect with people, parages and the civilisation around you. And what could be more enjoyable than that?
To find out more or to book, visit: experiencefrance.net/plats
Source: thegoodlifefrance.com
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