#Babes learning on the job download#

Link French to Images and Visual Situations, not English words So if you don’t translate, what should you do? 7. It makes your brain waste 30% more time and energy and will fool you into making a mistake when the literal translation doesn’t work – which is unfortunately often the case in French! Translating adds a huge step in the process of speaking:

As you advance in your French studies, try as much as possible to avoid translating. When you are a total beginner, some translation is going to occur. Translate French Into English as Little as Possible The method you choose has to come with solid grammatical explanations – very few people can master French without first understanding French grammar – and audio recordings featuring both traditional and modern French. At one point I suggest you invest into a reliable French learning method. However, if you are serious about learning French, you need to follow a structured path which gently leads you through the different French learning stages.

#Babes learning on the job download#

There is also some really good free material out there – if you have not done it already, I encourage you download my free French learning audiobook. It’s easy to get lost in there, and jump from one funny video to another but at the end, actually learn very little – or not what you should be learning!

And your time is valuable.īe particularly careful about social networks. However if the material is not good, then ‘free’ can be a total waste of your time. Nowadays every French teaching website is offering something free. Skype and/or phone French lessons can be a good solution. Some students need the expertise of a teacher to guide them through their studies, motivate them and find creative ways to explain the same point until it is understood. It doesn’t mean that someone less gifted cannot learn French, but it means that self-studying is not for everybody. It’s not fair, and it’s not popular to say it… but it’s true. I’ve taught hundreds of students, and I can tell you from experience that some people have an easier time with languages than others. When it comes to learning languages, not everybody is the same. Check it out to see if you can understand modern spoken French.Ģ0 Questions to REALLY test your modern French comprehension. I developed an audio-based modern French placement test. This being said, studying French with audio is a must if you want to learn French to communicate: understand modern spoken French and speak French yourself. Whatever the method you are using to learn French, make sure you adapt it to YOUR learning style. Be in Touch with your Own Learning Styleĭo you need to write? Or do you need to listen? Or do you need to read to learn things by heart? Now let’s talk about your own study style. Picking the right French audiobook is your first challenge and from your choice may very well depend the success or failure of your French studies. Check out my free audio guide about the French verb être conjugations and pronunciation. I wrote a whole article about modern spoken French with many examples, so I invite you to read it should you like to know more.įor example, the modern spoken pronunciation of “être” various conjugations is quite different than what you may have studied… Especially in the negative, when you apply all the glidings with the subject pronouns and the ne…. Yet, if you want to learn French to communicate in French, not just to pass exams, you need to train to understand modern spoken French. “The spoken French taught in American classrooms is a fiction, based on ideas about how people should speak, not on how they do speak” – Waught & Fonseca-Greber University of Arizona Click to Tweet Many students are still learning French mostly with written material, or traditional methods that over enunciate every single word.įormal school curriculum usually focus on grammar and verb conjugations – the teachers don’t have a choice: they have to cover the imposed curriculum, and that leaves little time for anything else! There are many silent letters, glidings, liaisons, etc… and they are everywhere, including in French verb conjugations and grammar. Written French and spoken French are almost 2 different languages. Let’s start with one truth that many French students don’t realise but which is key if you want to do more than just read novels or French magazines…