BE INVOLVED
Do not waste time: give yourself objectives. Get immersed as fast as possible. You may organise your learning by making vocabulary lists and translating them. Unfortunately, you can’t avoir learning them by heart.
Language learning apps such as Babbel and Duolingo might be useful at the beginning.
Apparently, french accent sounds sexy, so make the most of it and try to speak as much as you can. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, that’s how you learn.
Push yourself at the restaurant, with taxi drivers, collegues and even people in the street. You’ll kill two birds with one stone: learn faster and make locals happy to see that you’re learning their language.
Having language classes may also be useful although you definitely need practice. That’s also one of the reasons why you started this adventure, right?
IMMERSION
Immersion is from far the best way to learn. Listen to local music, watch movies and series in local language and especially, hang out with locals!
Do not stay alone: in the street or online there are thousand of opportunities to chat with people. Speaking with human beings is much more motivating than be stuck on your phone, it’s time to socialize!
At the start it may be a bit harsh to get away from your mother tongue. Step by step, you’ll manage to give space to the language you’re learning. When you start thinking and dreaming in that language, you’ll have already won the battle!
THE FRENCH TRAP
You’ll obviously meet french people if you live in a city. You might as well be on a french expat group on social media. It is handy but it might also be a big mistake. Avoid hanging out with french people. First, you’ll miss being in a multicultural environment and then you won’t improve in the local language.
Go to local events and hang out with them.
STOP THINKING IN FRENCH
Each language has their own codes and rules. Most of the time, you won’t be understood if you translate a sentence word by word.
The first mistake we do when starting speaking a foreign language, it’s to translate sentences word by word. It is not conscious, it’s instinctive to think in French as we have done it our whole life. It won’t be easy to change that habit but as soon as it’s done, everything will get on well. The best thing is to learn the language from a different perspective.
AVOID ENGLISH
English is spoken nearly everywere. In some countries, locals tend to answer you in english when they understand you’re not from there. You also might go back to english in situations where you don’t know how to express yourself in the local language.
Tell locals that you want to avoid english to learn their language faster. They’ll be happy and helpful. You can also teach them a few words in french then!
Don’t go for the easiest, focus on the local language! Use online translator tools or get a dictionary!
