Many people say they can’t find the time to learn French.
Here’s what successful French learners do:

1) they make the time & 2) they also strive to use the most efficient method so they learn French as fast as it gets.

In this article, I will share with you two important types of study and how you can combine them for fastest results. This is what I use with my clients and in my group program. I recommend you do it as well because it is by far the fastest way to learn French.

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To learn French as fast as it gets, you need to combine two types of study.

So, what are those two types of study?

Focused study

This is what you generally think of when you think of study: books, classrooms, teachers, or more recently, computers and digital French learning methods. Very few people are able to learn without any focused study at all. So, chances are, you too will benefit from some Focused study

Focused study is important to:

provide a familiar environment: For most of us, learning means teacher, books, focussed time, possibly computers. This is how we are used to learn. When you learn something new, you don't want to completely upset how you learn. It's hard enough on your brain to learn a new language, so it's not a good idea to also change entirely how you learn. Our brains need to rely on what they already know to be able to learn more.
have a plan: you can't learn everything at once so it's good to rely on an existing plan, whether it's in a book or custom-made for you by the teacher.
By the way, I make a custom-made plan for every single client who works with me one one one, and my group program starts with showing you how to make your own custom plan step by step.

have a schedule: One of the key elements of successful French learning is consistency. Make sure you have regular focused study sessions. You can go to a French class or find a 1-1 tutor or coach (like me, for example) with whom you can book your sessions in advance, or if you study on your own, plan your study sessions in your calendar and make this a non-negotiable appointment with yourself.

validate what you have learned. Not knowing how much progress you are making - or if you are making progress at all - can be very uncomfortable or even disheartening. A good teacher will be able to help you have a good grasp of how well you are progressing. This is something I insist a lot on, in all my programs.

I recommend at least one hour of focused study every week plus at least 5 minutes everyday to learn your vocabulary.

Most people rely solely on their focused study to teach them French. In my professional opinion, this is a mistake, which guarantees that your study will be slower and more difficult than it needs to be.

In fact, most rely solely on the time they stay in the classroom and maybe a little bit of homework and don’t even include a daily vocabulary review. This causes them to relearn much of the same thing week after week, and therefore it’s even slower.

Plus, the sessions are time-consuming, cost a lot of energy and brain space, and typically have a financial cost as well. So it sounds like a good idea to maximize their impact.

If you’re doing a daily vocabulary review, congratulations, you’re already ahead of the curve.

But wait, it gets even better! Remember, at the beginning of this article, I was telling you that you need to combine two types of study for the fastest results, and I’ve only told you about one so far, which I’ve called focused study. There is also unfocused study, which is sometimes referred to as immersion.

Your French skills really get turbocharged once you also include unfocused study or immersion in your routine.

2.Unfocused study or immersion

It encompasses everything and anything that can teach some French to you in a more informal manner, such as watching movies, listening to French music or radio in the background, etc. I often call this the daily French bath.

It costs nothing (or considerably less than classes), doesn't bore you or stress you out and doesn't take time out of your schedule, since you can do it while you commute, work out or generally do whatever you do, only with an added French touch to it.

I have previously written an article about this, which is entitled “how to learn French in one click”, because it’s just that easy to do.

Unfocused study is how you learned your native language as a child. I’m pretty sure you don’t remember focusing on it or trying hard - and yet, you did learn it.

The good news is that, not only you can still do it as an adult, but you can do it much faster than children do. When you think about it, it took you about 7 years to master your native language, from age 0 to 7.

As an adult, if you know how to do it, you can master French within 6 months to 1 year. That’s a lot faster than the 7 years you needed as a child.

You can do this, because you can use all the skills that you already have and your ability to focus on what matters.

If you actively intend to learn the things that will be useful to you, your unfocused study will support this learning very efficiently.

I’ve designed a system called Your Roadmap to Fluency that allows you to do just that. It integrates both types of study in a perfect mix.

It’s the exact method I use with all my one on one clients and within my group program, the French Fluency Accelerator.

If you are serious about learning French, you can study with me one-on-one or join my group program the French Fluency Accelerator.

You can also get started for free with this starter kit:

Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with me as a student or client. Please check out:

My 1-1 coaching program, The French Transformation, if you need to improve your French fast.
My group program, The French Fluency Accelerator, if you’d like to join a community of students from all over the world. We have weekly practice calls together and the best online video library to learn French.