9 powerful ways to boost your natural French learning abilities

Did you know that learning a language is a natural process? Yes, even as an adult. You have natural abilities to learn French, which your choices can help or hinder.

Today, I am sharing 9 ways that you can boost these natural French learning abilities that we all have.

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Many people believe that children can learn languages naturally and adults can’t. This is just not true.

Here’s where the misconception comes from:

Toddlers learn the language(s) around them naturally, and we retain most of this aptitude in adulthood. What changes, is our environment.

Learning French as an adult, you are never as thoroughly surrounded by the French language as French toddlers are (they soak in it 24/7!). It follows that learning French as an adult will require a little more intentionality than that of a toddler. Good news: you have it! As an adult, you can consciously set out to learn French, and that is a powerful asset.

So, let’s look at 9 ways that you can intentionally boost your brain’s natural French learning abilities. They are all easy and very powerful. Implement a few of these tweaks into your life and watch your French skyrocket.

Daily “French bathing”

This method is also referred to as “immersion”. Here is the good news: you do not need to move to a French speaking area to learn French in immersion. All you need is to find ways to keep the French language around you and interact with it daily.

Note: This will be easier if you already live in a French speaking area, but be careful: many people manage to live in a foreign country for years without learning the language. Just being located in a French speaking country does not guarantee your success, you also need to use the language daily.

We are so lucky to live in a time when the internet can deliver to us a continuous stream of French content, and put us in touch with French speakers to practice the language, no matter where we are located in the world.

Students in my programs get their daily dose of French thanks to a personalised list of French resources that includes youtube channels, podcasts, books etc. . You can start adding more French to your life for free today simply by watching YouTube, check out this article for a long list of French YouTube channels that you may like.

2. Repetition

“Repetition is the mother of skill” - you might have heard this before, as it is a key self-development concept shared by many self-development experts, such as Tony Robbins.

This is due to the mere exposure effect, a cognitive bias that causes us to believe that something is important just because we see/hear it often. Because what we see often feel important to us, we also tend to remember it.

You can harness this brain feature by selecting important words and phrases and looking at them regularly.

Spaced repetition is the art of reviewing a word or a concept right before your brain forgets about it, with the goal of imprinting it in the long term memory with as little effort as possible. Spaced repetition is being used in many language learning tools, mostly apps that have the ‘forgetting curve’ integrated into their code.

But you really don’t need to get that fancy. Here is what I recommend to my coaching clients:

Write the most important words and phrases in a dedicated notebook
Review this notebook once or twice a day for 5 minutes. (see also point 8 in this article)

Just try it. This habit alone can make you progress really fast.

3. Images and text in your environment

Would you like an even simpler way to harness the mere exposure effect?
A way that involves no effort at all, not even reviewing a notebook? You got it!

Peripheral perception is a handy way to trick your brain into learning French.

If there is something you just can’t remember (like say, difficult words or verb conjugations), write it on a paper and stick it to a place where you can see it often. Favourites include your bathroom mirror, your fridge door, next to your workplace or next to your bed.

And then, that’s it.

It’s a complete ‘set it and forget it’ solution. Well, you don’t really forget it of course, but no additional effort is required. You put it there once and you just wait until your brain works its magic.

Once you notice that you can remember your word or phrase easily without looking at the paper, you can remove it and put a new one instead.

One caveat: There is a limit to how much you can learn at a time with this technique. You don’t want to saturate your environment with French words, as this can overwhelm your brain and cause it to ignore the information. It is also better to write in big letters which you can see from as far as possible. This technique works because your brain picks up on what’s written without you noticing it consciously - but you still need to be physically able to read the notes as often as possible for it to work. So make it easy on your brain, give it some big, easy to read letters. I recommend you start this technique with only one or two words, or the conjugation of one verb for example.

4. Enjoyable experiences

Our brain is hard-wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So, if your goal is to learn French, you better associate it with pleasure - it will make it so much easier.

This is your official permission to indulge in everything French-related that you might enjoy: food, movies, traveling to great locations, attractive French speakers, you pick. It has to be enjoyable for you.

Youtube is a great way to be in touch with French content that you enjoy, and to learn while having a good time. Check this article for French Youtube channels you might just fall in love with.

5. Friends and loved ones

Your friends and loved ones who speak or learn French can share the enjoyable experiences with you (see point 4 above). They also bring another key element: social norms (and possibly accountability).

If you are in an environment where speaking French is the norm, even just some of the time, it’s very likely that you will learn French too. Complying with social norms is hard-wired in our brain.

French toddlers learn French because everyone speaks French around them (by the way, that’s how I learned French, as a native.)

Similarly, adult language learners with the best success rate are immigrants who really need to learn the language to get integrated into their new country.

Now, how can you use this feature, if you’re not a toddler or an immigrant?

The kicker is that it won’t work as well if you can always fall back onto your native language. For example, many English speaking expats I met in Berlin, Germany just never learn German, since they don’t really need it.

If you have French speaking friends or relatives, I suggest you create a “French only” day/half-day/hour when you won’t be allowed to speak English. Try to do it at least once a week, schedule it in advance and have your friend or relative hold you accountable. You’ll be amazed at what you can say in French when you are committed and have a supportive conversation partner. Feel free to also have a delicious French meal at the same time, to leverage the enjoyable experience (see point 4)

6. Keep your brain fresh and working at its best.

If you are mentally exhausted, sleep deprived or your diet doesn’t nourish you appropriately, you just won’t be able to get the best results in your French study.
So, make sure you sleep enough, stay hydrated, eat well etc.
I have written this article about 8 things that will help your brain learn French faster, so I won’t elaborate further here.

7. Take advantage of your most productive time

Some people work better in the morning, some work better in the evening.

It’s important to know when you are at your best, so you can harness this time for studying.

If you’re exhausted after work, don’t plan a study session then. Instead, go to bed earlier and get up earlier so you can study French in the morning. You’ll get much better results this way.
Conversely if you’re a night own and you can never think straight when you get up, schedule your study time in the evening.

8. Create habits

This is another favourite of self-development aficionados like myself.
Habits can be challenging to put in place but once you have them, it’s like being able to do something on autopilot: no willpower and very little attention needed.

Remember my vocabulary notebook advice from point 2?

I also recommend to my clients that they review their notebook at the same time everyday and tie it to another habit they already have. One of my students reviews her notebook every morning while her coffee is dripping. Another one reviews his vocabulary at the gym in the one-minute breaks between his sets of reps. When can *you* find a couple of minutes to review your vocab daily?

9. Get a coach

I once heard this amazing definition of what a coach is: A coach is a vehicle.

If you know where you’re going, a coach will get you there much faster than you’d have on your own.

Your coach is here to understand your personality and goals and helps you learn in a way that is a natural fit. And it works!

I have many students who have been trying to learn French for years without making any progress, and when they started working with me, either 1-1 or in my group program, they suddenly started making visible progress, virtually overnight. You don’t have to take my word for it, there are many testimonials where they say it themselves.

Getting a coach is probably the best thing you can do for your French skills because it will give you guidance and direction, and all the rest will just flow and fall into place easily.

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.