The ONE thing you need to learn French successfully
As a French learning coach, I can help you tremendously in your French journey. I can help you with your mindset, your strategies, your grammar, your vocabulary, even with staying motivated and consistent. There’s only one thing that I can’t help you with. You’ll have to bring this with you - and whether you have it or not will determine your success or failure in learning French.
Language learning researchers have learned this the hard way, as you’ll see in this video, which is now one of the most popular on my YouTube channel. You can also read the main points below the video.
If you like this video, click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I make new videos regularly about what it takes to become a French speaker.
The history bit:
In 1941, the Defense Language institute was created with the mission to teach Japanese to members of the US army before they go to war in the Pacific theatre.
Scientists were charged with creating a new method for them to learn fast and efficiently.
The new scientific method was called audio-lingual method and nicknamed “army method”.
It was very successful. 6000 graduates served in the Pacific theatre and later during the occupation of Japan.
After this massive success, schools around the world proceeded to implement the new method. Some of this method still survives nowadays, and you might have come across two main elements: drills and the language lab.
Drills are a kind of grammar exercises. Their goal is to make a language pattern automatic in your brain. It’s basically filling in the blanks and repeating phrases over and over again until it has become second nature.
The language lab is this weird room where you can record yourself and listen again or hand the tape over to the teacher.
School officials around the world were persuaded that language learning has now become very easy thanks to science, and that every student would soon become bilingual.
Unfortunately, we both know that it did not happen.
As it turns out, if your life might depend on your Japanese speaking ability, your brain makes it high priority to learn Japanese. The method has little to do with it.
Key take away:
The most important is to know why you learn. It makes you go on when you feel like quitting.
My clients have the best results when they are in one of these two situations:
They live in a French speaking country at least some of the time - or they are planning to move to a French speaking country.
Their work involves speaking French, or they will need to speak French in their next position.
If your reasons to learn French are not as strong as those, it is possible to cultivate them.
You can cultivate them by enjoying the language and the culture: watch movies (even with subtitles), read books (even in translation), travel to French speaking countries (even if you can’t speak much yet).
Remembering why you started will make your motivation rise again.
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.
Pro tip: you don’t need to choose!
All my 1-1 clients are invited to join the French Accelerator free of charge.
Feel free to book a call with me now to discuss options.
About the author
Angel Pretot is a French learning coach. He helps English speakers from all over the world learn French fast and become fluent. You can work with him one-on-one (online via skype or a similar software) or join a global community of French learners in his group program the French Fluency Accelerator.
Pin this for later:
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
The history of language learning teaches us that scientists have always tried to find the best way to learn French or any foreign language. In 1941, they thought they had found the ultimate method to learn languages. Did they really? Well, no. But their disappointement helped us learn something critical: to be successful in your French language study, you need one very important thing, that a French teacher cannot give you. Click to find out what that is, wether you have it and how you can get it if you don't. #learnfrench #languagelearning #learningfrench #foreignlanguage
