How to learn French in one year
One of my New year resolutions was to learn French and pass the DELF B1 exam. I made it, so I want to share how I did it without courses and tutors. Allons-y!
General advice
Three main things that helped me to accomplish this project:
- Habit tracker to mark the days I studied French. Try Loop Habit Tracker for Andoid and Productive for iOS.
- Progress Sheet in my notebook to list all the textbooks I studied, books I read and films I watched. It helps to see current achievements and inspires me to work further.
- Fixed place and time for study to focus faster and to build a habit.
January – February
You need to start with basics: get acquainted with pronunciation and reading rules and learn must-have phrases such as “Hello!” and “What’s up?”. For me, the first couple of weeks were painful because French is very different from languages I already knew, English and Russian.
Memrise App. The app team made several introductory courses with audio and video materials. The first three will teach you how to introduce yourself, order food and talk about your work.
Learn French in 35 days. An introduction to pronunciation, writing and French grammar.
March – April
I envy people who learned French by singing songs because it is not working for me until I understand the language structure and its logic. Therefore, I found Easy French Step-by-Step self-study guide with exercises. I learnt the foundations of grammar and expanded my vocabulary. After that the Chamber of Secrets was open and “Ça doit, faire au moins mille fois que j’ai compté mes doigts” from Papaoutai lyrics didn’t sound like abracadabra anymore.
At the same time, I watched Extra French – sitcom-style language series for beginners.
May – July
At this stage, I already could hear and distinguish the words and speak elementary French. In May I saw my first film, and in June I read my first book. I’m a big fan of learning languages from TV shows, but the problem is that the French do not film them as much! My lifehack was to watch How I Met Your Mother in French dubbing, by the way, an excellent one.
As a study source, I watched an old classic TV course French in Action. There are 52 episodes entirely in French and a textbook and a workbook to practice. Each lesson is a story about the same characters with new vocabulary and context.
In June, I discovered sentence mining with Anki flashcards, i.e. learning sentences instead of isolated words. Here is an excellent collection 16000 French sentences sorted from easiest to hardest of sentences with audio.
August – September
Moving on from learning materials for beginners, I looked up through French teachers communities on social media for more complex textbooks.
Compréhension orale 2 — Niveau B1 a textbook with listening exercises. Nothing new here: listen to a dialogue or monologue and answer questions.
Expression écrite 3 — Niveau B1/B1. You read a text on a specific topic, answer questions, study tips and tricks and then write an essay.
October – December
It’s time to prepare for the DELF B1 exam! I studied these textbooks DELF B1–200 activités, Réussir le DELF B1. The last one is a classic written by the exam authors for all levels. Additionally, you can try Alter Ego 3, but I heard about it too late :)
I also took all the practice tests I could find, read four books, watched two films and the “Stranger Things” TV show and completed one MOOC.
Result: the passed exam and a long-expected vacation :)
Bonus links!
Find Alliance Française in your city. Those are official cultural and educational French centres. You can take paid courses, go to their library or visit cultural events there.
Fun MOOC – French MOOC provider. MOOCs are a way to learn academic French, professional vocabulary and/or something new.
RFI. Radio France Internationale offers a variety of media to practice and sample assignments for exams.
TV5MONDE – short video reports with interactive tests divided by level and topic. Here you can listen to different French accents.
Le Monde — YouTube channel of Le Monde newspaper produces explanation videos on hot topics.