You have decided to relocate to a French-speaking country. It’s not an easy experience and you will no doubt be confronted with the main problem in daily life! How to become integrated in society?
The absolute must: start to learn French, progress as fast as possible until finally you will speak perfect French!!!

Why is it important?
You want to become integrated into a society that functions thanks to the interaction of its population.  People talk, converse, ask and answer questions. This communication is the basis for culture, the economy, political life, trade, etc. You are part of society if you are able to take part in this interaction.

What are the obstacles?
One tends to think that in a French-speaking country it is easier to learn French. That’s true, but there are pitfalls:

• at work only English may be spoken
  
• you are not looking for contacts with French people
  
• you have no French friends
  
• you don’t try to speak French in shops or at the market because you’re afraid of making mistakes
  
• you’re not interested in local culture or in French current affairs.

What is the secret of success?
It takes a lot of energy but, as you will see, it’s a good investment of your time!

If you are a beginner:
— you need to take French lessons, as it’s very difficult to learn a language on your own, at least at the beginning. We offer you French lessons Online on Skype which will enable you to progress rapidly. You will learn to express yourself in basic situations of everyday life: how to order a coffee, how to ask your way, how to pay your bills, etc.
You will see immediately the fruit of your efforts: with our communicative method you will be able to use what you learned just after the lesson, communicating in real situations!

If your level is intermediate: 

• you must seize every opportunity to speak French. At the baker’s, the hairdresser’s, at the market, with your French colleagues… all these little dialogues will help you remember the words, learn expressions so that you get to speak perfectly.
  
• don’t be afraid of making mistakes, dare to speak. If you don’t say something perfectly it doesn’t really matter, as you are there to learn. Be proud of learning and speaking French, for the more languages you speak the richer you are!
  
• prepare in advance. You have an appointment with the doctor or a business meeting? Reformulate your words in advance. That way you’ll express yourself more easily. Don’t hesitate to learn by heart what you want to say in French, it’s a very effective learning technique. You will never again forget the French words and expressions if you learn them this way.
  
• take an interest in French culture, read about the country’s current affairs, take part in local events. Go out looking for things that interest you in town. It’s a very good way of finding motivation for learning French.

If you find that these techniques are not sufficient and need guidance, we advise you take French lessons Online on Skype. You’ll be able to ask your native-speaking teacher all your questions and learn everything that you couldn’t learn alone: correct French pronunciation, difficult points of French grammar, correct use of expressions, etc.
Take a free trial lesson on Skype and share your difficulties with us.

You are learning French and your level is already fairly good, but in conversation you often can’t find your words. You always use the same vocabulary and what you write in French is weak in expressions.
There is no alternative, you have to ENRICH your vocabulary in French.
But how can this be done?

First of all, you can take French lessons on Skype where you will be offered a large amount of exercises:

You will read and discuss short texts in French (articles, commentaries, etc.) with your teacher (What is the text about? How to reformulate your ideas? What do you think of this idea? For what reason?) – this technique enables you to reuse the vocabulary used in the text and thus memorise it faster.

Your teacher asks you to explain the meaning of certain words in French (ex.: what does gagner mean? It means to win the first prize) or to invent a new sentence for these words – this technique is also helpful to commit the words quickly to memory and develop your vocabulary in French.

You are encouraged to provide synonyms for certain words – this exercise enriches your vocabulary and prevents you from always repeating the same words in your conversations in French.

During the lesson your teacher types the words that are new for you on the Skype message board - the result: at the end of the lesson you have a complete list of the French vocabulary, that you have only to revise later on.

You will also receive sentences and texts in English for you to translate into French – this exercise is mainly to enable you to discover the English and French words that are similar but which have a completely different meaning (ex.: attendre in French doesn’t mean the same thing as attend in English) (another example! Beginners often translate I am eating by je suis manger, though the present perfect tense doesn’t exist in this form in French).  

Here are some other ideas for improving your vocabulary in French:

• Read as much as possible in French! Advice: set up a detailed plan, reading an article a day or ten pages a week, for example.
  
• Is there a French word that you read or heard that you don’t understand? Write down the words during the week and check their meaning when it is over.
  
• Use a French monolingual dictionary! Il will enable you to learn synonyms and get to know more useful words! Advice +: if you are looking for the meaning of a French word on the internet, type the word + “definition” and you’ll discover the best French monolingual dictionaries available on line!
  
• Give yourself a simple objective: learning five new French words a week… that’s not much, but you must really learn them well and try to use them in different situations when you are speaking French (at work, with friends, during a lesson on Skype, etc.).
  
• Use “yellow stickies” everywhere at home with the French words that you want to memorise… stick them onto the mirror, the fridge, the doors, and read them each time you pass by… with time this exercise will become automatic without you even realising it!
  
• Start writing! Don’t you keep a diary? Or a blog? Start writing one in French! Write how you spent your day, what you thought about! If you are a beginner you should concentrate on actions, whereas if you have a good level you can enter into details and describe each situation of your life.
  
• Register for an online dictionary to receive the “word of the day” by email. Each day you will receive a word in French for which you can check the origin, meaning and usage. Very helpful!

A piece of good news to end with: 1 word learnt = 10 words understood, for a word learnt enables you to form a noun, an adjective, a verb, etc.

• Repeat, repeat, repeat again
  Repetition is the key to success. If you concentrate just on new words you will quickly forget what you learned previously… don’t forget to repeat!!!
  
  

• 5 x 20 minutes is more productive than 1 x 100 minutes a week
  Dedicating 20 minutes each day (why not on the bus?) for learning French is more useful than sitting down for a couple of hours at the weekend with the idea of “now I’m going to learn everything by heart”. 20 minutes is enough for repeating 15-20 new words and to revise the explanation of a rule of grammar. With this technique you’ll go far!
  
  

• Concentrate on what is important! Personalise your learning!
  What is the point of learning the names of all the plants in French if you are not interested in gardening? You’ll have no-one to talk with about it. Concentrate on the words and expressions in French that are important for you, that you are really going to use in your work or daily life. You will move forward faster and have the impression of using what you have learned!
  
  

• Put into context!
  It is very important to learn new words by heart in their context (meaning in a sentence) and not on their own. This technique will allow you to retain the meaning of a French word more easily and also to know how to use it (with a suffix? In an expression? At the beginning or the end of a sentence? etc.)
  
  

• Avoid translating
  Putting new words into context will help you avoid translation!. Translation may seem helpful to you as a technique for learning, but it is not. It will get you into the bad habit of thinking in your native language and then translating your ideas into French. The result is that you won’t speak real French, with genuine French expressions. So stop translating and start thinking in French, even if that seems difficult at the beginning!
  Here is an example to illustrate this problem with beginners:
  You want to say: I am 35 years old. – I’ll translate into French- Je suis 35 ans…. No way! That’s not how it works… in French you use the verb avoir (have) when you are talking about age.  J’ai 35 ans ('I have 35 years').
  
  Learn to think in French!  It will help you save time and energy!
  
  

• Accept the way you are
  You are not learning French as rapidly as the others? You need to revise a French word three times to know it by heart? Don’t worry, each person works with their own resources! If you need to hear the rule for the passé composé (present perfect tense) four times to know it by heart, don’t hesitate to ask your French teacher to explain it four times. No need to be ashamed of asking questions when you are learning French!
  
  

• Concentrate on the communication
  Whatever your goals for learning French you must always find the time for spoken exercises!!!  Written French is very different from spoken French. If you don’t learn them at the same time it will be harder later on! Don’t forget that a language is above all meant for communicating.
  
  

You need to be productive when you learn French? Then follow our method and ask for help from a native-speaking teacher. He will accompany while you learn French and will follow your progress. Discover how you can learn on Skype.

You are learning French, but you have difficulty speaking. You are afraid of saying something foolish. If someone asks you a question in French you have a mental block and forget everything that you have learnt in French. Don’t be afraid, you are not the only one with this problem! Communication doesn’t come automatically, you need practise (a lot)!!

Generally speaking, when you begin to learn French you concentrate on the exercises in the language manual. You register in a language school and listen to the teacher from the back of the class. You memorise the words, learn the grammar, begin little by little to  write compositions and understand more and more of the recordings that the teacher plays for you. After a certain time you reach a level where you feel that you more or less know the French language. Encouraged by this idea, you plan a trip to France or you try to make French friends in your own country. That’s when the disappointment comes: in front of real French people, when you need to speak to them, not a word comes out. A complete mental block, you can no longer understand anything. You get the impression that the energy you have invested in learning French has been wasted. When you find yourself in such a situation you have to admit one thing: there is a large gap between what you can write and what you can say in French. While you were learning you forgot to develop communication skills, you thought that they would just come by themselves. Unfortunately that is never the case…

The solution: start working without delay on oral expression with a French teacher. You cannot acquire this skill on your own, for you need to converse with someone. Your teacher will ask you questions, will correct you and help you express yourself better.

If you start to learn French with us on Skype as a beginner, you will see: you will make progress in oral expression at the same speed as for written expression! You speak French from the first minute onwards with your native-speaking French teacher. It’s really the most efficient method!

If you have been learning French for some time, but have the impression that you are more advanced in written than in spoken French, lessons on Skype are made for you! You learn to practise out loud with all the knowledge that is in your head!

Here are some more tips that you can use outside your lessons on Skype for speedy and successful improvement:

• Say what you know, make use of the French words that you have learnt! Be honest: it’s easier to practise what you know that what you don’t…
  
• Express yourself SIMPLY! That will give you self-confidence and help you speak French in a fluent way.
  
• Use body language, intonation, gestures.
  
• Start looking for situations where you can speak with French people. You have to “dive in at the deep end” as early as possible, even if it is difficult, otherwise it just doesn’t work.
  
• If you can’t find anyone… talk to yourself! The advantage of this technique is that it is not stressful… You are face to face with yourself, no-one else can hear you! You can talk about anything you want: how you spend your day, the summary of a book, an interesting event in the newspapers, etc. Express your thoughts! Talk about your opinions and your impressions! It is important to exercise this technique by talking aloud, because, if you only speak “in your head”, you won’t practise the pronunciation! (Advice: if you don’t want people to give you strange looks, just use the earpiece of your mobile as if you were talking on the phone).

Don’t forget: the ability to communicate is a major skill !!! If it’s not for communicating with other that you are learning a language, then what’s the point of learning?

The same idea presented above about progression in spoken French is also valid for written expression: to make progress you need to “dive in at the deep end”. Start writing in French to your teacher, to a friend or to yourself. The subject can be anything that interests you: the news, the story you have read or the story of your life.  Even if your level in French is very elementary you will manage to express yourself.

Our advice:

• make up simple but correct sentences! Subject + verb + predicate. End of the first sentence. Subject + verb + predicate. End of the second sentence, etc…. Several simple ideas in short sentences can make up a decent coherent text.
  
• to apply this first rule, forget the sentences that are in your head in your native language. They are too long and elaborate for you to be able to translate them correctly into French. To write short sentences you must start by thinking only in French! 
  
• to enrich your vocabulary use the following technique: find a couple of new French words or expressions per page that you want to insert into your text. Study them well, in what context they can be used, the verbs, nouns and adjectives that can be used with them.  Don’t take more than two new words per page, otherwise it will be hard to memorise them.

Once your text is ready you will be wondering who will correct them. For that you will need a French teacher not only to correct what you have written, but also to explain why something isn’t correct and how to remedy it. If you take lessons on Skype you can email your texts to your teacher, who will correct them and send them back before the lesson. During the French lesson on Skype you can discuss these problems with your teacher, who will clarify your grammar questions and suggest different ways of expressing your ideas.  It’s an excellent way of improving your written French!

Methods and techniques for learning French have changed radically during recent years.  So-called “traditional” methods cover books, photocopies, audio CDs from language schools and libraries.  In our fast-track world we consider that we no longer have the time to learn using these methods and so decide to turn to the internet.  And not without reason, for there are numerous resources to be found there, from teach-yourself software packages, through fast-learning applications, to interactive self-correction exercises. 

To make the most of these resources, all you need is a computer and an internet connection.  A smartphone may also be enough if you want to learn with the help of a software application.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques?

Advantages:

• With all the software for mobiles and audio applications, you can learn French anywhere: on the bus, during your coffee break at work, etc.
• Lessons don’t take up much time: 20 to 30 minutes, and there are even methods offering 5-10-minute express lessons for learning French.
• This software is fine for maintaining your language level. If you have a good level in French and don’t want to lose it, choose an express method, which will take you 10 minutes a day and will help you refresh your memory!

Disadvantages:

• Nobody is there to answer your questions. You are taking a course on a computer and you fall on a sentence or expression that you don’t understand.  This can happen often when you are learning French. To get an answer to your questions you need someone who can help you to learn and make progress in French.
• With the often predetermined quantity and order their exercises, software packages don’t let you personalise the learning process. For example, even if you need to practise the “passé composé” (perfect) rather than the future tense, the software will give you the same amount of exercises for each point of grammar. Or even if you would like to focus on oral expression, you will also have to do exercises in written expression. If you want to personalise your course, you need a teacher to prepare lessons that are perfectly adapted to your needs. This will enable you to make more rapid and efficient progress.
• Software doesn’t force you to do exercises. If you haven’t enough will-power or discipline to learn on your own, you need a teacher to rhythm your learning of French.  You will be all the more motivated and successful.
• When you learn French on your own, you are in charge of your own progress. If you learn with a teacher, responsibility is shared, and thus better controlled, which is a guarantee of success.

Consequently, our advice is for you to try out the largest possible number of methods and techniques while always making sure that you are accompanied by a competent teacher.  If you want to learn French 100% on line, discover French lessons on Skype, the way to learn French using a real relationship with an experienced native French teacher. To discover how this works, click here.

Are you learning French? Whether you are a beginner or an advanced pupil you will probably have been wondering whether you need a teacher to learn French. Why not use a teach-yourself method?  It’s simpler, cheaper, and I can organise it the way I want and progress at my own rhythm, can’t I?

We have bad news for you: unfortunately this technique does not always work...

Here are five reasons why you can’t learn without the presence of a human being:

1. It’s very hard to choose by oneself the information that one really needs in order to speak French well. For example: you open up your French grammar book and encounter tenses for the first time: passé compose (perfect), imparfait (imperfect), plus-que-parfait (pluperfect), passé simple (preterit)… You start studying and learn them by heart without realising, for example, that the passé simple is a tense that is never used in oral conversation and even the French don’t always know it by heart…
   Then you take your vocabulary book and open it up at idiomatic expressions…  how can you know which expressions are really important and in which everyday situation they are used?  in a family context?  or more formally?
2. Teaching oneself is time wasting. You are learning French but you are stuck on a problem?  Finding the answer on the internet or in a book usually takes 10 minutes. Asking a teacher directly and receiving an immediate answer with a good explanation takes 2 to 3 minutes.  On average you spend five times longer if you are learning on your own…
3. There is no one to correct you. You make mistakes in pronunciation, comprehension and spelling, but you don’t even realise it… Little by little these mistakes become automatic and it is very difficult (or even impossible) to lose these bad habits and reflexes.
4. There is no-one to motivate and evaluate you. When you begin learning French you are full of motivation. But you lose it very easily. Let’s take an example: you are planning to study French this evening but a friend invites you to the cinema. What do you do? If you have reserved a lesson with a teacher you will probably go home so as not to miss the lesson. If it’s only your book that is waiting, you may say “it doesn’t matter, I’ll go to the cinema and then I’ll study my French” (unfortunately one often breaks one’s promise..).
5. There is no-one to provide feedback. You have decided to sit for a French exam. How can you be sure that you have the appropriate level? If you don’t want to waste time and money you need to ask a teacher for his opinion. He will be able to tell you whether you have the required level to take the exam and how much time and effort you need to get up to speed. If your progress is followed by a teacher your success is guaranteed.

While you are learning French make sure that you are always accompanied by a competent teacher.  If you want to learn French 100% on line, discover French lessons on Skype, the way to learn French using a real relationship with an experienced native French teacher. To discover how this works, click here.

The first thing that you need to know is that anyone can put absolutely anything on line.  Consequently there is unfortunately a lot of rubbish on the internet, which means that you have to sort through the material, documents and services which are supposed to help you learn French. You will find some that are paying and others that are non-paying, but unfortunately you cannot make your choice on this criterion alone, since much that is useful is offered free of charge and much that is useless is very expensive. In spite of this, one has to admit that you have a better chance of finding a quality material or service when the supplier considers that he has the right to ask for a certain sum for his product in which he has invested significant amount of time and money. It’s not a hundred percent sure, but it’s very probable.

If you really want to avoid paying, there is another possibility, provided that you have a lot of free time. You can undertake painstaking research on the internet and list all the documents, methods, services and material that you may find useful for learning French. But who has the time for this? Not many of us…
We have most of us 20 to 30 minutes a day to study French, so it would be a pity to waste our time surfing the internet…

To be brief, one thing is certain: to learn to speak French correctly you need to invest something, either time or money.  However, taking into account that all of us are always running late these days, money seems to be the more logical choice.

The second argument is about motivation. Let’s be honest: if you pay for something, you make the most of it. You don’t want to lose your investment, so you dedicate all you energy to it… and that’s how you learn French successfully.

And above all don’t forget: the time that you spend learning French is precious, so use it really FOR LEARNING.

If you want to save your time and learn French 100% on line, discover French lessons on Skype, the way to learn French using a real relationship with an experienced native French teacher. To discover how this works, click here.

DuoLingo is a website and mobile phone application that offers free tuition for various languages, amongst others, for French. Taking your level into account, the software proposes appropriate exercises and invites you to translate, repeat words or sentences or write out sentences pronounced by the programme.
We recommend the use of DuoLingo, if you want to learn French in a fun way from anywhere (a bus, a café, etc.) and if you have only 10 to 15 minutes a day to revise. You will have a solid language base and you will easily memorise the most important vocabulary in French, that which is used in the daily papers.

There are nevertheless various situations in which you will need another method along with DuoLingo software:

• if you want to learn to speak French very well;
• if your objective is an exam in French ;
• if you want to take part in conversations, express your opinions with ease and speak continuously in French on various subjects.

To acquire this proficiency you will need the help of a human being, a teacher, who will ask you questions, correct you, adapt the lessons to your specific needs and above all answer your questions. If you want to save time and money, choose 45-minute French lessons on Skype that put you in contact with a native-speaking French teacher!

• Start by choosing a film that interests you. Whether you are attracted by the story or the actors, watching a film that you like will help you to work hard to understand it.
• Find a film with a level of complexity that corresponds to your level of comprehension in French. Chose a film with 60-70% of the dialogue that you can understand and you will probably be able to understand the rest by its context. An idea: if your level of French is elementary chose a film that you already know in your native language.
• Watch a film three times. The first time with subtitles in your own language, a second time with French subtitles and a third time without subtitles at all.
• If you don’t want to watch the same film several times, choose a series where the subjects and the vocabulary used by the actors are more or less the same in each episode.

Bear in mind that French films in the original version are harder to understand than foreign films dubbed into French. In a French film the actors talk faster and you need to know not just the language, but also its cultural references.

A tip: If you are already having lessons on Skype you can work on films in a more elaborate way. After watching each film you can resume it orally for your teacher, which lets you to rework its vocabulary (and helps you memorise it!) and speak continuously for several minutes in French. Later you will also be able to resume the story in writing or give your personal opinion on the film, which your teacher will correct for you!

You are learning French and take an interest in current affairs. Have you ever thought of linking your two interests by consulting the news in French?
There are numerous sites on the internet that let you consult articles and watch videos in French about events from all over the world. After you specify your level, the sites in question will offer you documents that are neither too easy nor too difficult for you. Sometimes you’ll find multiple choice questionnaires about the news item that you were consulting, to make sure that you have fully understood everything.
All that is very useful, but once you have understood the text and looked up all the new words in the dictionary, what do you do next? How can you go further and get even more out of the article?

If you really want to memorise the words and expressions in the news you will need to reuse them both orally and in writing. If you take lessons on Skype you can really practise these exercises.

• after you have been reading the news your teacher will ask you questions: What is the subject? Who is it about? What sort of news item is it (political, economic, social)? What took place? Where? For what reason? What were the consequences? What is your opinion on the article/video?, etc…  Answering these questions will enable you to reuse all the new words that you have learnt and speak continuously on a subject. Depending on your level, you can answer questions spontaneously or prepare them in advance before the lesson.
• after your lesson on Skype you will also have the opportunity of answering these questions in writing. It’s a very good exercise for working on your debating skills (the reasons, consequences, ambiguities, contradictions, etc…). Once your report is ready you can email it to your teacher, who will correct it without delay and email it back to you before your next French lesson on Skype.

Advice + : you want to understand a new item, but you haven’t managed to do so first time. No matter! Go ahead, listen to it a second, a third … a tenth time! The aim is to understand the text however long it takes!

Advice ++: don’t for get to let your teacher know the fields that interest you: politics, sport, economics, society, etc… If you really want to know the contents of the article you will understand it all the more easily.