The Why, Where, and How of learning French

Does the thought of learning French remind you of school? Lessons with pronunciation drills, embarrassing reading in front of the class, impossible homework, awful teachers, memorising things and having conversations that you’d never use… Well French classes aren’t like that now. Not usually anyway.

French is the language most people learned at school, or tried to. The majority of us who left school had a smattering at least. We could recite some of the verbs, talk about the weather, Xavier’s blue hat and that was probably about it for a lot of us. Why is that? One reason is that the time wasn’t right for us. If there is no motivation to learn something then we probably won’t learn it. If you didn’t have an intrinsic interest and love for languages, why bother to learn one? Learning languages as an adult is different. Most adults who learn a language do it because they want to, or they have a good reason to.

French is the 15th most widely spoken language in the world (by number of native speakers). Not only that, but France is the nearest neighbor to the UK so has many British visitors every year. Many Brits have relocated to France too and have had to learn the language. Even if you want to make sure you get the right change when you go on a booze cruise to France, it is worth learning some of the language now. French is an easy language to learn if you have learned some Spanish or Italian before.

French courses are available in most towns and cities. There are many levels to choose from in the classes, including conversation lessons, and there are often evening classes available. If you want to learn French and are on a budget then you can look at free courses on the internet.

If you have the basics of the language then you could also go to France to take more classes. Private language schools are available in most large cities, including Paris and Nice. You could also hire a private teacher if you want more individual attention or have specific requirements.

If you are learning a language as an adult, the key is to immerse yourself in it as much as possible. This makes learning French potentially much easier than learning Chinese for example, as it is relatively easy to find French websites, TV and radio channels and to travel to a French speaking country for a short break. If you don’t like France, you could always go to Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland for a French language fix. The more you have a reason to use the language, the more motivated you’ll be to learn it and the more you use it the more you’ll remember.

Some of the old school techniques may still work but you don’t need to rely on them exclusively now. It’s easy to download a free French podcast for extra practice, so why not get your beret and string of garlic and start looking for lessons!

Paula is a qualified EFL teacher who has taught in the UK and abroad. She has also taught adult literacy and numeracy in prisons and is now combining a small amount of private teaching with writing.