7 Top tips

Which part of learning French do you enjoy the most?

Well, initially, when I was studying French, I would say that speaking scared me the most, and it was the part that I was the most apprehensive about. Now I would say that I really enjoy speaking because it just allows me to not only practise my skills, but also use what I have learned and put it into practice. And then hear other people, hear French native speakers, hear speakers which are learning or have learned French. I really enjoy that. I also really enjoy learning about French culture, just learning about different traditions, different customs which really differ from what I know, or what I’m aware of. I just find it really interesting.

The part of French I enjoy the most is when I get the opportunity to speak French. I got a real buzz when I realised that people mainly understood what I was saying! And I just think that being able to have a conversation in another language is amazing.

Has any knowledge or skill from your studies been useful in your personal life or career?

I think the knowledge and skills I developed as a learner of French were useful in my personal life. I think-- I realised that it was never too late to learn something new, never too late to learn a new language. It really helped my self-confidence as well, and I think I gained quite a lot of analytical skills in terms of picking apart how the grammar worked, and learning how to structure and plan the written work.

I find that your communication skills become more finely tuned as you learn. Your ability to communicate with people in French-speaking countries will be improved; your knowledge of the mechanics of grammar in a language will be strengthened and so you will find your written and spoken language improves in your own language; and you will find it easier to learn further languages. The mental gymnastics involved in learning a language is challenging and fulfilling, and your sensitivity to foreign culture will be enhanced.

As a learner of French, I would say that you learn lots of different skills and knowledge which becomes useful in your personal life. The skill of just learning to accept cultural customs and cultural traditions which may appear different to you, and they might come across as a cultural shock sometimes. But learning to accept this wide range of linguistic diversity that French offers can be really useful for your personal life.

When you’re learning French, you develop the important skill of communication, so communicating by means of speaking to other people, and that’s really useful in your career. If you have to deal with speaking to someone who is French that could be really useful. But also just learning to speak to people who are of a different culture, who speak a different language to you. Those skills are transferable, whether or not you pursue a career in French or not. Also, developing the skill of listening, as a learner of French you really focus on your listening skills, and trying to listen out for different aspects. And I think that becomes very useful in your career, just trying to take a step back sometimes, listening, honing in to what the other person is saying, things like that.

What are your top tips for developing language skills?

I’ve got a few tips for developing language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. But my top tip would be: don’t be afraid to make mistakes when speaking. We all make mistakes, and we all correct ourselves, even in our mother tongue. And if you’re talking to a native speaker, they’ll understand that you’re learning the language and they’ll make allowances for you. They’re actually likely to be impressed that you’re speaking French at all!

For reading, my top tip would be: get hold of some of the ‘easy reader’ books that are available. They use short chapters of short stories, and they have vocabulary lists at the end of each chapter, and the stories tend to contain lots of reinforcement of common words. I found it a really huge confidence boost to be able to read a story in another language.

I’d also recommend watching films and television programmes with the subtitles on. It’ll help you ‘get your ear in’ and get you used to hearing French in a natural setting, even if you can’t understand much at first.

I think writing is the most difficult skill to acquire if you don’t have anyone to check what you’re writing. You could use an app like DeepL, which is an online translation tool, to ‘back translate’ what you’ve written, and check whether it works. My other tip would be to try and think in French, rather than trying to translate something that you’ve written in English across into French.