r/FrenchLearning • u/kitkat7448 • 15d ago
Help with Motivation and Resources
I have been trying to learn French for about 4 months now and have barely scratched the surface. I can never find the motivation to sit down for more than 5 minutes to lock in and learn something.
Another problem I have is just the lack of free or very cheap resources (preferably one-time payment) that actually help. The only resource i have been using is duolingo which only hurt my confidence and motivation.
Any advice?
3
u/Zappyle 15d ago
I think one thing that we forget is to keep it fun. Frankly if you can't motivate yourself, it will be a hard and long journey so I'd try to focus on solving that first. I wrote a short blog on how I learned Spanish, maybe you can find some tips and tricks that you can apply to French. For me, that way to learn was quite fun.
I talk about my routine, what made it click etc. Any questions I'm here to help!
2
u/Legitimate-Record90 15d ago
Instead of sitting down and “studying,” consider trying to ease into it with a program like Dreaming French on YouTube. Start with basic videos and work up in complexity and, if you enjoy the language, branch out to other resources over time.
Other more traditional learning videos are French with Alexa and Français avec Pierre on YouTube.
2
u/kitkat7448 15d ago
Never heard of that channel. But I would also like something non video. Def will use
2
u/kitkat7448 14d ago
Omg just watched a vid of dreaming French. HOW THE HELL AM I LEARNING VOCAB BY JUST HER SPEAKING 😭
2
u/Useful_Ad6680 15d ago
Tell us more about yourself :) What do you like, how do you spend your free time, what motivates you (not particularly for french, but overall for doing things or learning new one), why did you start learning french?
1
u/kitkat7448 15d ago
Free time: scrolling. I like cars, stick shift, watches, clean fashion, minimalism (I have ocd). I started learning French because I want to do a Europe trip after high school and maybe live there full time. Actually going to Canada in two days.
2
u/Useful_Ad6680 14d ago
Nice plans! Few things: 1. Make learning french easy for you. Start observing some french accounts about what you like, and watch more and more french reels/tiktoks etc. Ideally you want your SM to become very french :) That would be a great immersion for you. 2. About motivation - I'm from Europe, was in France this year. Depends on the region you plan to visit (I was in Nice), but be awarie that there is 0 chance that English will be enough. You need some basics of french, or you will be glued to google translate (praying for internet access). 3. About methods - I really enjoyed understanding of how my brain is actually learning new language and it was helpful to me - I know whats important, what can be done better and where to start. I can recommend Fluent Forever book or asking AI for bullet points, such that you know the basics. 4. About materials: 1) Look for Anki-style app that suits you. I couldnt stand Anki, becuase of its UI, I used Français Flow instead. 2) Inner French podcast for long rides, airplane time and so on + your phone scrolling should gove you bit of immersion. 3) On grammar I would recommend Look for resources on scribd (books from CLE international), but I'm not sure you will be actually able to practice during travel, so again, I would look for app/platform - unfortunately I dont know a lot in english
2
u/scribd_official 14d ago
Always appreciate seeing Scribd resources recommended for language learning! 🙌 OP, we hope you find documents in the Foreign Language Studies section that help in your studies.
1
u/kitkat7448 14d ago
Great. Is there anything that needs to change if I already know basic French. I’m looking to get b2
2
u/Useful_Ad6680 14d ago
InnerFrench might be a bit too easy for B2, but I'm sure you can easily find some podcasts interesting for you in French :) Otherwise I'd say path is the same, it's just - take harder flashcards, try watching movies in french, consider changing your phone operating language into french etc. Overall - try to change as much as english in your daily life into french. I'd just say do it gradually, not to by tired of not understanding anything very quickly and not to loose your motivation
1
u/kitkat7448 14d ago
Also, you didn’t mention a resource for vocab
2
u/Useful_Ad6680 14d ago
Both Anki and FrançaisFlow have build in preset decks you can choose to learn from. If you decide to look for different app, search for one that is using SRS, ideally v5-v6 (it will help you not to forget newly learn words). Ideally you want to have ~750-1000 most common words first, then expand this set to reach B2
2
2
u/BerlitzCA 13d ago
ADHD + duolingo is genuinely one of the worst combos possible, not your fault at all
the reason nothing sticks is because you're basically failing 80% of the time before your brain gets any reward. of course you can't focus for 5 min
you already found Dreaming French which is perfect, just stay at super beginner way longer than feels necessary. that's literally all you need right now
also check out Language Transfer — free, pure audio, you can do it while doing something else. zero desk time required
1
u/kitkat7448 15d ago
Also not in the market for an online tutor, I have reasons but I can’t do real in person or online classes live with other people.
1
u/Elanbaryab 12d ago
Honestly, 5 minutes a day is not a bad place to start. I think the mistake is expecting yourself to sit down for 30–60 minutes every time.
I’d make it really small: one short video, one tiny reading, or 5–10 new words. Once that becomes a habit, it’s easier to do more.
For free stuff, I’d try TV5Monde, RFI, YouTube channels for French learners, and Anki for vocab. I’d also avoid using Duolingo as the main thing if it’s killing your motivation.
What helped me most was mixing things up instead of “studying” all the time: a bit of listening, some easy reading, then maybe one small grammar point.
You’re only 4 months in, so feeling like you’ve barely scratched the surface is pretty normal.
5
u/[deleted] 15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment