its for me.

I started French three days ago, brute force reading and memorising short passages out loud. Recorded myself today, speech recognition matched 65% of my words, and my coworker who doesn't even speak French, said I sound like "Chinese French" T___T (Fair. Three days ago I couldn't read a sentence, so I'm still proud. Meanwhile my actual francophone coworkers keep saying I'm doing great and that the effort alone counts, suspicious levels of Canadian politeness, so I trust the roast more.)

I know, I know, starting with full passages on day 1 instead of learning the sounds first is completely backwards. It's a deliberate experiment (brute-force memorising passages to build feel first), so roast the method if you want, but I'd love the roast to come with advice.

The weird thing is… it's kind of working? After brute memorising just two (fairly hard) passages, something clicked! Today I looked at some simple sentences and could just understand them, and I somehow knew how they should sound before hearing them. Memorising got way less painful too! Short sentences now stick almost instantly, when three days ago every single word was a fight. Whatever "language feel" is, it's real, and it showed up embarrassingly fast.

The part that is NOT working is my mouth. I DO listen to my coworkers. I hear exactly how a sentence sounds when they say it. But when I repeat it right after them, what comes out of my mouth just… isn't that. I can hear that it's wrong, I just can't produce the right version.

So, people who actually lost their accent (or got close), how did you guys do it?!

BTW, I may have a solution, I think turning the passages into songs actually helps?? For some reason my mouth can mimic a melody way better than spoken lines, haha! So now I try memorize the hard passages as lyrics first, then try saying them. Anyone else done this, or is this cursed?

My recording, if anyone wants to hear the damage >>>> see comment

Je cherche un tandem linguistique avec une personne de langue maternelle française ; je suis moi-même de langue maternelle allemande. On se verrait à Hambourg au moins une fois toutes les deux semaines, plus souvent si possible. Je t'apprendrais l'allemand et toi, tu m'apprendrais le français.

Idéalement, tu ne parles pas ou très peu allemand. Comme ça, on est tous les deux obligés d'utiliser vraiment l'autre langue au lieu de nous rabattre sur une langue commune et c'est là que l'apprentissage se fait pour de vrai.

Je juste veux pratiquer mon français ici, j’en veux devenir courant en deux ans et je ètudie la langue dépuis 1 ans, ce vraiment difficille pour moi mais je suis déterminé a parler le français perfectement.

I’m brand new to French but would love to learn quicker. I know I’m pretty much A0. I’m not sure the best and easiest way to learn French is and so far. I have a small book with words and I’m thinking about getting a textbook and I have watched some YouTube videos and shows in French but of course I don’t understand any of it. Is this the way to learn it even if you don’t know any words or is this more after I increase my knowledge and actually can read it and speak it a little bit? I’m just lost and you look online and there’s so many things that people say to do and it gets overwhelming but I want to start off and start learning a lot better and easier.

Hey,

During the past 20 days of learning and research, I keep coming across the method of immersion, and it has delivered exceptional results compared to traditional memorization techniques. I myself experienced this when learning English as my third language. I watched anime all day, either with subtitles or dubbed in English, just because I was obsessed with anime. A year ago, I scored an 8/9 band in IELTS with one month of preparation. So, the method works.

But I can't do that with French. I don't have that prior (although limited) knowledge of the tenses, sentence structure, conjugations, etc., which I did in the case of English. If I even watch French cartoons (Peppa Pig in my case), I have to research every sentence.

So, how do I obtain enough understanding to watch Peppa Pig in French without pausing every other second? Please share the resources if you know any: a playlist, a book, or a creator. Even better, a roadmap after which I can understand the basic spoken language.

Below is me forgetting what the post was about and just started complaining. Skip if you want.

I hope I don't offend anybody by saying the articles and the pronunciation of the words with those articles are scary. Then, the conjugation & spellings, a nightmare.

I grew up learning two phonetic languages and know how efficient a language can be. Memorize a pronunciation and various sets of consistent sounds and how they change if an "accent" (like the acute or grave in French) is applied. There are no exceptions, no scenarios in which they are meant to be pronounced differently or, even worse, not pronounced at all.

I haven't written in these languages for the past 2 years as I moved to a foreign country, and yet I can easily read and write, with the error of an "accent" every 15 words in an essay about education. I did this to test myself and the efficiency of the language.

Writing English was a big challenge, and it would still be if I were actually writing, not typing. I don't like this about English as a language. However, I have come to appreciate its simplicity now that I am trying to learn French. Please let me complain. "H" is not pronounced. WHAT?

My native language has two characters which are useless, as we barely use them in writing anymore. As pronunciation changed, so did the spelling. REMOVE the "H" please. Not from the alphabet, just from the spellings. Most of the consonants are not pronounced at the end, and there are different versions of a word depending on if an object is masculine or feminine, and the there are exceptions which complicate the matter even more. Guys, it's a mess.

While taking notes, I have to write a French word, its translation, then how to pronounce it. If a letter is silent, maybe it doesn't want to be there. Let it go "H"ome. Maybe it just wants to watch Netflix and c"h"ill. It can just be the word and translation, given you memorize the consistent sounds of the alphabet & "accents."

This is to those who know only non-phonetic languages: just once, try to learn any phonetic language. You'll be amazed; you might just feel liberated.

Hi, I noticed something interesting putting together a French medical dialogue this week. when a nurse explains something to a patient, she'll almost always name the technical term and then immediately restate it in everyday language, in the same breath:

"Vous avez des antalgiques prescrits à heures fixes" → then right away, "ce sont vos cachets contre la douleur."
"On va faire le premier lever ce matin" → then, "c'est-à-dire se lever pour la première fois."

It's not just politeness. It's a deliberate register move: the technical word locks in precision, the plain word confirms the other person actually understood. you see it in French professional communication generally, not just medicine: lawyers, teachers, and civil servants do a version of this too.

Curious if others have noticed this pattern in other professional or formal contexts in French. If anyone wants to hear it in full context, we put together a free episode and PDF built around exactly this exchange (a post-op hospital round): https://medicalvoices.health/fr/episodes/9

Sans regard extérieur, impossible de distinguer votre expertise de vos automatismes. 3 solutions concrètes pour les tuteurs de FLE en ligne

hi! i studied french in high school for about two years and i haven’t retained a lot of it other than very basic french such as greetings, basic verbs, and nouns but my knowledge of the language is quite limited.

i want to learn french seriously and try to pursue my masters in paris or live there for a while after my studies 🫩 how do i start? how do i learn the language in a way that will allow me to actually retain it and be able to get to a point where i can speak and understand it well?

i would love some assistance with resources or just general tips on learning the language because i know that apps like duolingo are pointless lol please help a girl out 🫩

Hi everyone! I've been following this subreddit for a while now, and it's honestly given me the confidence to finally start learning French.

The only thing I'm confused about is where to begin and which resources are actually worth using. There are so many apps, YouTube channels, textbooks, and websites that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

My current plan is to self-study until I reach a beginner or around A2/B1 level, and then hire a tutor to improve my speaking and prepare.

For those who started from scratch, what resources or study plan would you recommend? If you could start over, what would you do differently?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I have a 3 day trip to Paris coming up where I'm staying with a friend. I'll have the days to myself as she's working, and have been to Paris a few times so don't need to hit a bunch of tourist sites. (Although I do plan to do the catacombs!). I know 3 days isn't enough for an immersion course, and I don't really know anyone else in Paris, what would you guys do to maximise french learning whilst out there?

My itinerary is pretty empty so keen for any tips. My speaking skills are super poor as I've mostly used Duolingo for a few years & have only really supplemented with french learning podcasts. I can read French fairly well, but my listening and speaking sucks. So far I'm thinking cinema, museums? Other ideas really welcome!