I would like to start this blog off with my tips on how to become proficient in French. Now, these are all based on my own personal language-learning experiences so you may or may not agree with all of them, but I can assure you they have all worked for me.

1. Read a lot in French and not just your textbook or the books/novels your teachers assign, but also newspapers, song lyrics, menus, billboards, notices on the metro and other places when you are in a French-speaking country (in short, everything your eyes can possibly find at any time) and my personal favorites…celebrity gossip magazines. And to get you started off…click here to take a look at Voici magazine.

2. Get a French-speaking boyfriend or girlfriend. Native French-speaking friends are great and help you out a lot, so be sure to find some of those too. But, a boyfriend or girlfriend really has an interest in what you have to say and will help you out even more. And most likely, you will spend a lot of one-on-one time with him/her which is a lot of time to absorb language.

3. Learn grammar…but in context. I am a certified teacher, so I love grammar and believe it is extremely important, but if you want it to stick…don’t just memorize your textbook rules, but rather look those rules up when you come across a new grammar point that you haven’t seen before or are curious about when you are reading one of those sources (or any others) I was talking about in tip #1.

4. Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary. Enrich your vocabulary and not necessarily by studying dictionaries page by page…when you come across a word that you don’t remember having heard or seen before and you think it is important to understanding whatever you are reading or listening to…look it up in a dictionary. But, don’t get obsessed with all the words you don’t know when you are reading or listening or bogged down by looking up all the new words you come across as that will usually lead you to becoming bored with whatever you are reading or listening to and then you will probably starting getting blocked in your learning process. Also, pick up all the slang words you can, especially when listening to native speakers…that will open up a whole new vocabulary world that you probably have never been exposed to and that world will unlock many doors to becoming proficient. You’ll understand more when you listen and feel more confident when speaking.

5. Most importantly, experience the language. Languages are to be lived. Participate in activities where French is spoken, travel to a French-speaking country, join a French club, live in a French house if possible where you study, use French products, eat French food, read about French-speaking people and their customs, and if you have the opportunity, live in a French-speaking country.

I will write more about all of these tips and give you more details on my experiences in later posts, but for now… à la prochaine!