How To Learn French?

Why do some struggle to learn French while others find it easier?

What’s the point of spending time learning French, only to be unable to speak it at the end?

A couple of years ago, I took Armenian courses to fulfill my master’s degree requirements in Language Teaching Sciences. My Armenian teacher was not a language instructor, but a translator. After 25 hours in his classroom, I could recognise most of the Armenian letters, understand some unexpected and complex grammatical rules, and pronounce some words. Then, I accepted a one-month mission to teach French in Armenia.

I thought my courses would be helpful for such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But, in my daily life in Armenia, I realised I was not able to express basic things, such as asking for the price, saying goodbye, making an appointment, using ‘I like/I don’t like’ …

I felt like a complete beginner. The grammatical rules and the alphabet I had learnt did not pave the way to any basic interaction. Surprising, isn’t it?

So, what happened? Why do some people spend hours and hours studying a language, only to be able to say barely more than ‘hello’?

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This situation is actually very common when teachers focus less on communication skills than the language itself. I am not making a distinction between ‘good’ or ‘bad’ teachers. You assess a teacher according many criteria, such as educational background, motivation, willingness to improve, attitude, etc. So instead of this good/bad dichotomy, I would rather say ‘language focused’ or ‘skills focused’:

Language-focused teacher:

In this first case, teachers mostly explain the language rules and idiomatic expressions, without teaching what you really need at your level to communicate. That is an outdated teaching approach. Nowadays, students in language pedagogies are taught how to be skills-focused.

Skills-focused teacher:

A skills-focused teacher will adopt a communicative approach developed in the 1970s. She sets communication goals based on your needs. Her preoccupation is: ‘Will my students be adequately trained in the classroom to interact in a French-speaking social context?’ This question includes the critical intercultural dimension of language learning as well. Hence, the teacher also teaches how to behave with French-speaking people.

Through these observations, we can also point out the difference between lin- guists, who study a language, and language instructors who have studied how to teach a language.

In concrete terms, if someone starts learning French with the communicative approach, one of the first communication goals should be to introduce yourself.

What do you need to introduce yourself in French?

Within a couple of hours, a beginner should be able to tell you something like this:

“Hi! My name is Harry Potter. I am British, I am 35 and I live in Greece. I speak English and Greek, and I am studying French.”

In French:

“Salut ! Je m’appelle Harry Potter. Je suis anglais, j’ai 35 ans et j’habite en Grèce. Je parle anglais et grec et j’étudie le français.”!

Even after 25 hours of classes, I couldn’t introduce myself like this in Armenian.

People without experience in languages often set grammar-goals to learn a language. This is true even for teachers, especially if they don’t have a modern educational background in language-teaching pedagogies.

But in new pedagogies, grammar is not the goal itself, it is only a tool to reach your communication goal. This is also true for vocabulary, as shown in this schematic:

If your goal is to learn French as quickly as possible, determine with your teacher exactly what you need to accomplish this goal. For example, you need to buy things at the supermarket, fill out administrative documents, open a bank account, take the DELF or DALF French exam, have a sufficient or excellent grade for in French for your IB or IGCSE etc.

How long can you expect this to take? How long does it take to learn French ? You can probably have the basic knowledge in a short time, but you will be very limited. So, if someone is selling you a solution to achieve basic interactions in three months, it is possible! But, if you are told you can ‘learn a language in 1 week’, it’s just not true.

If you’re wondering about the best approach for your French language journey in Hong Kong or need guidance on how to get started, feel free to reach out to us for a free initial consultation. We’re here to help you tailor your language learning strategy. Click here to improve your French with us!