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How I independently learned a new language in 12 months: a total guide

From A0 to B2 for the year

A little over a year ago, I was a completely monolingual who spoke only English, with zero knowledge of French. And after twelve months, I easily passed the international DELF B2 exam. If you do not know what “B2” means, look at the CEFR scale .

Moreover, all my successes are the result of home schooling and practice . My training was completely independent, without any special training programs. This is only possible thanks to the many amazing resources available on the Internet, many of which are free. Importantly, such a result was achieved because I preferred productive communication, in particular, spending a lot of time talking with those who know French well.

It is worth noting that my pace of training was somewhat aggressive, because over the past year I have devoted a lot of time to learning French, however, this is still much less than full time training.

I can’t say that I’m completely fluent, but so that you better understand what results were achieved, I’ll give a list of what no longer causes me problems:

  • Conversation in French for hours;
  • Understanding the various types of French media (e.g. news and videos on YouTube);
  • Reading articles written for native French speakers;
  • Constructing thoughts in French;

Of course, I'm still very far from the level of media. I definitely have weaknesses, and I can’t express myself in French as well as in English. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with my level of knowledge of French and I think that many learners of the language would also be pleased.

Why am I writing this article


I know that many people want to learn a foreign language, but the task is certainly not an easy one. There are many resources, tools, websites, methods, books, applications, activities, and programs; some are free, while others are expensive and sometimes it’s hard to figure out which ones to use and when. I spent a lot of time studying various programs and figuring out how effective they would be in my case.

Now that the goal has been achieved and I learned French, I decided to write about it to show other language learners how exactly I did it. Most of what I have done will be applicable to the study of other languages.

I will not tell you anything revolutionary - I did not find any “secret trick” or “reliable method”, but I think that the path I have traveled over the past year will be useful to those who have just started to learn a new language. I especially hope that this article will help those who start from the same position: knowledge of only one language, lack of any knowledge of the language being studied, lack of a conversational environment, non-stationary training and lack of familiar native speakers.

Of course, how many people - so many opinions. I don’t think that my method is the best, but it undoubtedly proved to be quite good and, I am sure, its use can be very useful. Later I will mention some points that I would change if I started the process anew.

If you just want to get an idea of ​​what I did during the year, first I’ll give you a phased schedule of my French studies. After that, we will talk in more detail about the rest, including about the resources used, the order of their use and how to make the process as rational as possible. Also, I will describe in more detail what I can and cannot do with the current level of knowledge in order to build up the most accurate idea of ​​what it means to speak the language at a solid level B2.

What was done


The most important items are in bold. Approximate milestones in italics. Some dates are inaccurate.

  • 11/18: Complete newbie (A0), with the exception of commonplace phrases like “Hello, do you speak English?”;
  • 11/18: Started discovering the French skill tree in Duolingo;
  • 12/18: Started listening to French music;
  • 1/19: Lingoda ( «»), A1.2;
  • 1/19: (, );
  • 2/19: ;
  • 2/19: Italki, ;
  • 3/19: () 5000 Anki;
  • 3/19: Lingoda A2.1, A1-C2;
  • 3/19: Duolingo ( 1 , 3+);
  • 5/19: , B1;
  • 6/19: 50 Anki;
  • 6/19-9/19: InnerFrench;
  • 6/19-10/19: A1-B1 Lingoda;
  • 8/19: Duolingo;
  • 9/19: Anki, ;
  • 9/19-10/19: «Build a Strong Core» InnerFrench;
  • 10/19: , - B2;
  • 10/19: Italki Challenge, 20 ;
  • 10/19-11/19: Italki ;
  • 11/19-12/19: 4 Italki, ;
  • 12/19: DELF B2;
  • 12/19: , DELF B2 86/100!

Technically, I learned a few French phrases in the fall of 2018 to prepare for a trip to Europe, but only the simplest ones. I began to seriously study French in the middle of November 2018 and went to DELF almost 13 months later, but given the ease of passing it, I think I reached B2 level already by 10-11 months.

What is my real level of language proficiency?


I want to clarify my possibilities and limitations in French so that you have a more realistic picture of what it is possible to achieve in a year of study.

As mentioned above, it is quite easy to conduct lengthy conversations and understand the French media without any problems. Here are some things that still cause difficulties:

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Another problem: problems with French in everyday situations. I have too little experience in personal communication with carriers. If you are completely immersed in the language environment, you can easily learn all the little things: how to tie shoelaces, point to a stain on someone's shirt, pass the ball to someone in a basketball game. Of course, I know all the basics and with the transfer of their intentions, even in such situations, great difficulties do not arise, but my phrases can often be unnatural. On the other hand, thanks to many hours of random conversations with people, I have a good experience in conversations on general topics.

Based on the foregoing, let's talk about the B2 exam. Here are my points for exam B2 (threshold - 50/100, minimum 5/25 in each section):



As you can see, I was given the highest rating for my speech (conversation). Almost perfect result. This is understandable, since I spent a lot of time talking practice and spent about 100 hours communicating with carriers. During the exam, I was nervous, but during the conversation I was very mobile, easily conveyed my arguments and understood almost everything I was asked about.

For writing and reading, the ratings also pleased, for each of the categories I received about 90% of the points. There were no problems with this either; I fully understood the texts provided.

Listening, of course, has become the worst part, both in terms of points and overall impression. I “understood” all the words from the playing records, but I was forced to concentrate on several minutes at the same time, answering questions. There was very little experience. In particular, on a shorter recording (2-3 minutes), listened 1 time, I answered only 1 question out of 7, when the recording was already over; not understanding that he gave answers to all other questions along the way. I am sure that I got a few happy points from guessing on some issues and 10 points here would not surprise me. Nevertheless, I will say that most of the complexity is associated with the format, and not with knowledge. A little more practice in listening would probably simplify the task.

Reflections on My French Learning Experience


Before speaking in detail about the methods of learning French and sharing recommendations, I want to express some general thoughts about my experience and learning the language as a whole.

There is no “ideal” or “simple” method. Mine is no exception


People are different and different methods come in. In this article, I will explain what I did and why, it seems to me, it worked. However, in the end, I'm just some random guy who learned French - one of the easiest languages ​​for an English-speaking person to pump to the level of "above average". I am very far from the position of “expert polyglot master” and all my advice may not suit you.

I spent a lot of time reading tips on learning French, and although I will try to talk about many useful resources in this article, you should conduct your own research on working methods and methods that suit you personally. Of course, you should not spend too much time on planning, but it is better to start the actual study of the language as soon as possible. Contrary to popular belief, watching a polyglot video on YouTube does not teach you to fluently speak your preferred language.

Learning languages ​​at school is built extremely inefficient


A huge number of people spent many years “learning” languages ​​at school and as a result were unable to maintain an elementary conversation. How did it happen that I managed to start to fully speak French 6 months after the start of the study?

I strongly believe that learning languages ​​at school, especially in the United States, is usually extremely inefficient. If you once found it difficult to learn a language at school, do not let this affect your confidence in learning a new language. With a reasonable approach to practice, you can learn much more independently. Avoid unnecessary, useless work in order to spend more time talking face to face with teachers who are preparing their lessons specifically for you. Instead of a stereotyped, national educational process according to the standard program in a group of 20 people, your language journey will be fully adapted for you.

You don’t have to learn so much


Firstly, no matter how large-scale the task of learning a new language might seem, console yourself with the fact that you really only need a certain amount of knowledge. You need to know only a couple of thousand words and not too many grammar rules and this will already give everything you need for a comfortable conversation. Of course, you will have to spend time practicing and applying the acquired knowledge, but with the right approach, it becomes very pleasant to observe your progress.

For languages ​​like French, you have a huge advantage if you are already fluent in English. There are a huge number of interconnections between French and English, which means that you will be able to understand thousands of French words, even if you did not say a word in French before! Moreover, most of the French grammar is similar to English, although, of course, some things will seem strange when you come across them.

It is a matter of time , not ability.


Sometimes the process of learning a language is overwhelming. To maintain motivation, I told myself to believe in the result, and that if I devote enough time to the study process, in the end, the goal will be achieved. And he was right.

As I said in the previous section, it is worth learning a certain number of words and grammar rules - and with some effective practice, you will be able to maintain a conversation without any problems. With consistent work on the selection of new words and the regular desire to correct shortcomings, whatever they may be, you will achieve your goal. This is not about abilities, but about time.
Of course, not all practices are equally effective. Make sure that your actions bring results, and that you do not just spend all your time watching French films, calling it productivity.

Learning languages ​​is depressing


There are many difficulties in learning a language - at least overcoming the endless feeling of frustration that you will encounter. If from time to time you do not feel frustrated, then most likely you have not learned much. Watching movies with subtitles is fun, but you probably don’t have difficulties and do not force yourself to learn.

An attempt to correctly express an idea in a foreign language causes frustration. It’s unpleasant to notice how you again make a grammatical mistake, which you have already made 100 times before. Be dissatisfied with yourself in moderation and let it encourage you to push the boundaries and go to the next level.

Of course, you should not be frustrated without a good reason, but good practice often makes you feel just that. If you really want to learn, get used to it.

(PS When I started, I sometimes watched this video to re-motivate myself after another bout of frustration. As soon as I reached a sufficient level (about 6 months!), It did not cause any difficulties.)

Middle Plateau


The first few months of learning a language is really fun because you learn very fast. I remember how lessons began at Duolingo and within a month I learned to understand most of the comments on YouTube for French music videos on YouTube and it motivated me well.

In the end, you learn more and more aspects of the language - past tense, pronouns, basic vocabulary - and stop feeling progress. At this stage, I did not always succeed in answering to myself whether I was really progressing. When this happens, remember the goal and believe in the process. Newly learned words will not occur so often, and the learned grammar rules will be a little more incomprehensible, but as you gain new knowledge, you will gradually notice how the number of errors decreases, and what previously confused you will be taken for granted.

5 most important things to achieve success (in my opinion)


Obviously, learning a language is not easy. I cannot be completely sure why I succeeded, but I think some of the character traits below are necessary.

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Resources I have used and can recommend


Now I’ll talk in more detail about the various resources that I used, and how best to interact with them.

Duolingo


Duolingo is a popular entry-level learning platform for many foreign languages. Most people use the Duolingo mobile app, but there is also a desktop version. Duolingo was for me the main tool for learning the basics of the French language.

Why I recommend Duolingo


I can’t comment on other platforms, but Duolingo turned out to be really useful for me in mastering the basics. Even the well-established course on Duolingo is a very long way to reach the level of "below average", at least in reading and writing. Therefore, Duolingo is often criticized as a platform for learning the language, and I actually agree with most of this criticism, but it is applicable if you use Duolingo inefficiently. No matter how much Duolingo likes to tell you about it, 5 minutes a day with a smartphone in their hands will not make you fluent. Now I will try to explain how to use Duolingo as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Effective use of Duolingo


Here are a few key tips for using Duolingo effectively:

  • Use the desktop version;
  • Turn off "Word Bank";
  • Make sure your chosen course has enough good reviews;
  • Read the tips that accompany each lesson, if any;
  • Read the discussions under complex sentences.

Use the desktop version of Duolingo


Although I originally used the Duolingo mobile app, pretty soon I switched to the desktop version. Everyone knows about the Duolingo application, but the dextop version is noticeably superior to the mobile one and that’s why:

  • There are no “life” hearts. You can exercise as much as necessary without encountering restrictions due to errors. To get enough practice and quick progress, this is necessary.
  • Full access to additional resources, such as a forum. In the application you can see a discussion of only a specific task.
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Word Bank


In my opinion, disabling the word bank is absolutely necessary for effective learning. By disabling word bank, you are forced to accurately type sentences and this has a very positive effect on the result. You no longer guess, but remember. Without the need to constantly enter and pronounce phrases, they are much easier to forget. Without a word bank, you can improve your spelling, learn more grammar, and replenish your vocabulary.

Word bank was created for people who just need to create the appearance of learning for themselves, without mistakes and disappointments.

Make sure your chosen course has good reviews.


As far as I understand, Duolingo courses are created mainly due to the efforts of volunteers, and therefore, as a rule, they have significant differences in several aspects: sound quality, the number of grammar notes, discussability on the forum, etc.

Some Duolingo courses have really good reviews. Judging from my experience in exercises with French and Spanish courses for native English speakers, they are both pretty well done. Also, I have repeatedly heard good reviews about some others - German, Esperanto and Norwegian.

According to the community, there are also courses of rather poor quality, for example, Japanese and Mandarin (although lately, things could have changed). Some courses, such as Italian, are quite short, and therefore you will not be able to achieve a high level using Duolingo. In other courses, there are no tips or notes at all, which will lead to blind lessons and a corresponding lack of results! Choosing a course at Duolingo carefully read the reviews so as not to lose the time invested in studying in vain.

Read the tips that accompany each lesson, if any.


In many courses, Duolingo provides grammar tips for several lessons or the entire course. In my opinion, these tips are often very useful in preparation for the lesson and help you quickly understand why some sentences are pronounced in a certain way. However, do not forget that the tips for the lessons do not contain all the necessary information and to compensate for this:

Read discussions under complex sentences


At times, the Duolingo forum can be very helpful. The most interesting topics are discussions of individual sentences, where you can easily find a huge number of useful explanations for a particular case. In particular, for the French language course, I often find detailed explanations of the tricky concepts and idioms encountered in the lessons throughout the course, especially with the remarkable author Sitesurf.

Other recommendations for using Duolingo


Oddities Duolingo


Duolingo has its own oddities that appear even in the most well-designed courses. This is sometimes annoying.

For example, when you write the correct translation, but it is not accepted. This is frustrating at times, but in the end, Duolingo is not able to recognize all the possible correct options, so in such cases you have to adjust your answers to the “Duolingo style”. Over time, the base expands and there are fewer such cases. Sometimes I receive letters with a notification that my system has accepted the translation as correct.

People also complain about the senselessness of some sentences (for example, “I found a dinosaur eating carrots in the bathroom”). In my opinion, this is not critical, because the point is to replenish your vocabulary and teach you grammar, as well as add a bit of humor to the learning process. I recommend not focusing on individual proposals and their “credibility”, but concentrating on understanding their foundation and design.

Climbing a Duolingo Tree


I completely closed the whole French tree, bringing each skill to level 5. It is worth saying that during the execution of these tasks by me, their format was slightly different from today's and the 5th level implied the repetition of the same skill more than 5 times. In my opinion, this is unnecessary. I think you could reduce the number of repetitions to 3 times, although I'm not sure how good this idea is.

With the old format, the whole process took me about 9 months of regular classes. Today I believe that I spent a lot of extra time on this and probably should have finished a few months earlier. Please note that I set a goal to reach the maximum in Duolingo and have been doing this constantly. It's not obligatory. Without even taking Duolingo's motivational messages into account, 10 minutes a day is really not much. According to my rough estimates, it takes about 150 hours of constant effort to close a modern French or Spanish skill tree.

Laddering Skills


Laddering may not be an entirely appropriate term, since it also refers to the use of one foreign language in the process of learning another, but I still call it that. The essence of the method is not to "maximize" one skill, but to move along the tree gradually, closing one level of each group. This allows you to stretch the material a little and better to assimilate it by repeating what has already been done later. If it’s not clear what this is about, look at this example picture:



Italki


Italki is a platform on which language learners find professional tutors and interlocutors. I worked on my speaking skills, mainly there. Among other things, Italki has "notebooks" where you can write your texts and give them to the media for verification.

It seemed to me that Italki is loved by everyone in the language community and I completely share this feeling. Italki's lessons have contributed significantly to my progress in developing my speaking skills. You definitely need to talk a lot, especially with those who are much better than you know the language or know it from childhood. Only in this way can one advance markedly in communication and understanding of native speakers.

I started taking personal lessons on Italki around the fourth month of study, as soon as I had enough vocabulary for a beginner and I was able to formulate simple sentences. For me personally, it was a good time, but of course you can start earlier if you want. It seems ineffective, for example, to learn the first few hundred words and the basics of grammar on Italki. But you can use the platform to practice correct pronunciation and as a base of useful resources and tips for learning the language in the early stages.

How to look for teachers on Italki


Italki has hundreds of teachers from all major languages, so it can be difficult to choose one. My experience shows that with most teachers it is easy to communicate, and therefore, in general, it is not necessary to go in cycles in the selection stage. Do not repeat my mistakes and do not hold for months for one teacher (even if he was great) - try to work out with a few and see which ones you are best at. And yet, you will not get used to the way of speaking one specific person too much. In addition, teacher ratings are extremely high, so 5.0 stars mean almost nothing.

At first I chose native speakers, but after several lessons I realized that I did not feel the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers. Every Italki teacher has a very high level of language, so if you are a beginner, I think it makes no sense to prefer one or the other. Unless you want to talk to someone who has grown completely immersed in language and culture.

I also rigidly filtered out my lessons by price. I have no experience working with more expensive teachers, but I found that less expensive teachers were quite suitable for me. I think if you are a beginner, cheaper teachers are great for you. More expensive tutors will most likely offer you more resources or be more qualified professionals, but, in my opinion, all you need to do is communicate a lot until you become an advanced student or pursue any specific goals .

If you are preparing for a qualification exam such as DELF, then you can spend some more money on a professional teacher who specializes in preparing for exams. I took such a teacher for only four lessons a few weeks before the DELF exam, but I was amazed at her savvy and the amount of help she provided me in preparing for the exam. If you study on your own, such a teacher can really qualified to tell you how to prepare for the test and for any surprises that you may encounter. If you are not preparing for the exam, then this is probably not necessary.

Effective use of Italki


This section will not be very interesting, because I believe that using Italki is very simple: you just need to talk a lot. And since I had no desire to do grammar or exercise with teachers at all, I spent most of my time simply discussing random topics with them. Sometimes I was upset because I didn’t eliminate my “weaknesses”, such as, for example, using certain tenses of verbs, but, in the end, just talking in normal mode for tens of hours was enough for me to start talking at a very decent level.

Naturally, you can always ask your Italki tutors for specific help, which I sometimes resorted to, but if you act like me and say that you just want to talk for an hour, this will probably be good for you.

Notebooks Italki


I also highly recommend using Italki Notebooks. I should have started earlier, but I began to write texts in notebooks near the end of my educational process. Periodic writing of small texts and their correction helps to correct small grammatical and structural errors that can degrade the quality of your written speech.

In addition, when I began to publish notes from notebooks, for some reason random people began to correct them even without my request! I was delighted to receive such detailed reviews, and I looked through some of the uncorrected texts with the teacher for several lessons on Italki. I did not realize that I had made so many written mistakes, but after correcting my texts, I was able to eliminate many of them.

If you want to see examples of notes in Notebooks and what all these fixes look like, you can see the entries in my Italki profile .

Unceremonious advertising


Here is my referral link if you want to get started with Italki.

I also want to provide links to profiles of some of my favorite teachers who helped me learn French on Italki. I took several lessons with all of them, and they were all very friendly and easy to communicate.


Anki


Anki is an application that uses a technique called interval repetition, designed to maximize effectiveness when learning a set of words or concepts, such as a dictionary. It can be considered as an improved system of didactic cards. Anki is extremely effective for learning a lot of information, and for this reason it is popular in the language learning community and, not surprisingly, among medical students. Its interface is a bit strange, but you will quickly get used to it.

After a thorough initial step, I began to use Anki to improve my vocabulary. For about 7 months I was not able to achieve reliable knowledge, but after a few months I remembered thousands of French words and significantly improved my understanding and sentence building skills.

Many say that you need to create your own set of Anki cards, but I was too lazy to do this, and I used a set of 5000 of the most common French words. Similar card sets are available for several other languages. French cards can be found here .

Every day I memorized 50 new words, while repeating all the previous words. I almost always used Franco-English cards, although Anglo-French are probably also very useful. After several months of consistent practice, I went through the whole set. It was a pretty aggressive pace, because by the end I had to go somewhere around 200-300 cards a day, but as it turned out, it suited me well enough.

InnerFrench Podcast


InnerFrench is a podcast aimed at improving the perception of language by students of an intermediate level. Instead of studying grammar or “boring” topics, Hugo Cotton, a podcast host, talks about a wide range of interesting questions, such as “The misfortunes of lottery winners,” “Can we trust our brains?” and Life on Mars. The podcast is fully in French. As of the beginning of 2020, about 75 episodes are available, lasting from 30 to 40 minutes.

This podcast was highly recommended on the Internet, so I decided to check it out as soon as I reached the lower intermediate level, after about 6 or 7 months. I finished listening to him for several months and by the end I felt that my listening comprehension had improved significantly.

What is really good about this podcast is that Hugo does not speak fast and simple in earlier episodes, making it easier to listen to French for a long period of time. In later episodes, he speaks faster and uses more advanced vocabulary and expressions in his speech. This type of intermediate-level, fully French content is the kind of material that can help you narrow the gap between intermediate and advanced listening when cartoons are too easy and news broadcasts leave you at a loss.

It should be remembered that Hugo speaks on a variety of topics, some of which are more likely political or moral in nature (for example, immigration to France or veganism). Personally, I did not mind this, but Hugo definitely argues his specific point of view, which some people may misunderstand. Of course, I heard that the French, as a rule, are rather self-confident, so you can consider this as a way of getting used to the French culture.

Lingoda


Lingoda is a platform for group or individual lessons with professional teachers using the Lingoda language training course. Each lesson lasts 1 hour, has an appropriate level (for example, A1.1 or B1.3) and covers a specific topic, such as “Mastering the Future” or “Writing a Letter”. A PDF file is offered with explanations and exercises, which is used during each lesson.

After 2 months, I started using Lingoda by signing up for their Half Marathon promotion (now called Sprint) when they return 50% of the cost if you take 45 lessons in 90 days (with some additional restrictions). I did not complete this task in full - I mastered about half.

I think that Lingoda is a really good platform for learning one of the languages ​​available on it. I studied there fast enough, and I had no problems with the content and structure of classes.

Despite this, I stopped classes at Lingoda and canceled my subscription. Some of the reasons for this were as follows:

  • I did not like to order lessons 7 days before the start, which they began to demand from the middle of my half marathon;
  • I don’t particularly like going to classes in general; instead, I prefer to study on my own or speak the language depending on the case;
  • I did not want to take a clearly defined number of lessons every month;
  • Italki seemed to me an adequate replacement;
  • Cost.

However, if you like to attend classes or want to really improve quickly, take a few Lingoda lessons (especially if these are private lessons) is probably one of the most effective and efficient ways to learn a language. If you're interested, you can sign up for a free trial and check it out yourself.

Cool Lingoda Notes


The cool Lingoda notes seemed pretty useful to me, so I downloaded all the notes at level A1.1-C2. I did not know how to do this automatically, so I downloaded them all manually, which took about an hour and a half.

Later, after 6 or 7 months of training, I began to look through all the notes from class A1 to B1 to fill in all the gaps that I had. At the same time, I studied many things superficially, instead of actually performing the exercises, as they usually do in the classroom, and also without the presence of a teacher who would help me cope with everything. However, I have found that this is a fairly effective resource and reference for various grammatical concepts. Also there are many sections on various specific topics, which provided a certain variety of my vocabulary. Also note that to achieve B2 level I didn’t read B2-C2 level notes at all (I just didn’t need them).

Of course, if you are looking for a resource to study grammar, then a good grammar textbook can be replaced with Lingoda materials, but personally, for my purposes, even PDF files turned out to be quite effective.

Help websites


Here are some sites I regularly used:

wordreference.com


This is a great resource for finding the meanings of words and examples of their use in sentences. When the meaning of a word or expression was in doubt, I searched for it here.

If you use Google Chrome (and maybe other browsers), you can configure a separate search engine to simplify the use of this service. For example, when I want to see the meaning of the word “attendre”, I just need to type “fren attendre” in the address bar to get to the page of meanings of the word “attendre”

conjugator.reverso.net


I used this tool to search for verb conjugations. As with the previous site, you can set up a search engine and greatly simplify everything. For example, by typing “rfr attendre” in the address bar, I will immediately see the conjugations of the verb “attendre”.

thinkco.com , lawlessfrench.com and french.kwiziq.com


I came across these sites while searching for grammatical constructions. They have many interesting articles. For example, I often looked in there to check the subjunctive materials.

French music


Listening to music in the language you are learning is a great way to get to know the original pronunciation, replenish the vocabulary and motivate yourself to understand the language.
Now it’s nice to remember how I found several French songs and gradually, as I studied new words and improved listening comprehension, I understood their meaning more and more. Sometimes I purposefully searched for lyrics and thanks to this I learned new interesting words and slang expressions.

Of course, there are a lot of French artists and you will surely find music to your liking. Personally, I recommend: Lomepal, Stromae, Eddy de Pretto, Angèle, Roméo Elvis and L'Impératrice .

If you find that you do not understand the text - do not be discouraged. Even I, having the current level of knowledge, have problems with the perception of many songs, especially those saturated with slang. Although, if you think about it, in half the cases I don’t understand that people sing in my native English, so this is quite natural. Sometimes music is just hard to understand.

Also, if you want to diversify your educational process after reaching an intermediate level, I recommend trying listening - listening to a song and trying to record as many words as possible. I tried it for a couple of songs and I really liked it! Here and here are my results.

"Build a Strong Core"


Build a Strong Core is a 30-day program for Hugo Cotton, creator of the InnerFrench podcast. It is designed to help intermediate-level speakers correct common grammatical errors and better understand native French speakers.

Considering how wonderful the InnerFrench podcast was, after some thought, I decided to spend 99 euros, signing up for this course too. Every day a new lesson comes out, usually including a short video on a topic related to France (for example, the big French-speaking world) and a short video on various grammatical topics (for example, how French-speaking people don’t say “ne” out loud). Also, there is an active group on Facebook, but I never went to it.

Passing this program, I have already approached level B2, so I did not get as much from it as I could if I were, say, at level A2. For example, the speech in the video, in my opinion, was too slow, so I usually accelerated them.

Since I reached B2 without this program, I do not think it is necessary, but it is implemented perfectly and may be worth your attention if your level is not so high. This program is good because it allows you to get used to the speech of native French speakers, given the features of natural pronunciation. Although I, in due time, achieved results in other ways, this program could definitely speed up the process.

Other resources that I used


I admit that I watched on YouTube the cartoon "Peppa Pig" in French, being a complete beginner. It was useful, and in general, viewing thematic media of an appropriate level is a good way to improve the perception of an unfamiliar language by ear. But only if you are actively listening, not just reading subtitles.

Also, sometimes I watched French youtubles to practice listening and to “immerse” a little in French culture. On the Internet you can find a lot of recommendations of interesting French YouTube channels. InnerFrench also has its own channel for mastering mid-level speech.

About ten months later I read Le Petit Princewhich was also pretty good practice. This is the only book I have read in French. I think this was not absolutely necessary, but still the time was not wasted. This is not the easiest book. I can recommend for an average level. You can get to know passé simple in advance.

I changed my phone language to French and this not only taught me a few new words (for example, stopwatch, settings, unlocking), but also made the browser home page French, which opened up many interesting articles for me, reading which was also good practice.

Later I signed up for the French newsletter and read a lot of letters. I didn’t read everything, but nevertheless I replenished my vocabulary quite well. A letter of this kind is more likely to be at an advanced level, so you should not rush into this before reaching the average.

Listened to Learn French with Jessica podcasts while still a beginner. The podcast is in English, but explains some specific points that are difficult for a beginner to understand (for example, a strange French counting system, “c'est” versus “il est”, etc.).

For more advanced students, the same Jessica has a French Voices podcast.. There you will find full-length interviews in French with many interesting French speakers (for example, directors, scientists, etc.) I listened to it a little, but not because it is bad - for an advanced student this podcast will be a great listening practice!

Also, from time to time, I visited the subreddits / r / languagelearning , / r / French and / r / learnfrench , especially as a newbie . Thanks to this, I found many resources mentioned above and learned a lot of useful French on the topic from the respective posts. Several times I returned to this post for inspiration. Having reached a confident average level, I sometimes looked in / r / France , which became an interesting source for reading and updating the vocabulary.

Resources I have not used


There are many other recommended resources, most of which I have never tried. In the end, you yourself are free to choose where to get information, mastering the main areas of the language: vocabulary, speaking, the basics of grammar, etc. Here is a short list of what you should pay attention to:

  • Pimsleur
  • Glossika
  • Assimil
  • Babbel
  • Podcast Coffee Break French
  • HelloTalk / Tandem
  • Films or television shows
  • Books (Harry Potter is a very popular choice)

A note on movies and TV shows: they can be a good way to learn a language, but I never practiced this, except to watch a few cartoons at the very beginning. It is important to feel and understand that you are actively learning , not just being lazy and just convincing yourself that you are “learning”. In particular, I recommend to refuse subtitles in the native language. Subtitles in the language you are learning will be much more useful, but if you can do without it, it is better not to use subtitles at all if the complexity of the content of the film does not exceed your current level.

Sample "curriculum"


Since we have already discussed all the recommended resources, here is an approximate plan for learning a language based on my experience . Of course, you can find 1000 more people with 1000 other methods, so feel free to choose and try different options. This “curriculum” is what I would do if there was a need to re-learn French this year. Also, this is approximately what I intend to do in the process of learning Spanish in 2020.

First, especially if you need motivation, find interesting French media and media to motivate yourself to learn the language. For me it was music, for others it could be series or books.

Next, I recommend going through the Duolingo treeto achieve levels A1 and A2. Filling up a French tree will teach you all the basic grammar concepts, and you will have a very solid foundation for moving to more advanced material. Of course, be sure to use Duolingo correctly and efficiently, as described above.

After going through a good part (maybe half or so) of the Duolingo tree, start going through the set of 5000 most common words on Anki . Try to learn 20 words a day, looking for new ones as they appear. If you met Anki in the later stages and already know a bunch of words - raise the bar to 50 words per day, although this is quite intense.

At about the same time, if you wish, start taking Lingoda lessons , around level A2.

Regardless of whether you study Lingoda or not, start Italki lessons . If this is your only source of conversational practice, try to take more lessons. Once or twice a week is already a pretty good load, but if you are ambitious, you can certainly do more. Conversation is a great idea, with a variety of themes.

Going to the end of the Duolingo tree, you should switch to searching for resources for the middle level . The InnerFrench podcast and their YouTube channel are perfect for this. You can also redistribute your efforts and take more Italki or Lingoda lessons to get more practice speaking and listening, rather than reading and writing.

Whatever you do, you will probably notice that there are some difficulties with some aspects of grammar. Consult a reputable grammar resource, but don't spend too much time doing grammar exercises. Instead, try to generally understand the concepts and practice with them orally or in writing.

I also recommend periodically writing in Italki notebooks and , if necessary, reviewing your texts with Italki teachers. This will help improve your writing skills.

The mid-level stage can be difficult, but I think that by studying enough materials of appropriate quality, speaking practice, working with vocabulary and patience, you will be able to overcome it. Use everything - listening to music and watching movies is good, but don't forget to read books and articles . If your goal is to learn to articulate thoughts in writing, continue to write texts and submit them for review. Be curious and keep exploring!

Cheer up and repeat the last step before B2.

Despite the fact that I am only at B2 level, I imagine that the transition to C1 (and, finally, to C2) is the result of the constant accumulation of more knowledge and the elimination of shortcomings. For example, you need to learn more technical vocabulary and learn some rare grammatical features, which at my level I did not. Continue to practice speaking and listening, actively study the original content to get acquainted with all the idioms and expressions that are used only by carriers. The language environment is likely to be increasingly important in achieving these levels, although I think that you will be able to achieve at least a solid C1 at home without any problems.

Learn cheaply


If your budget is limited, here are some tips to minimize your expenses while learning a language:

  • Duolingo is free and unlimited in the desktop version;
  • Italki has a Language Exchange section where you can exchange lessons with a native speaker for free;
  • Lingoda offers a free trial if you want to take a look at their content.
  • Otherwise, everything is either free or optional. Of course, your path will be more difficult than that of a person with a large budget, but still there are enough open resources to be able to rise to a relatively high level without spending money.

If you still have some money, I highly recommend spending it on teachers on Italki. For many languages, you can find cheap tutors, in the range of $ 5- $ 8 / hour.

Learning pronunciation


Despite the fact that the French language is notorious for its difficult pronunciation, in fact I did not have any special difficulties with this. The first time I spoke French online after about two months of study, they complimented me on my emphasis. And even though I made quite a few minor mistakes, in general, everything was pretty good. I think I was a little lucky in this regard, but I will still give some tips on pronunciation.

I mentioned earlier that “curiosity” and “independence” are really important qualities for independent language learning. I think most of my success in making a speech was in understanding what the correct pronunciation is and how to reproduce it.
Starting to learn French at Duolingo, I often repeated what I heard aloud to get used to the pronunciation of French words. I listened and repeated the words over and over until I felt comfortable with the pronunciation (some of my friends who watched this did not share my joy). Sometimes the phrases were not clear enough (the Duolingo sound is not perfect, although it gets better), and sometimes the words were too difficult to pronounce (for example, the word “voiture” was very difficult for me for a while), but with many simpler words I was pretty decent.

I also read many articles and watched a lot of videos about French pronunciation, in particular trying to learn how to repeat some complex French sounds, such as “u” and “r”. There were difficulties for some time, but after a month or two I was able to pronounce them well enough. It took a lot of consistent effort to reproduce these sounds, but in the end everything began to improve. Also, the pronunciation of French songs helped me with the pronunciation: “r” was finally possible at the time of singing the song Stromae (say “retrouverai” enough times, and it's all about the hat).

Even if you feel stupid during such exercises - you still need to continue to practice. People who pay attention to pronunciation and force themselves to correct mistakes improve much more efficiently than those who are simply afraid to sound stupid. If you don't want to sound stupid, learning a language is not for you!

Here are some specific pronunciation observations for learners of French that might help you. For me, these were very painful moments in the past:

  • Nasal vowels, in particular, the difference between “-an” and “–in”. I have often practiced the distinction between attendre, étendre, éteindre, and atteindre.
  • A similar situation with the difference between é and è. It is thin and you need to get used to it.
  • Pronunciation of s. The sound “s” is pronounced differently: “ss”, “s” at the end of a word and “s” not at the end of a word.
  • “In-” and “im-” at the beginning of words are pronounced differently depending on the next letter. For example, “insensible” and “imparfait” versus “inevitable” and “innovation”. Let's see if you can figure out the patterns!
  • Lezones. Over time, your hearing will get used to it, but it is definitely quite difficult. Read articles on the Internet.
  • “-Oy” is not pronounced like in “boy”, but rather like “waee”, for example, in “voyager” or “tutoyer”. “Voyage” sounds like “vwaee-ahj.”
  • How to pronounce plus based on context. Honestly, I still do not know this completely.

Finally, I find the French pronunciation surprisingly consistent, especially given its reputation. Although it is often impossible to learn how to spell a word only after hearing it, you can usually learn how to pronounce a word by reading it, you just have to learn the rules.

Final word


Learning French has become an incredibly useful and enjoyable process for me. The world of a completely new culture opened up for me and a love of learning languages ​​appeared. It took a lot of time and work, but still, learning a language (especially “easy”, like French for English speakers) is not at all as difficult as studying, for example, theoretical physics. With sufficient dedication and effective practice, almost anyone can learn a foreign language at a fairly high level.

Despite the fact that the year is a rather aggressive timeline for studying a language at a high level, it is obvious that this is quite feasible if you are willing to invest time and work efficiently. I hope that my experience will help you on your own journey into the world of languages. Good luck

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