Complete Beginner French

Being able to talk with native French speakers may seem far away

When you’re a beginner, it’s difficult to make sense of what fast-paced native speakers are saying.

Just kidding. It’s downright impossible!

Even getting the basic context from written French (that you can go through at your own pace) is tough.

In all this confusion, many students spend a lot of time thinking, “When will I get it?”
From the day you start learning, the thing you anticipate the most is getting to that first milestone where you successfully used French. Without choking and without switching into English to apologize for how bad your French is.
And we’re not even talking about the super-advanced stuff here. Like discussing a piece of art in the Louvre, exchanging philosophical thoughts about life, or debating politics.

While doing any of those things, purely in French, would be quite amazing, this is not what you try to conquer at the beginning stages.

Imagine this instead…

You’ve been preparing for a trip to France, and to get yourself ready, you’ve been casually texting longer and longer exchanges in French with a few penpals.

Some are french-speaking friends, but you’ve also had a much easier time texting with people on Hellotalk, Italki, and Tandem.

You notice that you’re getting into a much broader range of topics now, and you don’t feel stuck in the places where the conversation normally dies out and you feel out of words.

You even notice that they correct fewer and fewer mistakes and the basics seem to be going smoothly nearly every time now.

Finally, it’s time for your trip. You get to France and on your first day of exploring, you notice something funny.

You realize that you’ve been exploring all day without pulling up Google Translate a hundred times.

You even asked someone for directions and a few simple recommendations on a place to eat lunch.

After finding the restaurant they recommended (which by the way was a fun little experience, walking down a few alleyways that you easily found based on their directions) you’re greeted by the hostess who finds a table for you.

Everything so far is simple and basic French.

As you’re browsing the menu, you’re instantly able to read what each item is. By the time the waiter comes over, you confidently order without you (or your waiter) switching into English at any point.

Of course, your accent isn’t perfect but you notice a smile in awe from the waiter for not having to switch out of French.

This is when you start to feel a pleasant warmth growing inside you that’s almost a childlike anticipation of what’s to come.

Who would have thought you could get this much interaction from basic French?!...

How do you feel about this scenario?

I know this can seem intimidating and far-reaching for a newly hatched Francophile soul, but all of these things can be achieved with beginner-level French — long before you have to worry about any advanced parts of the language.

And this is a powerful base to have because you can experience small yet meaningful interactions that build your confidence.

But to get there, you need to move past the “introduction phase” and onto a real learning method.

"What is the ‘introduction phase’ of the language, and should I take the next step towards learning French?"

What I call the introduction phase of French, is everything that happens the first time you peek inside the Francophone world.

It’s only logical that you start exploring and learning in a number of different ways during this phase.
Often this will consist of things like dabbling with various language apps, watching streams of YouTube videos, and listening to podcasts.

All of these are great options for an introduction to the language or for keeping a basic level of knowledge fresh.
The problem is that, for most students, this period of introduction doesn’t necessarily end a few weeks after you start learning French.

 
I’ve had many students who stayed in the introduction phase for several months, and some much longer.
If you’ve just started, it’s fine to stay in this phase for a while. But if you know that this has been your situation for too long, you should consider the next step.

The next step towards learning French, and what I also offer to help you with here, does not involve any of the above methods – except as extracurricular activity or because you simply love the extra support.

 
No problem with that!

 
But once you enter into a method where you can get real-world results within a few months rather than years, your primary focus needs to switch away from the introductory material.

You can almost always find new materials to experiment with and more “quick hacks” to try out.
But what I’ve seen throughout years of teaching French is that relying on these things alone prevents you from moving past the introduction phase and onto the fun and longer exchanges in French.

Think about it like wanting to do a 10-mile race.

You could keep practicing one-mile runs and sprints for months, and then come race day, you’ll fight your way through a 10-mile run that is way harder than you thought it would be. You might not even finish it.

On the other hand, if you’d practiced 3 and 6 miles runs in that same time, you’d get there much faster, much easier, and likely feeling way more inspired to do it again.

French now? In 3 years? Maybe never?

I typically don't meet students trying to learn French until they’ve been in the introduction phase for a while.

Most often it happens when they hit the first obstacle on the road and realize that every day isn't a new chic phrase you can use right away.

They don’t advance as quickly anymore and things start to get confusing.

New learning piles up and often you’re standing still and spending a lot of time going back to things you thought you had down already. This is when French becomes overwhelming.

Usually, two things happen:

1. Some students seek out even more language hacks, and try to add more hot streaks on their language app. (Aka, the logic of doing more of the same thing and expecting different results).

2. Other students convince themselves this could only work if they lived in France and decide it will probably take years of classes to get comfortable in basic conversations.

The misunderstanding here is thinking you need to combine every learning method possible to get anywhere. It’s either full-on immersion or full-on classes – for the next two years plus tutoring in between.

As a result, you keep switching around language hacks or get stuck feeling overwhelmed.

You’re ready to move on from the introduction phase of French if you feel something like this…

"Frédéric, I know a few words and phrases, but I completely drop the ball when I hear native speakers talk. It’s so, so fast. On top of that, all my French can probably be shown off in 30 seconds or less. I don’t know... I just want to feel confident enough that I can use simple French in real life. But I’m not sure how to get there."

I don’t do tutoring or class teaching anymore, but based on more than 12 years of helping students from one level to the next, I developed a program that teaches a completely confident beginner-level French, which you can use after only a few months.

 
With this, you’ll also have the foundation to develop the language further if you wish to do so.
It doesn’t have to take several months or years.