Tips to improve your French
Conseils pour améliorer votre français
I’ve reached a plateau, I’m frustrated
How do I improve my French?
You’re frustrated with your speaking
• If you want to improve your speaking, you have to speak regularly even
to… yourself. Sing French songs, find or write the lyrics (listening
practice) and then sing!
• Speak French to your family and friends, even if they don’t understand
everything, you get to practice and develop habits, create automatisms
and reinforce your vocabulary with the repetition.
• Repetition and regularity is everything
Liste de mots et phrases utiles (to carry with you at all times in your
pocket/phone/ipad to revise in the tube/train/bus)
• C’est pas grave: it doesn’t matter
• Je lui ai dit: I told him
• Je suis perdu, où est…? I’m lost, where is…?
• Vous avez le même en rouge? Do you have the same in red?
• 70: soixante-dix, 71: soixante-et-onze…
• 80: quatre vingt, 81: quatre-vingt-un…
90: quatre-vingt-dix, 91: quatre-vingt-onze…
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How to practice the 4 skills of listening, writing, reading and speaking?
• Find friends on websites such as: conversationexchange.com and
polyglotclub.com and start talking either with tools such as Skype or in
writing, exchanging messages. Ideally both, writing is likely to become
boring in time and live conversation are fun and don’t have to last too
long.
Immersion in the UK
• To be immersed and speak French, go to Franglish events,
(www.london.franglish.eu), Euroclub, French exhibitions, French events
for Bastille day (14 juillet), Fête de la musique (21 juin) or Galette des
rois (janvier). You will be exposed to French traditions, people, sounds,
music, food. One learns better when learning is linked to pleasure, such
as enjoying your food and wine!
Things to do on a regular basis
• Go on holiday to a French-speaking country: France, the French speaking
part of Belgium, Luxembourg, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal,
Mauritius, Guyana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Québec.
• Visit places where you will hear, see, listen to French in London:
• The French bookshops in South Kensington, the French Institute,
become a member of its médiathèque, borrow books, DVDs, CDs, attend
conferences, go to the Cinéma Lumière’s Q&As.
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Practice: Don’t be scared - What’s the worst that can happen? A funny
mistake…
• Make mistakes, this is how we improve
• Ask to be corrected
• It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand everything you read and hear,
you will understand more and more in time. There will be some ‘Eureka’
moments. Never hesitate to ask what something means, people are
happy to help and will be delighted you’re making an effort to speak to
them
Things to do regularly
• Listen and talk to French people in the tube
• Read the news
• Listen to the French radio: France Inter, Europe 1, French radio London,
France Culture.
• For fun, repeat what the presenter says. And if you listen to podcasts,
you can go back several times to try to understand what the person said,
this is a typical language lab exercise at university.
• Find an excuse to speak French in the UK, ask the time, directions, there
are 500,000 of us in London, and that’s without counting the other
francophones!
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The key to progression and fun: mix learning with pleasure
• Taste and learn more about food and drink
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Read about what you like in French
• Vous aimez cuisiner? Faites des recettes françaises
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Vous aimez jardiner?
• Read about gardening in French
Vous aimez le cinéma?
• Lisez des articles sur vos acteurs préférés
• www.lexpress.fr/culture/cinema/
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Vous adorez les biographies?
• Lisez-les en français
For listening practice
• Youtube channels to follow:
• Cynthia Dulude, for beauty/make-up tips in québécois French
• Jardinjardinier, to discover famous and non-famous French gardens
• A video about cuisine with subtitles (sous-titres)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFewlpelaxE
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A few more tips
• Try to read bilingual books, with the page translated in English on the
left.
• You can write French words/expressions you want to remember on postits you place in strategic positions in your house (flash-sticks.com).
• Some phone apps are great to learn new vocabulary (Duolingo).
Never underestimate grammar
• It’s the skeleton of a language
• Imagine the clothes are the vocabulary.
• You might get by without grammar and verbs for simple things such as
shopping, but it will be more difficult for a conversation with the police,
plumber or doctor.
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French TV
• Watch the news, it’s easier as you will know some of the world’s news
already in your native language
• Some channels:
• TF1
• France 2
• France 3 (all the local news)
• M6
• W8
• W9
A few websites :
Cinema:
• allocine.fr
• lexpress.fr/culture/cinema
Travel:
• lostandfoundinlondon.wordpress.com
News:
• marianne.fr
• lefigaro.fr
• rue89.fr
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Blogs in French
Beauty:
• afrenchbeautyaddictinlondon.com
• Babillages.net
Cuisine:
 papillesetpupilles.fr
 solinecuisine.unblog.fr/Facebook: Soline cuisine
Private tuition
• If you can, it’s useful to have a teacher to encourage you and remind you
of doing these things we have talked about.
• Tips if you have a tutor:
• Don’t be scared to say what you want to do, want to change in the
lessons, if you feel you do too much of one activity and not enough of
another.
More on tuition
• Ask for books, methods, music, event recommendations. Some tutors
might lend you films, magazines, books, bring you food from France.
Learning in a group is cheaper, very social, but the risk is that the level will be
too advanced or too basic. And if you’re shy, you’ll never speak.
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• © Sophie Marette and Voulez-vous parler Ltd
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