Learning French Outside the Classroom

No matter how interesting, structural and organized are the French classes you take, sometimes you just need a break, you need to be able to smile while you’re learning, relax and even have fun. Nowadays, our good buddy – the Internet – can provide several ways for doing that.

Play the games you love, but do it in French. Most of the games you can use for practicing your French are simple ones, like crosswords or hangman. As simple as they are, they can prove very efficient for your writing skills, vocabulary and comprehension. But there is also another option: change the language menu of the games you play more often from English to French (admittedly, not all games are bilingual) – this will help you get familiar with different words and phrases. Plus, if you play online games (like Lineage II), talk to you fellow players that are French in their native language! It's really some awesome, hands-down practice of your French language.

Another way to ractice your writing and comprehension skills by joining a chat room online. With one simple search on the internet you will find French chat rooms on any subject. There are beginner speakers and advanced ones, native speakers or even teachers, and they will all help you improve. It is ok to tell everyone from the start what your level is in French so they know where you need improvement. Plus, if you have an interest in the subject talked about in the chat room and you have studied it in your native language before, it will be easier to pick up meanings and words.

Find a French speaker friend and start a ‘language exchange’ program. This means you should find a native French speaker who wants to improve his English and make a sort of an agreement: you teach each other French and English. This will help in every aspect of learning a new language: comprehension, reading, writing, pronunciation. Plus you improve your social life buy having a new friend! This method can be efficient as long as you both have a little bit of knowledge of the other’s language and also a bit of teaching skills, right? Because what’s the use of being a native speaker if you are not able to pass your knowledge to your “student”?

We spend most of our time on the internet so why not begin taking online courses or play a CD for improving your listening and pronunciation? I personally prefer learning a language this way, for I am pretty busy and I spend most of my day in the car. So I’ll just play my French-learning CD and repeat after it “red – rouge”, “boy – garcon”, “small – petite”. The only disadvantage I see for this, is that I can’t advance in my writing skills, for I only listen, comprehend and pronounce. For this, every night, I take 10-15 minutes to go over the lesson I heard in the car and write all the words in it. It sure helps a lot!

The online French courses usually consist of short lessons which are very explicit and focused on the essentials. Plus you get to write, read and listen to French in it’s most correct state, you learn grammar and writing, not only spoken skills.

Of course, the funniest way to take the learning process of the French language outside of the class room is to take it into the great wide open! Visit France, visit Paris, pick up words along the way, find a French fiancé, eat baguettes with Brie Cheese, enjoy a piece of tarte au citron (lemon pie) and just have fun, every moment of it! You'll literally feel your French get pumped up with each day that catches you on French soil.

If you read this and you still feel like going to class, c’est la vie, mon amie! (that’s life, my friend) you’re no fun at all!