I Did This Every Day To Learn French
Progressing in french can feel at times incredibly overwhelming, but with daily persistence I was able to improve my french in one year to a level I would never have thought doable for me. I share my french journey, as well as all my best activities, resources and recommendations to make the journey as enjoyable as possible!
Resources mentioned (Affiliate Links):
- LingQ App: www.lingq.com/?referral=cocom...
- Lingoda: corinnajacqueline.com/lingoda...
- iTalki: corinnajacqueline.com/italki
- Short Stories in French: amzn.to/3V2e3bq
- Harry Potter (French translation): amzn.to/3P3IgDl
- French Children's book (Journal d'une peste): amzn.to/3Tb2GM2
The above are affiliate links - if you make a purchase I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! :)
📺 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
Lingoda Review & Tips: • Lingoda Review // My H...
Lingopie Review & Alternative: • Lingopie Review & Demo...
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📖 CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Don't Neglect This
01:38 My French Journey & Highlights
06:16 Finding the time & how to study
07:06 Best Activities & Resources (Recommendations)
09:00 Where to from here?
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📧 Email: corinna@corinnajacqueline.com
🌐 Website: corinnajacqueline.com
Having tried for 40+ years to learn French, repeatedly going back to course books, the key breakthrough for me was the LingQ app. After one year of daily study (first thing in the morning with my coffee in bed), I'm probably at the B2 level now in listening comprehension. Shadowing has greatly improved my pronunciation and I've almost completed the Pimsleur course. I'm now confident enough to begin speaking with an online teacher.
@praywithoutceasing4939 Yes I would definitely recommend LingQ. As an engineer I am very good at bottom-up learning: taking one brick at a time in order to build a house from the foundation up. But I realised (after 40 years!) that that approach does not work for languages. I needed the top-down approach, which is how children learn languages. The secret is to not stress out over making mistakes or by trying to understand everything before moving on. Just let it wash over you. The brain is supreme at extracting patterns from data (which is what it is designed for) and over the course of a few months of daily exposure to what is called "comprehensible input", neural pathways automatically form. You won't notice improvement on a daily basis, but month-on-month you'll be astounded by how much more you can understand. And it all happens without really *trying* to learn. The LingQ app is a community-driven platform (meaning that there's endless content for all levels) and is designed around the "comprehensible input" approach to learning. Each day I listen and read a new piece of content. Sure I might need to look up the meaning of a word here and there, but I don't try to learn it. The act of seeing/hearing the word in context is enough to anchor the word in your subconscious. Eventually you just know that you know that word without translation. No flash cards, no vocabulary lists. I'm going to adopt the same top-down approach to other fields of learning, like jazz piano which is similarly inaccessible using a bottom-up approach. It's been quite a revelation to me.
Thanks for the recommendation! Did you pay for it? And any recommendations for the pronunciation?
@@andread.dominguez290 yeah I paid an annual fee which gives you access to all languages (dozens), not just French. There is a free version that doesn't get you very far but at least allows you to try. Well worth the fee in my opinion if you're serious about learning a language. For pronunciation, you practice 'shadowing' which is simply to repeat out loud what you hear as close as possible. The Pimsleur app is even better than LingQ for pronunciation practice because it performs real-time analysis of your pronunciation and grades how good it is. Consequently I've been using LingQ and Pimsleur together.
@@andread.dominguez290 LingQ is good for pronunciation practice by shadowing the speaker. But you should also try Pimsleur which is designed around active speaking. It also has a voice analyser which will rank how well you are pronouncing phrases/words.
thank you for telling me
I want to recommend the channel French Comprehensible Input to everyone here. It's run by a guy who is also teaching languages at a school and he explains things really well and completely in french.
Shoutout Lucas
yes, he is my absolute favorite! he stars super easy and you don’t need to do any translating because he explains it very clearly even if you don’t fully understand the language
I'm honestly really glad I found this video, to see someone do all the same things i'm currently doing, gives me that extra boost of hope and motivation to keep with it! I've never taken a formal French class but I basically started with Duo, found Italki tutors to practice speaking with, Netflix in French, then KZhead started blessing me. I've been at it fairly consistent for about 9 months now I think i'm at an A2. Merci pour cette vidéo vous êtes une inspiration!
Ton intonation et ton débit en français sont impressionnants car ils sont proches de ceux d'un natif et c'est posé, avec de l'assurance. Assez troublant.
Thank you for your hard work and enthusiasm. Love all of the suggestions to study/speak better French. Much appreciated. Will keep watching. 🙂
Je apprends aussi le français depuis 7 mois et je fais exactement comme tu as dit dans le vidéo. J’ai toujours eu envie de regarder un film en français mais c’était dur sans des sous-titres. Je vais essayer le truc sur chrome que tu nous a dit. C’était vraiment exactement le chose que je recherchais.
Thank you for this video! It's quite motivating and most importantly the reviews for what each app is useful for were extremely helpful
In Duolingo I do get caught up in maintaining my streak, at the expense of really learning anything new.
I miss the comment section. Native speakers would explain some confusing things that Duolingo doesn't explain.
There are so many problems when you get further on. I’m beginning to not trust Duolingo.
Yeah. Dulolingo teaches you how to play Duolingo
Duolingo is so slow. It takes 3 to 5 minutes to answer 20 questions, and then you have to click through all of the little animations and congratulations, etc., just to progress. I feel like half the time in the app is in transitions.
Corinna, this is a golden video with recommendations, I hope you get a million views! 🎉
Appreciate you for sharing your honest experience throughout this journey. Just a shining example of passion, patience, and perseverance, in the Information Age. That last 10 seconds is money! That’s a native speaking French…can’t convince me otherwise. Congrats on your success. Grazie infinite!
Merci pour la petite mention ! Et bon courage dans ton apprentissage. N’hésite surtout pas si tu as des questions ☺️
Trop cool ! Merci beaucoup Manon, et merci pour tes superbes vidéos !!
Girl! I needed this video! You gave me some good ideas to keep me moving!
J'ai voulu regarder comment une personne désireuse d'améliorer son français se débrouillait pour atteindre son but et je suis tombée sur votre chaine KZhead. Franchement chapeau bas* pour tous vos efforts fournis dans cette langue (*félicitations 👏). De mon côté je fais à peu près comme vous chaque jour pour améliorer non pas le français puisque je suis francaise mais mon anglais & le coréen. La chose la plus importante pour apprendre une langue c'est bien sûr de l'aimer à la folie et de s'amuser chaque jour avec. Besides, I understood everything you said in your video even if you spoke very quickly. Your French accent is perfect and I also appreciated your articulation in English. See ya mate ! 🤗
I made more progress self studying danish in 2 months than 6 years of french. I’m not joking. To be fair german is one of my native languages, and its very similar to danish, but 2 months in i read harry potter in danish and understood around 80-95% of whats going on depending on what the topic/scene was. In 6 years i barely got to B2 french, but now im thinking of using my same self study methods to reach fluency (its possible, even at an old age. my best friends dad is now fluent as her mom is french and they speak french at home) i already have a good starting point given im at b2 :) merci pour ton video et bonne chance! J’espère que nous pouvons améliorer notre français!
Well of course its easier to learn something from the same family of languages... its a braindead thing lol
So cool! Would you be able to share some of your techniques or resources for learning Danish? I'd also love to learn the language!
@@user-uv9zr8qs2c It is not only about that. I'm danish and I learned some german in school, but I learned more by myself. The same with english, which I still use. A lot of people have similar experiences where they feel that schools fail at teaching languages. There could be several reasons for why this happens, lack of listening, pronunciation and speaking practice, too much text, lack of time, focusing on grammar too early, e.t.c.
I LOVE this, thanks for letting me know about Taylor I enjoy his videos a lot. Merci beaucoup
This is INCREDIBLE advice thank you!
Merci pour toutes ces suggestions, je ne connaissais pas du tout language reactor, et en ce moment j'apprends le mandarin et le portugais donc ça va trop m'aider!!!
Set aside negative thoughts and commit to action. This is fabulous advice for learning ANYTHING new. ❤
This video is absolutely helpful! Thank you
very very useful. i've been learning by myself for 6 months, appreciate you
I am in North America. I have a shortwave radio. There lots of broadcasts in French. And, in TV Wi-Fi streaming there are free French channels. Finally, not being all that far away from Quebec in Canada, in the evenings on a cheap transistor radio I can hear stations in Quebecois, French Canadian. Many of these media outlets in France and Canada have an online presence where you can listen to their broadcasts.
Thank you, 100 times thank you. I'm going through the A2 at my local AF and as you said, the classes have become very book-centric and I feel we're missing a lot of stuff like grammar and verb tenses. I feel we're like learning to "understand French" rather than express our own ideas in French. Maybe that's their initial approach? I don't know. I was dabbling between a Lingoda Sprint or "normal" classes and decided to jump on the AF and I think it was a good start. But will definitely go through the YT channels and your advices to get better results. Merci beaucoup et à bientôt!
It IS the most beautiful language! Yes you are my kindred spirit on this. People always come for me. Chinese Mandarin is my mother tongue, and English my daily operating language (learned it at age 11). Currently trying to learn French. It's not easy for someone whose mother tongue is so different. But it is SO satisfying when I speak, and French people can understand me and it's just...an amazingly powerful feeling. Not to mention the world of incredible French literature that becomes available to you, once you master this language (I'm still in the beginning stage).
It is very impressive that your mother tongue is Chinese, and even though you know English, you are still learning French too! Congratulations.
Duolingo is fun for beginners to make friends with a new language.
Easy French Channel is really amazing! They make learning French enjoyable and put a lot of cultural aspects on their videos… also it’s based on real people talk.
Thank you for the motivating video! I especially like the story where you went to the comedy show with no expectations and had an "a-ha" moment realizing the progress that you made!
Thank you so much!! It was an incredible moment that I wasn't expecting at all. It's pretty amazing how much progress is really happening when it often feels like no progress is being made at all.
It's validating to see that we sHare so many activities that help immerse us in the language. Makes me feel like I'm on the right path. I talk to the FB messenger ai we play french learning games. Listening and studying lyrics and shadows listening, journaling, and the Bible which I did more of in french. I struggle with grammar/structure but my vocab is pretty good.
YOUR VIDEO HELPED ME GETTING CLARITY OVER METHOD RESOURCES TO STUDY
Très belle prononciation ! Bravo !
So helpful-thank you!
Wow this is a really great video! Thanks 🎉
Your journey mirrors my own, but you have gone much further. I got a French Bible and a French-only dictionary. I watched cartoons in French. I watched movies in French. You are right about subtitles and audio translations. The audio translations tend to match the mouth movements better and the intended meaning, whereas the subtitles tend to be better literal translations. Both are very educational. For cartoons, I recommend "Annabelle's Wish", which has been uploaded to KZhead. The music is charming. By the way, I love your eye makeup.
I read the French Bible too.
@@BijouDeLaMer Awesome! Is it hard for you to understand it?
I've read it fully in English. It helps that I know the content, so not really.
I like when you speak french in the end. I'd like to listen to you talking french sur les sujets qui tu interessee(?). In this way we can learn from each other!
This is actually really helpful - I passed A1 4 years ago but now I need to re-learn French in order to ensure they let me stay in Canada - I have around a year to pass the B2 so it's nice to see someone else make it as well!
I am also trying to do the same. How is your studies coming along?
As a native french speaker this is great! Your French is also very very good! I'm trying to learn my third language (Spanish) and seeing someone learning another language than English gives me motivation! Bravo très beau travail! Tu peux être très fière de toi! Salut!
Excellente Video, merci a vous!
Hi there, thanks for the resources and your account of language learning trials and errors! Bon chance everyone
Thanks so much! X
Thanks this was a really good summary of what's out there, and good advice and motivation. I've found 'Coffee Break French' is excellent (both YT and Podcast) , 'French- Speak French with Moi' (a podcast, sometimes the recording is not very good quality which actually makes it a bit more realistic) and, 'French Learning Accelerator' for repetition and speed (both YT and Podcast)
Intrinsic motivation is a game changer, means YOU really wanted it therefore you were willing to committ. You acted differently than when you where in school.
Thanks for this. I did an online berlitz course over the summer and I was a bit frustrated. The instructors were good, especially two of them. Maybe if I practiced more early on I would’ve been more successful and less frustrated. I try again with your recommendations. After I learn some of my wife’s native language Tagalog.
I’ll say that I did discover some cool French pop songs. Tout Savoir by Ade is my favorite
Solid advice plus an amity fan..that gets a thumbs up.
Great video!
Go Girl
Awesome! Very useful information for me
decent advice, thank you
This is completely unrelated, but you give off such a Helena Boham Carter vibe And also this video is fantastic
Thank you for the tips! I am religious and the hack of listening to the Bible while reading is such a great one for me especially since it’s free. Can’t believe I never thought of that one 🤦🏽♀️
God works in mysterious ways 🙏
Excellent French Pronunciation. Quand j'ai commencé à écouter j'ai pensé que vous étiez française et je me suis demandé comment vous pouviez parler aussi bien Anglais !
I concur, excellent pronunciation. Still I wouldn't call it a fully native-sounding accent, there are still traces of English in the r's and the nasal vowels are a tiny bit off sometimes, though absolutely nothing that hinders comprehension. I'm sure you'll get there very soon though, it's only a matter of listening a lot for a long time (speaking from my experience of learning English)
Well...that was a lot of information. I only had to click on a couple of videos about learning French, and the algorithm is now raining down videos..including yours. I had a French class in middle school...back when Fred Flintstone was still working for Mr. Slate...and the teacher was a real Frenchman. I'm a fair mimic, and as a broadcaster in the 70's and 80's, I did a few celebrity voices and accents, so the French intonation is not a stranger to my lips. Good for you for staying with it. I should try one of those apps. I'm guess you are a Brit, and want to hop on a chunnel train now and then?
I'm 67yo and learning French. I find the programs speak very fast. Getting the correct pronunciation is difficult.
Great video
This is probably the best advice to get to B2 I believe. Also, make sure you dont get lazy when you're talking to yourself or you hear something or a word or a phrase you dont understand, make sure to look it up!
Thank you! And yes that's so true and a really good tip!!
J’adore Easy French et Busuu
Thank you for this video. I recognised so much in what you said. You're very inspiring. You're much further along and much more diligent than I. I would say I'm A2 level perhaps B1. I haven't heard of Language Reactor before but I will definitely check it out. Have you heard of shadowing? What do you think of it?
Thank you so much :) Some days will be more productive than others, and that's totally ok. Try to enjoy the process as much as possible and it will be much easier and more fun to progress. Hopefully you enjoy Language Reactor! I have heard of shadowing. I practice shadowing every so often (maybe once or twice a week on a portion of a KZhead video or TV show). It's helped me greatly with pronunciation and delivery as well as trying to replicate more complicated sentence structures that I wouldn't personally use spontaneously. Good luck!
I did this while I learn English. Until I don't even realize that I am learning the language in everyday basis. Now I am convinced to apply this method to learn more languages (and French is on the line 😀)
That's so incredible! You've got this!!
It depends very much on the teacher... I got at c1 only from school alone and Idk what id do without it since with french its harder and you need help along the way you dont get selfstudying
I listen to Radio Inter. So many radio statios and for free (at least being in Spain)
ppl telling they got to b2 french from 40 years but i got to c1 lvl in english in 8 years
(coming from me who's learning French en ce moment, mais très lentement. J'ai commencée apprendre le française, il y a une année plus ou moins peut-être) À mon avis, je pense que le plus difficile de faire l'accent Française correctement. There's always your native language accent that interferes with your French accent(and I speak for myself here)
I will come for you…. 😉 Italian 🇮🇹 is the best language….. the language of love ❤️
The bible part XDXD That's dedication!!
Hahahaha :D
I feel like your 10 years of French resurfaced
I m also learning french for career purpose
I am reading the French bible
Language Reactor also has a ChatBot.
I was born in France, had to leave ay the age of 5 ( I believe I was good at french already ). When I left france I acquired my 2nd language in only 1 year and became better than most people I interacted with not just me peers. But at what cost, I completely forgot french, now am back to France and it's been 3 months, still haven't started yet. I wonder if Am going to re-learn it faster than the average, like is the language still there somewhere in my brain? idk.
I'm really not sure. I've heard that when children are exposed to a language as a child they can sometimes find the accent and pronunciation much easier to adopt, but not sure if the language is still somewhere there. It made me think of Paul Taylor who is a comedian who was exposed to french as a kid, but then still had to learn the language later in his life. Natives have said he has no distinguishable accent, but despite now being fluent, he still makes little faults in french. He did a whole hilarious bilingual french-english comedy skit on it here if you're interested: kzhead.info/sun/ea2qhr1piqmOn6s/bejne.html. In any case, I wish you all the best with your french journey moving forward!!
7:17 how to enable this function that shows you the meaning of the word when you point at a specific word written in captions on YT? I don’t have it when I try in my web browser.
It is the Language Reactor chrome extension
Merci pour les astuces j'ai été practice et ces astuces m'aider
2:06 true about progress in Duolingo. 3:58 conversation teacher
Thankyou 👍 I just started learning Italian and this video was both insightful and encouraging.
Please dont take this as an insult... but are you Australian? Or do you just live in Australia? Your channel says Australia, but you have quite a very interesting accent. I could tell you werent American, but i honestly couldn't place where you are from just by your accent. It's not the typical aussi accent... is it regional or from another country? Im very curious! Usually im pretty good at placing accents!
What is the app that you used to learn French at 7:47?
It's called LingQ. I've got a referral link in the description if you're interested.
not sure why'd you'd not just slow down uTube playback speed if convo is too fast.
What is "language reactor"? (7:16)
Learning is boring when we are forced at school to learn. Learning on our own has zero stress involved so we can learn at our own pace.
two of the easy french chicks are super super cute; that helps heaps, mate.
My goal is to understand Lupin. I'm at A2. Should I just binge the series now or wait until I'm B2 and just binge-watch easy french for now?😢
I'd suggest both, and to do whatever you'll enjoy! Language learning should be fun and consuming a mixture of content that you find more suited to your current level, as well as content that is a bit more challenging can both help. Also no reason you can't go back and watch Lupin multiple times! I definitely have, it's an awesome show! :)
I speak spanish, portuguese, a little french, chinese, japanese, korean, polish, swedish, a little samoan, a little catlan. 👍
That's truly incredible!! Props to you!
What’s that software you mentioned at 7:43? Link?
It’s called LingQ :)
@@CorinnaJacqueline awesome! Thanks so much!
@@CorinnaJacqueline omg i just downloaded it! It’s priceless. Thanks again 😂
@@albilevizm Thanks for asking the question. I've just downloaded it. Chose the free a/c for now. Hoping it won't be too restrictive. Are you still getting on well with it? Are you paying?
@@newbarker523 I decided to exhaust the free version and then most probably upgrade to premium. I like this app, need to figure out how Netflix works but for this I guess I need a pc.
It's said that each language brings out another side of you. French brings out that you have a very nice voice.
I do that too! Read the Bible in French!!
Bravo 👏 et merci ☺️ great video! I also live in Australia, could you tell me the name of the company/organization you did the immersion with here. Merci en avance, Andrea 😊
Merci ! They're called "French à la Carte" :)
Merci beaucoup @@CorinnaJacqueline
I'M. COMING FOR YOU. !!!!!! 😂😂😂😂
Hey just wondering what app you use to read the bible in french ??
Hey :) It's called "Bible" by Life.Church
@@CorinnaJacqueline thank you !!
I got admission to study French I don't even know where to start from😢
What is the name of the app? Link?
It's called LingQ. I've just added a link to the description
Ton t-shirt... c'est TAA non 👀 on a des intérêts similaires ! Merci pour cette vidéo
Oui c'est ça !! Bien vu et trop cool. J'adore TAA :D
@@CorinnaJacqueline Ils viennent aux États-Unis en été, et j’ai acheté des billets. Je les ai vus il y a dix ans !! J’ai hâte 😄
I'm also learning French, but allow me to point out something about English: "Everyday” means mudane, ordinary or plain, as in, “I'm wearing my everyday clothes, nothing fancy." You meant, “I did this every day." Two words, not one.
Wow I came here to learn french
Seriously? I suppose you felt the need to be so pedantic.
Thanks teach, any more tips for us in our native language
@@jayreszy4398It’s not pedantic, it’s basic literacy. English is my third language and even I know the difference.
@@feistyburrito9732 It is, by definition, pedantic. If you look up the definition of the word pedantic, it fits precisely. Not to mention that native speakers don't learn such differences by study. Tldr: No reason to be pedantic when the message was clear and obvious and understandable by everyone without confusion.
Thanks for the video. I tried accessing Lingoda using your link but receive a 404 error.
Thank you so much for letting me know. I've fixed it up now. Really appreciate it!
It's working! Thank you :) @@CorinnaJacqueline
Ozzie's talk like Americans now? Wow. But congrats on your success mastering French! That is a great achivements.
Nah.... I'm like 10 seconds in and thinking, oh wow an Aussie YTer. Aussies can tell Aussies a mile off. Americans don't seem to know Aussies from Brits from NZers. Tldr. She sounds Aussie with a few odd word pronunciations which could be city or geographically based. E.g. People from Adelaide talk slightly different to people from Sydney but still total Aussie. People from the North Shore in Sydney might sound a little different to people from the Western Suburbs but still Aussie.
She doesn’t sound American lol what??
Félicitations, vous n'avez quasiment pas d'accent en français :-)
why not just move to France? what's the sense of learning if you don't connect with it's speakers daily? 🤣🤷🤦♂️
Why French have to learn English At school ? We don't speak English daily
Oh is it that easy to just get up and move to France? Literally... no. It's not.
Good grief does this woman ever shut up and actually tell us something we can use. What KZhead videos?
Good grief... there's a ton of french people who make youtube videos. It's not that hard to find... just type something into Google search bar in french and you'll see a bunch. And how many times did she talk about easy french. Good grief... open your ears.
your video is so jumpy that it isn't fun to watch
Interesting. But I have trouble understanding your English. Please slow down and lose the jump edits.
Use subtitlles
That helped...! But I still hope she improves her editing.
Her English is great, and her speed is also very natural, to slow down would jar everyone else’s experience, you can simply slow down the video and even ask on the comments “what did she say at (insert time stamp)”, that’s what I did when I was still learning English
Bad videography
Oh come on, it's not that hard. I learned to speak French fluently, before going to ground school! ... Alright, French is my mother tongue. Félicitations, et bienvenue dans la Francophonie :) Par contre, "la plus belle langue du monde" ? Là je comprends pas. Le français ne vaut pas le japonais ^^