How to Learn French in a Year: 4 Parts to Fluency

Hint: simulate immersion.

This article will show you what it takes to learn French. I became fluent in two years, and you can do it in 1. It’s been done before by many people, and it’s entirely possible. Is it easy? No. It takes discipline and consistency for 365 days. But with the right tools, you’ll be fluent in French this time next year.

My story is typical. I spent many years in a classroom, doing exercises in a notebook and reading from a textbook with little to show for it. Then I got a scholarship to study in Paris for 1 month. That trip completely changed how I approached learning the language.

So I developed a new study strategy. And In two years, I was fluent.

I consider the years spent before my new strategy useless. That seems harsh, so let me explain. Whatever knowledge I gained wasn’t connected across my abilities to read, write, speak, and understand. It’s a bit like studying something in school, only to realize you’re empty-handed in the workplace. Ask an accounting major—they’ll tell you.

Today I live and work in French, and natives compliment me almost daily on my French ability.

You can learn French in one year. Some people take a decade to learn a language, while others have become fluent in a year or less. It all depends on your discipline. Your biggest challenges (and your strongest allies) are the passion and determination you bring to the table. They’re a bug part of the “how” in “how to learn French.”

Your brain goes through several phases of development before you can become truly fluent, the most challenging of which is speaking. Some people get speaking faster, while others understand oral comprehension quicker.

In a nutshell, you need to be proficient in reading, writing, listening, and speaking to be considered fluent. And most people learn in that order—I do not suggest taking that path. These are the 4 mediums of acquisition (we’ll come back to them).

This article will explain the methodology many people have discovered after years of painstaking classroom study. Then it will list out a series of learning resources you need to know to follow this methodology. It will lay out a sample day of a detailed plan for one full year of study, and finally explain the habits you should adapt if you’re serious about speaking French fluently.

So, here’s our little journey:

1. Methodology
2. Resources
3. Study plan, example day
4. Habits

Before we continue, you should know that this article is intended for people who are serious about learning French. If you’re hoping to learn French in 3 months, or you just want to few expressions for a trip to Paris, I’m going to be honest with you: you won’t.

During my two-year life abroad in Luxembourg, I’ve met many expats hoping to learn French. Many of them start with false hopes that it’s possible to be fluent in three months (or even one). It’s just not—your brain doesn’t have enough daytime energy to develop new neural pathways that fast, UNLESS you’re a child in public school every day.

In addition, we should probably define what it means to be “fluent.” When I say fluent, I mean the ability to work, perform administrative tasks, and maintain relationships. Anything less is great but wouldn’t meet my standard of fluent. In fact, any less, and you probably won’t be satisfied with your results.

So, here we go. Time to find out how to learn French!

Methodology

There are a few theories on how to learn French. Some say immersion is the only way, others say you need a classroom setting to learn the basics, and others stipulate that you can’t be fluent unless you’re born of bilingual parents!

I want to be clear: the fastest way to learn French would be to immerse yourself in a rural French town, get rid of your car so you can’t leave, and work in a customer-facing role. You would be so desperately overloaded that you would learn just to survive (though this would be painful).

Languages are oral first. An infant learns through immersion—by needing to speak with his/her parents and thereby absorbing the language at a rapid pace.

But this type of full-immersion is not possible, though some have tried.

With the internet and international calling, you will never be totally immersed—that is, cut off entirely from any other language. There will always be times you call your family or spend time with English-speaking people.

Nevertheless, we should think about language learning as the process your brain goes through, during immersion, that leads to fluency.

So, what does full immersion really do for your brain? Well It creates urgency, gives you exposure to real interactions and common vocabulary, confronts you with common expressions, engages all your senses, and above all, is consistent. In list form, immersion:

1. Creates urgency – because—unless you want to be very impolite—you need to say something, even if it’s “je ne parle pas français”
2. Provides realistic interaction – because immersion is reality
3. Reveals common vocabulary – because most books are outdated and don’t include common talk like slang
4. Highlights expressions – because expressions are common, but not in academic study
5. Engages all of your senses – because you smell, taste, see, hear, and feel a conversation
6. Gives consistent exposure – because you have to speak throughout the day, every day

Unlike a textbook or a classroom setting, where the learning environment is pre-structured, immersion is organic.

Because full immersion isn’t really possible (except for children in public school), the best methodology is to simulate it in the closest way possible by reading, writing, listening, and speaking (the 4 mediums of acquisition) in equal increments.

This may sound obvious at first, but I challenge you to maintain an equal balance between the four in the long run.

In many ways, language learning is like dieting. You can start off with ambitious goals and a set plan. After a bit of time, you start to falter from the plan for one reason or another. The good news is that, unlike dieting, you will never completely lose the things you previously studied. They go dormant, sure, but you can activate them again.

In other words, you need to be determined about reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and you need practice them in a way that creates urgency, simulates real situations, emphasizes common vocabulary, highlights expressions, engages all of your senses, and you need do so consistently.

In addition, simulating immersion can help us understand which mediums of acquisition should receive preferential treatment. If you’re dropped into the French countryside, first you will listen, then you will speak, then you will read, and finally you will write. In list form:

1. Listening
2. Speaking
3. Reading
4. Writing

This order in in some ways counterintuitive. If I tell you to go learn French right now, your first instinct is probably to find a French 101 book. I don’t recommend it. If you focus on reading and writing at the start, you will not progress. Your mind won’t create the neural pathways you need to learn. You’ll waste time like I did before employing a new strategy—the balanced strategy.

The balanced strategy

The balanced strategy is dedicating an equal amount of time to the 4 mediums of acquisition. This means that for every hour of study, you should devote 15 minutes to speaking, 15 to listening, 15 to reading, and 15 to writing.

It may sound obvious, but I challenge you to execute this for 1 full year.

To create urgency, you need to watch videos and speak out loud to yourself. To simulate real interaction, you need to watch YouTube channels and speak out loud to yourself. To hear common vocabulary, you need to only consume media produced in France.

To highlight expressions, you need to only consume media produced in France. To engage all your senses, you need to take up French cuisine. To get consistent exposure, you need to study throughout the day. Don’t worry—I will lay this out more constructively in the study plan.

Putting the pieces together

Your study plan needs to simulate immersion in the 6 ways we have discussed, and it needs to incorporate the balanced strategy. Here’s a table to illustrate:

If you would like a short list of vocabulary, check out The 500 Word Rule below!

Learning Resources

I’m the kind of person who finds good resources and sticks with them. Here are a few app and website resources each of the four mediums of acquisition that I used for practice.

Listening (/watching):

Franceinfo

Netflix – here you can watch French movies in their original languages or use French dubbing on English movies

Radio Française – app in Google Play and App Store. This app was huge for me because its various stations help provide a break to the 24-hour news cycle.

Quizlet – lets you build flash cards virtually and will even pronounce French words for you.

Speak:

Out loud to yourself – there are apps you can use to meet people for language exchange, but it’s very hard to find a long-term teacher on them, and they don’t replace the consistency available in speaking to yourself.

Read:

www.SciencesHumaines.com

www.Lemonde.fr

News Republic – app in App Store

Write:

Phrasebook – for vocabulary and expressions

Notebook – for practicing written expression. Make this your one and only tool for written practice. If you write consistently, over time you will see your progress, which is intensely gratifying.

Now that you have some resources, let’s see a plan.

Sample daily study plan

You might wonder how you can incorporate all of this information into a study plan. In some ways, you can. In other ways, you’ll need to be more inventive in how you approach the language.

You’ll need to be industrial about your study tactics. One hour a day is not likely to work; first because it’s not enough time, second because it’s too concentrated for your brain to manage, and third, because you probably won’t stick to it (after all, have you stuck to your New Year’s resolution?).

As I wrote in “Why You (Still) Can’t Speak French… and How to Fix It,” you should instead:

“Study throughout the day, all the time. The beauty of studying a language is that any activity where language is involved (99% of everything we do together) is practice.

When you look something up on google, translate the sentence into French. Try to phrase it in French yourself.

Change your computer, browser, and phone languages into French. It will force your reflexes and after a few days, you’ll know all the common commands. This will also help you learn without memorizing. It will just happen.

Read a news article in French. Try Sciences Humaines.

Watch movies in French. Try Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain.”

I’ve talked a lot about consistency. Consistency is important not only on a day-to-day basis, but also hour-to-hour. The more times you can practice some of the language per day, even just for a few minutes, the better.

At my peak, I was putting in 3 hours/day of quality study time. That means I was deep into resources for three hours each day… but not in one sitting! Here’s a chart to show you what I did:

You can see that my total comes out to around 3 and 3/4 hours. This wasn’t the case every day. Some days it’s better to do less to give your mind a break, and some days regular daily obligations will make it impossible to get in 3 hours of study time.

The real pleasure of this style is that you will see results without feeling like you’re grinding. When you watch videos and listen to the radio, your mind automatically starts picking up details, whether you realize it or not.

One of my best French professors once said, “you’re not going to be fluent if mine is the only voice you hear.” She meant that we should be studying outside of class, and that the more we heard native speakers talking, the faster we would learn.

You might be wondering why I spend so much time on listening. After all, the balanced strategy suggests I should have a equal amount of time devoted to each medium of acquisition. If you’re wondering as much, you’re right. You should be spending an equal amount of time on each.

I spent so much time on listening because there is a steep learning curve for oral comprehension. At some point, maybe around month 6 or 7, you will really start to understand spoken French. At that point, it should be your main focus. Languages are oral first, and you should treat them that way, just as is the case with immersion.

There are additional study plans that incorporate different timing and intensity. If you’re interested in them, send an email to thefrenchobjective.com.

Now, it’s one thing to write down this plan on paper. It’s a whole other story to implement it in practice. You’ll need some good habits.

Habits

You’ve probably heard that it takes 30 days to create or break a habit. The same is true in French, and there are three major ones to help you learn French.

1. Active listening
2. Going to French first
3. Keeping a phrasebook and notebook

Active listening means you focus on the meaning and the vocabulary you hear. Especially in the beginning, it’s very tempting to “pretend” to listen while you really just hear the equivalent of French mumbo jumbo. Active listening on a consistent basis will skyrocket your progress.

If you catch yourself drifting, that’s okay. Remember your goal is to learn French, and bring your attention back to the voice on the screen/through the speakers.

Going to French first means whenever you think of an idea, have a question, or need any sort of information, you look for it in French first. This is a tough one to create because you’re more anxious for the results than practicing. But if you learn this, you’ll progress much faster.

A good way to set yourself up for success is changing your phone and computer languages into French. This will force you to develop the knee-jerk reaction of searching in French.

Keeping a phrasebook and notebook means getting two big, sturdy spiral notebooks that you’ll use for at least one year. Keep these on you all the time. In the phrasebook you’ll write words and expressions, their definitions, and what they mean to you. In the notebook, you’ll write practice passages in French. This could be letters to friends or self-reflective entries.

How to Learn French

At this point, you’re probably thinking “but I need at least a book or two to get started.” You’re right. You need to have the very basics of French grammar and vocabulary. And even if you’ve been studying French for a while, these books will make sure your basics are strong so you can grow in the long run.

Incorporate these into your daily study plan for the first 3 months. Then you shouldn’t need them anymore. In a year’s time you’ll be fluent in French by practicing, practicing, practicing… listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

The 500 Word Rule

Fundamental French

Bon, il semble que nous avons suffisamment traité ce sujet en anglais. Cueillons le jour et commençons dès maintenant à pratiquer la langue française.

Ce sera gênant et bizarre pendent un temps, mais vous allez progresser à une super vitesse si vous employez les méthodologies et stratégies discutées ci-dessus.

Allez-y ! Va écouter et parler français !