Why You (Still) Can’t Speak French… and How to Fix It

­­So you’ve been studying French for several years. Maybe you took it in high school or you’ve been studying on your own. BUT, you still can’t speak it.

You know some grammar, and you can speak some simple sentences. But when it comes to understanding and discussing, you’re lost like an American in Paris.

No matter how many hours you put it, it just won’t seem to click. My bet is you spend an enormous portion of time studying grammar and memorizing vocabulary.

That’s what most people do, and I was guilty of the doing the same thing… for 8 years. But there is a better way.

The problem with grammar and vocabulary

I get it. When you start learning, you need stepping stones. You have to begin with something, so the first step is to grab a French 1 textbook and start memorizing definitions. Voiture = car. Simple enough.

At some point, you start to feel like you’ve been studying a lot of vocabulary, but it won’t stick. Words you learned just last week seem to just disappear from memory.

And those grammar rules… who knows if you’ll even retain them at the end of the month.

The problem with this strategy is one of psychology, more specifically of brain plasticity. Your mind is not capable of retaining that much vocabulary and grammar when you consume only paper materials. It’s just a drag—like being in class again.

If you resign yourself to only doing these two things, leave the page now. Really. Because you will never speak French.

If, however, you’re open to seeing a different way, keep reading.

When you study, but not really, for less than 1 hour per day

Study time is so important, and not just how much of it you do. In his book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell talks about what it takes to be a “pro” at something—10,000 hours of quality study.

Now, don’t worry, I’m not saying you need 10,000 hours of study to be fluent (to be a literary professional in French, maybe)

What I’m saying is you need quality study time. That means study time when you are focused.

What not to do

Don’t set up one-hour time frames each day during which you will study. It won’t work. It never has. It never will.

You will miss a session, or feel lazy one day, and then you’ll start forgetting. That’s how you lose the battle.

Instead…

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) 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 words! 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.

Sometimes it will be too hard. No problem. Don’t worry. Finish in English and try in French later.

Don’t put pressure on yourself. Learn as you go.

Seeing the world in French

I imagine you’re starting to question my methods. No structure? No classes? No teacher? Nope. You don’t need them.

What you need to do is learn French like you learned English: naturally. You need to come across things that inspire you, feel the need to describe them, and learn the words.

You need to look at others, want to speak to them, and concentrate on translating what you’re going to say in French (inside your head on this one…)

You need to read a sentence and translate it. / Il faut que tu lises une phrase et la traduises.

Ou bien tu lis des articles directement en français pour ensuite les traduire en anglais. / Or even directly read articles in French and then translate them into English.

See the world in French. Go back to when you were 2 years old. Feel the need for new words with everything you do in your life.

Don’t put pressure on yourself. Learn as you go. See the world in French.

That will get you started… but you still need to speak

Once you start getting into the rhythm of learning French naturally, throughout your day in pieces, your brain will start to treat it as a necessity, not an obligation.

French exercises and homework are an obligation. Feeling the need to speak French is a necessity.

Your brain will start to adapt. You will feel the fluidity come.

But you still need to speak. So speak.

Speak out loud to yourself and record it. Replay conversations you have with people throughout the day… in French.

This sounds weird. I know. My roommates thought I was a fool when I did this at university.

But it wil work wonders for your progress. What once took you a week to learn, you will do in two days.

And if you’re looking up words throughout the day and reading articles and watching movies and listening to music, everything will start to come together. But you HAVE to speak. Languages are oral first.

Basics: what you must know first

I understand. When you’re starting out, nothing is familiar. You can’t just start reading articles and watching movies because you don’t retain anything.

You definitely need to start with easier articles and have subtitles for movies. That’s probably a given.

Before that, you need to concentrate on the basic principles of grammar and a simple set of vocabulary words.

You can speak French in one year

So you’ve been studying for some time, but you still can’t speak. That’s OK. You can do it in one year. I did it in two years because it took me so long to discover this method of seeing the world in French, studying through the day, speaking out loud to myself, and focusing on the basics of grammar and vocabulary.

Patience

It will come. Stick to the path and you will speak French. Be consistent, enjoy the ride, and reach out to me. In the meantime, check out the 5 must-dos for learning French.