How to learn French ?

 Based on 10 years of experience teaching French as a Foreign Language, we share some tips  on how to learn French effectively. 

1. Learn correct French pronunciation from the start. 

Although there are many similar roots, French remains distinct from other languages in many  ways - even a shared word like "weekend" is written with a hyphen in French "week-end" and  the pronunciation is given a 'French touch'. How then to master French pronunciation? 

- Self-study through audios and videos is helpful, especially for learning vocabulary and  grammar. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to learn French pronunciation this  way (unless you have an exceptional talent for mimicry). On the one hand, you don't get  corrected instantly if you mispronounce. On the other, you may be deceived by your own  ears and tempted to think you are on the right track. Moreover, audios and videos for  learning French do not teach listening skills, considered the most challenging of the 4  language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening). That is why beginner students  often feel native French speakers talk too fast and lump many words together (liaison).  The result: a cacophony of words that they are unable to follow. Why is that? Making  sense of normal speech requires you to learn how to listen in the first place. Your ears  are bombarded with a lot of sounds, and they need to know exactly which sound to pick  and decode. They will analyse these sounds against a frame of reference (which must  be learned). Otherwise, such sounds will simply be discarded as noise and nonsense. 

- Classroom learning remains more effective than self-learning, especially in small group  situations. But students need to have realistic expectations; it is not always possible for a  teacher to correct the pronunciation of individual students in a group. And it comes to no  

surprise that most untrained French teachers are unable to teach pronunciation and  listening skills, and cater to the individual needs of their students. 

- Learning French with a private tutor is the best, tried and tested option. If you are on  a tight budget, you can get a private tutor at least for the pronunciation part, just to be on  the right track from the start. However, not any French tutor will do. You need an  experienced French tutor with a sound knowledge of rules governing pronunciation,  a professional French tutor who can tune up your ears, and teach you intonation,  nuances and the overall musical pattern of the French language. Besides simulating  realistic circumstances, your tutor can also give you the cultural context, an  indispensable element in language learning.

With a private French tutor, you can also record your classes. You can use freeware  such as "Amolto Call Recorder" if you are learning online through Skype. In case you  are learning face-to-face, you can use a voice recorder program on your smartphone.  

You can play back the recorded audio to listen to yourself and fix your mistakes until you  get closer to the correct version. 

2. Memorise the gender of French nouns at an early stage. 

French, the language of passion, is also one of obsession, especially with genders in grammar.  In French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine; there is no neuter gender. Native  speakers generally learn which words are masculine and which ones are feminine from  childhood, through trial and error, and getting corrected in the process. 

For those learning French as a foreign language, learning the gender of individual words can  be a daunting experience and it can take you a lifetime! Fortunately, there are some general  rules that can teach you to make out the gender of French words with 90% accuracy. Learn  these rules to save yourself time and future mistakes. 

3. Build on what you already know. 

A lot of French words are similar in spelling and meaning to English (they are called cognates).  By knowing these cognates, you can easily transfer and simply add a French pronunciation to  them. Et voilà! You’ve got loads of French words that you never thought you knew and  which you can put to immediate use. 

4. Find a logical approach to learn French easily. 

If you are not a young learner, it is easier to learn French by using a logical approach – mainly  through an intelligent organisation of information and memorisation techniques. 

Let’s first look at one memorization technique: mnemonics. One of the rules of French  pronunciation is that, generally, the consonants D, S, P, T and X are silent at the end of a word.  You can remember this rule through the wordplay DESPOTIC which contains all the silent  consonants. 

Let’s now see how a better organisation of information can assist with learning. Take the gender  of French nouns which have to be either masculine or feminine. As a very general rule (with  some exceptions), words that end with either vowels (A, I, O, U but not E) or consonants tend to  be Masculine whereas words that end with E (with some exceptions) tend to be Feminine. At  an earlier stage, it is much more effective to remember this simple rule than to go through the  tedious exercise of memorising the gender of each and every French word. 

5. Create your own French vocabulary notebook. 

It helps to create your own French vocabulary notebook. You can organised new words you learn  under related Themes (e.g. Food) and further categories then into People (boulanger,  pâtissier), Nouns (baguette, croissant), Adjectives (délicieux, bon), Adverbs (bien,  fraîchement) and Verbs (manger, boire). 

For an easier retrieval of information, you can number all the pages in the notebook, and create  an index containing a detailed list of the Themes with page numbers next to them.

6. Set some milestones and take a French Proficiency Test. 

Learning for fun is exciting, but many give up along the way, especially when they hit a wall. To  keep track of your progress and measure yourself at an objective international level, it is good to  take a French proficiency test such as TEF, TCF, DELF or DALF. Taking these proficiency tests  at various stages of learning will give you more confidence to keep learning and improving.

For more information about FRENCH Language you can visit here Best Online French Classes In Delhi or Best French Classes In Laxminagar