French language

I have used Duolingo in the past. It's a free app and is fun! Give it a try and let us know what you think.

I've used Pimsleur which is a a fairly inexpensive audio program (inexpensive compared to ones like Rosetta). Right now they are offering 7 day free trials thru their website or you can get from Amazon - CDs, Audible, etc. Some public libraries also have it.

A free program I've also used is the Duolingo smart phone app. It's a bit cutesy (would appeal to kids) and uses both audible and reading methods.

Duolingo is a good start, not perfect but free.

Another vote for Pimsleur. If you already have some experience with the language it may be just what you need to refresh your memory.
Check with your local library - they may offer some of the various language learning programs (including Pimsleur ) for free.

At a community college or if you live in a city with a local L'Alliance Francais:
https://afusa.org/
Both have online classes or Zoom during these times.

Thanks so much for responding! I am writing them down and will check them out. Thanks!

I’ve used Coffee Break Spanish and I am pretty sure they have French, too. There are podcasts and courses (all online, pre-recorded) that you can buy that I’ve found very helpful.

More generally, look for podcasts for language learners. Listening to real speech, even if you don’t understand much of it, trains your ear. I like News in Slow Spanish, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are probably similar things for French learners.
Also on Netflix there are TV shows in French. Once you can, watching them in French with French subtitles is very helpful. I started with children’s programs in Spanish. The subtitles are great because at least for me my reading is much better than my listening so it helps match things up.

I use Duolingo on my desktop computer (not thrilled with the app version). I also took French in high school and college and Duolingo has been great for helping me remember and also moving ahead. Definitely not perfect (as others mentioned) and when things get back to normal I'm going to join a local group for people who want to practice speaking French since Duolingo really focuses on reading/ writing.

We stupidly bought Rosetta stone and found it hard to stick with and kind of useless. I am sure people with more self discipline would do better. Pimsleur is much better because it is very active; you learn by speaking - by constructing sentences not by listening and repeating. Pimsleur (which might be available at your library) forces you to begin constructing responses right away and those stick a lot better. Active learning.

There are lots of tourist French sites on line where you can learn some basic phrases and those are useful if you are looking to 'get by' in French rather than master the language. Decades ago we got a two cassette set of 'Getting by in Italian' by Barron before our first European trip to Italy. The principle was that you don't need sentences but a few words and gestures and phrases. And I could not believe how useful it was. We were in many areas where little English was spoken and this was close to 40 years ago. From those little cassettes which we listened to in the car, we did very well with our basic needs of shopping for food for the apartment, getting directions, ordering in restaurants etc with no previous Italian experience. Knowing a few key phrases and words takes you a long way especially today where English is more widely learned.

Samantha, if you are interested in getting on on-line tutor, check out iTalki.com. You can watch each teacher’s video and decide who would be a good match for you. ITalki will give you 3 free trial lessons when you sign up.

If your French is good, try reading a book in French. This will help you bring French back.

Contribute to a forum which interests you and one that is in French. It might be a bit brutal at first but you can learn at lot very quickly.

It depends on why you want to learn French. If your goal is become fluent and to have a good command of grammar in formal French as might be taught in a French collège or lycée, I would recommend looking up your local Alliance Française and going through their basic courses. That should get you to about a B1 level of competency. You can then take their more advanced courses and conversational courses to improve your grip on the language.

One caveat: in general the Alliance won't teach you jargon/argot or what some people call "street French." Neither the pronunciation nor the structure -- most Alliance curricula focus on formal French.

If understanding and speaking informal French is your goal, I would focus on teachers who focus on so-called "street French," such as Camille Chevalier at French Today. I'm sure there are other sites that focus on informal French as well.

Pimsleur works well for me, combined with a phrasebook or dictionary so I can look up words I'm hearing but can't tell how to spell. Haven't tried Duolingo. My public library has Pimsleur CDs so no cost. I can get enough to "get by" with just the introductory CDs, but they also have more advanced levels. Like you, I took French in school and found enough of it came back for "get by" purposes in travel. Along with my limited Frenchy, Pimsleur has helped me with Italian and Spanish.

In addition to formal study of whatever version you decide, I recommend watching French shows! Ive picked up some French just by watching (plus its fun):
A French Village (Amazon Prime) - seriously, after 7 seasons of many episodes, I started to hear/see how the subtitles were wrong
Spiral (Amazon Prime)
Call My Agent (Netflix)
Lupin (Netflix)

I really like tha Annenberg “French in Action” course. It is online and free for the video portion. If you want a textbook too they tell you where to look but I never used the text, just watched the. Ideas to refresh my high-school French.

https://www.learner.org/series/french-in-action/

It is not quite as good as their Spanish course “Destinos”, which is a very enjoyable story as well as a teaching tool. But French in Action is worth the time. And it is free.

Thanks so much all of you! Im looking to be able to express myself while on vacation in France (when that is possible again). I don't have to be formally trained but more to be able to have daily conversations. Our kids had Rosetta Stone last year for another language and I tried it myself and thought it was kind of boring so that would not be it for me. I am definitely going to check the daily news in French and try watch other programs or movies and eventually get a French book from the library. Thanks for all the tips! Merci beaucoup! :-)

For practical lessons, try commeunefrancaise.com with Geraldine on YouTube.

Listening to podcasts and TV shows is a great way to immerse yourself. Duolingo has podcasts that are in French with some English. My favourite are InnerFrench podcasts. They are in intermediate French, on really interesting subjects. Hugo speaks clearly and quite often explains, in French, what words or phrases mean. I have also taken his Build A Strong Core Course which is awesome. It costs around $200. I feel so much more confident after taking this class! I was working thru Duolingo for quite a while, but got more benefit from this course.
I watch TV series in French with French subtitles. Then I watch the show again with English subtitles to see what I have missed. I can usually get the main sense of what is going on the first run through.

Pimsleur is good but I found I am more of a visual learner.

I recently found an app called Busuu. It combines reading, listening, visual and writing.

Pimsleur or Michel Thomas are good for survival level French, but you're not going to be able to carry on real conversations after using them. Since you are rusty I suggest starting with them to refresh some of what you knew, then move on to Assimil which is a set of 90 or so short dialogues which will take you farther and shouldn't be too difficult with your background.

But if your goal is to have longer conversations then the best practice is -- to have conversations. Once you've gotten back into it a bit with the previous tools, use iTalki or similar to find a tutor and have practice conversations now.

Hey!

I would advise Duolingo. It's free, easy to learn, and you have the possibility to get along with a friendly green owl (but it is not always friendly, just Google "Evil Duolingo Owl").
Memrise is also not bad, despite it's quite similar to Duolingo. Therefore, I would choose one of them. Here you can find more apps if interested.

After you learn/repeat the basics, I recommend surrounding yourself with French as much as you can understand. :)

Bonne chance!

One more vote for Pimsleur. It has helped me tremendously. Also, try to watch some French TV or news. I am currently in the fourth season of Un Village Français. I find it helpful to pick up on French spoken quickley, and cultural differences between Vous and Tu.

there are entire websites devoted to the best tools and programs for language study, it gets pretty heated and opinionated. There's also a certain amount of YMMV involved, some people just click better with a certain program or approach.

Years ago I took a quick refresher class at a local language institute, I guess it was fun to speak to someone in French and it just confirmed what I already knew, I didn't really learn anything.

https://www.newsinslowfrench.com/

Hello from Wisconsin,
I am absolutely terrible at languages. Everything that I have tried has been unsuccessful, for me. Until I found Speak French with Michel Thomas. He has a set with a collection of 6 CDs. He makes French seem a natural extension of English by pointing out that 65% of English is French. That puts you at ease.

Starting with a phrase he adds to that phrase slowly building a sentence. Then changing a word or two in the sentence to make a new sentence. A bit like: wine, a glass of wine, may I have a glass of wine, may I have a second glass of wine.

It didn't cost much as a used item on eBay.

wayne iNWI

Hi Samantha, your questions resonates with me as I have been trying to learn French for the past 3.5 years. I work on it virtually every day for at least an hour.

My suggestion is that you either sign up for Fluenz, which is good, but expensive, $368, or sign up for French lessons with Alexa which goes for $35 a month. It would also be useful to subscribe to News in Slow French which goes for around $25 a month.
The Fluenz course will provide you with a decent base. It took me about 15 months to complete. I really liked the structure and knew that I was going to learn something everyday. French lessons with Alexa is a great value. There is also another good source called Love Learning Languages which offers a complete structured online class at a relatively low price.
There are also various online tutors obtainable via Italki, Preply and Apprentus. To me, these are best utilized after you have obtained at least a little bit of a base in the language. If you search, you can find good teachers for less than $10 an hour.
If you stick with it, you will probably find that reading French is easier than speaking French which is easier than understanding spoken French.
There is magic shortcut.
Bonne Chance!

When I was studying in Paris many years ago, my French professor used French comic books (anybody remember "Asterix"?) to help us learn French. Basic speaking and noun-verb sentence structure. A good tool after spending hours conjugating verbs!

I've spent covid stay at home reviewing my high school French using Mango Languages. May not be the "best" program out there, but it's FREE through my local library, so check out your local library website for anything similar!

Definitely check out italki.com if you want tutoring, and I highly recommend Rocket French as an app for learning and practice.

I use Duolingo religiously. I just signed up for a local Alliance Francaise online class that starts next week. I do like Coffee Break French too.

Before an Italian trip I did use Michel Thomas's CDs and I loved it. I found them in my library. I know he has French too.

Coffee break French is quite good, but if you have learned French in the past you might look on Meetup and see if there are any conversation groups near you Or maybe classes at a local community college. or most effective would be to hire a tutor. I use one on Takelessons.com

My experience with language learning apps are that they are good for building vocabulary, but the first time you hear French in full speed, it will stop you in your tracks! lol

Another thing to try if you have learned the language in the past is to find French videos on youtube. you can change the speed and add closed captions. I play full speed first, then slow it down, then I might go for the CC, then go back to full speed again with no CC.

If you can receive TV5Monde you can watch a wide variety of French television progams with English subtitling, documentaries like Echappées belles, very interesting and educational. http://usa.tv5monde.com/en/content/get-tv5monde-usa

French spoken in movies and series can be a bit too quick to follow, but documentaries are in general easier to pick up a few words.

I went to my local library here in the states and checked out the 6 or 8 CD set of Pimsleur
language CDs. I made copies for myself on my computer and listened to then over and over
several times before my trip. I actually put them on my kindle rather than taking a separate CD player on the trip, It was just enough basic stuff to get by (being polite) because I found
that so many people there speak some English. It was fun and added to my enjoyment of the trip.

I did the same thing with Italian a few years ago and it was just as useful.....maybe more so - because I speak Spanish and found that Italian was close to Spanish is so many ways.