Learn To Speak French Fluently? You Need To Hear French People
If you want to learn to speak French fluently there is only so much you can get from books. Books are great for the nitty-gritty of a language, and I wouldn’t be without a good English to French dictionary, but a language is a series of sounds so it makes sense that to learn it well you need to hear it.
Modern French language lessons on CD, MP3 or podcast are a huge step forward. They are much more entertaining and involving than your average French text book and it’s very likely you will enjoy them more. It stands to reason then, that if you’re having a good time you learn French quickly.
You can search for free French lessons online and you’ll find a variety of sound files. Some good, some not so good. Some have been around it seems for ever and it can be frustrating to find that they are in a format that isn’t compatible anymore. Don’t complain too much though, you’re looking for free so you’ve got to expect it to take a while to find the good stuff.
If you want to short-cut the process and learn to speak French fluently in the shortest possible time you will want to consider French CDs that you have to pay for. You will find you have a huge choice, from those that are a few dollars to those that are in the hundreds. Mostly it’s a question of getting what you pay for. The cheap ones tend to be OK for beginners and are often aimed at children. For more advanced learning you are going to have to pay more money.
When making your choice, try and make sure you get sound files that are spoken by French people. No matter how fluent you get, or the teacher is, if you’re not actually French your accent will be different. If you are English you must accept that you will never be mistaken for a French person – just like you would instantly recognize a French person by their accent even if their English was excellent. You just know. That’s not actually important. What’s important is that you try to learn the French accented language, not the accent that someone has if they come from another country.
If you find free French lessons online that are of an acceptable standard you don’t need to be so fussy – but if you are paying for lessons, it makes sense to pay for a French person to teach you!
You can’t learn to speak French fluently in an afternoon, or a week, but the more you practice the faster you get. Your ear gets accustomed to your new language. Luckily it’s no longer the chore it used to be, pouring over old text books. Modern language systems make learning French fun and you’ll be fluent in no time!
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