Are you currently learning French or would like to start learning this language? Well firstly, you are at the right place. Secondly, I do not want to make you big promises and tell you that it will be easy because it is not! French is a pretty difficult language but that is why you are reading this blog. I want to bring you step by step from the very beginning and we overcome the difficulties together. I will help you and give you the best tips during your French learning journey. In this article, I will talk about the biggest challenges learners have when learning French and help you to overcome them!
Staying motivated
Motivation… Have you already tried an activity, being very enthusiastic about it then a few weeks or months later you are not that motivated anymore? Well, it happened to me a lot of times. When I was young I remember I wanted to try judo, I was so excited about it and a month after I wanted to give up. This is normal, it is human nature. We constantly need novelties, adrenaline, excitement. Unfortunately, when you have been doing an activity for a few weeks or months you start seeing the challenges and you do not have the same excitement as at the beginning. You will have to go through this unfortunately while learning French until you start to have a good level and enjoy using it.
I think the key, to be honest with you, is not to put too much pressure on you to avoid being overwhelmed and give up. Perhaps you decided with a group of friends to learn French and you can see you are a bit slower than the others to learn or perhaps you saw on the internet you can be fluent in French in three months and you have been learning for six months. Take your time and follow your own rhythm. The most important thing while learning a language is practicing regularly. Everyday you can spend 10 minutes listening to a podcast and 10 minutes learning two new words. It will be far more efficient than spending two hours at once every week. Will you be 100% focus for two hours? I do not think so and this is completely normal.
You can take a look at my article in order to be organised for your French learning and use your time efficiently “Zen to Done method: be organised to gain time to learn French, in 10 steps“.
Pronunciation and accent, probably the biggest challenge when learning French
The pronunciation and accent are quite difficult in French. It will depend on your nationality, it might be easier for a Spanish person than an English person. However, I think that wherever you are from, the sound “r” in French is challenging for everyone! When you say “arbre” (“tree” in English), you know that it is going to be a long journey…
I regularly prepare in my articles either podcasts or recordings of vocabulary for you to practice the pronunciation. It is important, you take the time to listen to them and repeat out loud several times and keep practicing regularly. Each language uses different muscles in the mouth and therefore you need to make them work regularly to be reinforced and improve the sounds that come out of your mouth. It is like going to the gym, when you go for the first time, you are not spending two hours straight to work on your legs for instance, otherwise you won’t be able to walk the next day. Here it is the same!
Having one-to-one session tutoring will definitely help you to improve this difficulty. Feel free to contact us if you need more information 😉
Lack of opportunities to speak, can be a challenge when learning French
When you speak regularly in French, you can improve so many skills!
First, your speaking of course, it will force you in front of the person to talk. Making mistakes is absolutely fine and overcoming fear helps you to improve as fast as you can. Do not be scared, it is by making mistakes that we learn. You can even talk to yourself out loud in French! You could find a French person (this is very easy nowadays with social media and their different discussion groups) that want to learn your language so you can teach other your own language, one day French and another day your language, that would be beneficial.
Also, talking will improve your listening which can be very challenging, but for that, I have put together all the tips to improve efficiently your listening “Learn French watching movies“, take a look at it 😉
Conjugating verbs
I know that conjugating verbs in French can sound so hard that you just want to run and scream! I do not blame you 😉
French is perhaps difficult but there are rules and tips to help, you will realise that it is manageable. When it comes to conjugating verbs, as any language you have irregular verbs which won’t follow a particular pattern but you also have regular verbs and depending on the group they are taking parts, the ending will always be the same when conjugating at the present tense or future tense. You did not know that? You must feel relieved now.
Keep watching at my blog and I will explain to you everything you need to know about verbs 😉
Gender
Genders, is one of the biggest challenges when learning French. It is easier than you think because there are tips to know if a noun is feminine or masculine. I reveal all the secrets to you in my article “Gender of French nouns: how to overcome this difficulty?“.
Having many questions without any answer
If you are learning French on your own, you probably have many questions! Thanks to the internet, we can find a lot of information. However, while learning a language the internet can be limited for some aspects especially if you are unsure how to write it for the search engine to give you the relevant information. Also, searching everything on the internet can be time consuming to find appropriate data.
I highly recommend you to have sessions with a tutor in addition to your self learning. It will definitely boost first your confidence but also, your vocabulary, your speaking, listening and you can ask any questions you may have and receive an answer immediately. I believe that it will be good money spent because you will have the opportunity to speak with a French native speaker, have a session a bit more fun than staying alone in front of your computer and your level will definitely improve.
I provide one-to-one tutoring session, feel free to contact me by using the contact form at the bottom of the page by clicking here.
To diversify your French learning, you can take a look at this website, where you can find free content to learn French.
Let me know in the comments what is your biggest challenge when learning French? Feel free to share this article!
A bientôt !