Learn french how long

Learning English bilingual: Age of onset of exposure and rate of acquisition among English language learners in a bilingual education program.

Bilingual Research Journal , 29 , A Sensitive period for the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. Speech and brain mechanisms. I am 14! Thank you very much for the article. I was looking for some realistic information! I am still a 3rd year Bachelor student and I am studying in English. Now I am 21, and I still try to make my English fluent as I would feel with Greek this is the language that I will use the most anyways.

I will write official documents in English, but still I need French. This article helped me to get more motivation. Thank you! I think that if someone learning French wants to be optimistic he can always remember that a large part of English words come from French.

Also, from my experience learning a different language twice some rituals lead me to really improve my learning quickly like watching tv show, reading article online and listening music. Thank you for a helpful article. We are Americans living in the German speaking part of Switzerland for 1. My son was immersed in a German speaking school for 1st and now 2nd grade and is speaking great!

German is so difficult, that I thought I could build on my old high school French and try that first — and go back to German for my visa. I have 3.

How do you feel about my chances of grasping French quickly so I can get back to German? I can find some parents to speak with for immersion but I live in a mostly German speaking region of Schweiz. Learn both at the same time. I am studying French, Spanish, German and Chinese all at the same time. I realize time constraints. I think you will find it quite possible to study both French and German at the same time. Has anyone try something like this? While I think you can totally learn both languages at once, I prefer to focus on one foreign language first.

I also wanted to study French so I started learning it too then, because my brother was trying to learn German, I added it on. This gets me chided good-naturedly by the group and I learn a new French word.

Thank you for the reality applied. I was looking for a honest answer to how long would it take to learn french. I can defend myself widely and easily. Anyway, I advice some other people to read, listen to the radio or TV in their target language. Bon nuit mes amies :! John, so you learned English by living in your home country? What methods did you use to learn English? Hi There — I am moving to Switzerland for 6 months and I am really hoping to come away from the experience with a solid ability to speak and understand french.

Do you think this is possible? Nice post and enjoyed reading it and the comments and believe it gives a good idea of the task ahead. I started learning French at that start of the year and feel comfortable sitting the A2 exam in a couple of months.

My question is: how long does it take before you start thinking in the foreign language, rather than translating back to your mother tongue? I know that might be a vague question, but I am wondering whether it lines up with the fluency levels?

The higher your level of French results in more frequent French thoughts and less translation required. This is because you have more language tools at your disposal. I follow the the show just like I would one in English.

Some extra info: For me personally, I started having random French thoughts and dreams in French about years into my studies mostly high school French. I hope that helps. As always, thanks for reading! I rarely translate because I am used to dealing with languages, and I start to dream in new languages early on, even though I am equally frustrated in my dream as in reality that I am not able to say everything I want… For me it has always been about emercing myself in the new language, hearing it around me all the time.

The more time I spend in an environment where french is spoken, the more natural it feels, and it is the smae with my other languages. The difference for me is that a langauge I am fluent in I switch to quicker whereas the others require a little bit of adjustment.

Thank you to both of you for your reply and it has given me hope that it may not be as far away as I sometimes imagine. AK, I had a look at your blog and liked the few articles I read. You certainly see a lot of the world and it looks beautiful and interesting. All the best from Australia and keep up the good work to both of you :.

Reading the comments has also been useful. I passed a B1 French exam a few months back after finally changing my study habits, and I intend on going a lot further. Congrats on passing the B1 exam!

Some may say French is too hard and simply give up, others may realize that in order to master something you have to put some effort in on your part. If you study the language every like a job and the do homework it would probably take 3, 6 and 12 months to reach levels B2, C1 and C2 respectively.

I loved this article! Everything in here is true. I speak fluent English and Spanish and I am currently going into my 3rd year of French. Believe it or not, I only know how to read it and speak some of it. I still need a lot more practice. My French 1 and 2 teacher in high school spoke English, Spanish and French as her third language , too! She speaks it with an accent, though, and said she is still learning new words each day.

I started learning French about 20 years ago in school, then stopped. I started learning again, about 6 months ago, and I feel like progress is so slow. Thank you for such a thoughtful article. Nice article. I think this is a very informative article and it rings very true to my experience. I moved to Montreal 2 years ago, partially with that goal in mind. Although for my first year I was very lazy about learning French, in my second year I took 2 undergraduate courses in French at my university, coupled with working in a French environment and hearing it around me every day, my laziness has slowly transformed and reading your guidelines above, I would place myself as just about ready to walk into the intermediate category.

A few months ago to give my efforts to learn French some boost I started my own blog to try and chronicle my journey through it. Thank you for this amazing article, it was of great help!

Do you think I can do it? And how can I? Hi Mena! Do you plan on being in France at all during your gap year? I would recommend immersing yourself abroad. I took French classes at the C. Maybe do some of those and then supplement your lifestyle by just hanging out with French friends on the daily. Every language is about learning for life as languages — thankfully — are alive and changing.

I am still learning in my native language. But French… When it comes to french i have so much more to do! I try and visit often and I try and read and write a little every day — but the grammar, oh the grammar!!! There are days when I am about to give up… But then I remember that the french also make mistakes, I regain some confidence, and I am out there again.

I agree with the description but I think most people will never be truly C2 because that pretty much means being perfectly bilingual. I appreciate how you defined fluency several ways as this coming from a Second Language teacher always sparks a big debate.

For anyone hoping to attain fluency quickly, let me tell you, it can be done! I went from A1 to C1 in 6 months. True story. But it takes some very specific ingredients: 1 you must immerse yourself in the language by living in the country WITH the people who speak your target language 2 you must be open to making mistakes, LOTS of them! I worked very very hard. Granted, I was studying French my L1 is English. Learning a language requires a lot of hard work but it can be done! If you have that form of perspective then you set yourself up for success.

Just came across your article and found it really interesting to read. Has anyone tips for shyness and overcoming the first initial stage of speaking French? Those are some pretty strong motivational factors which you can hold dearly to help you through these times. Believe it or not, most people would be very willing to help you in France! If you are struggling when trying to order something, or simply at a loss for words, French people will help you out.

I think the biggest thing that will help your French is to ditch your boyfriend for a day or two and go out into town and actually try to communicate with people on your own. Overall, to better boost your confidence requires that you have a sense of general understanding in French. Go buy a grammar book and practice… listen to music, go to the cinema, and watch TV.

And most importantly, have fun with it! Oh, and thanks for reading my blog :. I am relatively new to French. I did this for a year and learned very little. Mostly colors, numbers, useless phrases and basic sentence structure. Then I purchased Rosetta Stone levels I am only 6 months in to it and feel I have learned far more than I could have ever done on my own. I study with the software at least 2 hours every day and play the games at least 3 to 4 times a week.

I know I seem a little long winded here, but what I would really like is an informed opinion on whether this is a descent effort or am I setting myself up for a long term disappointment? I try speaking French as much as possible at home with my wife who took 5 years of French in school.

Your wife is a great start to help you practice. In the long run, ideally, you should make a small support group or try to find a native speaker somewhere. A famous linguist, Stephen Krashen, said that the best type of material to study is just at your level of proficiency and then some more. So are you setting yourself up for disappointment?

Lastly, remain realistic, mistakes are O. I hope my response helps out! You honestly can reach me through any comment on this website because I have to moderate everything. My dad moved to France while I was in high school and I spent two summers in Europe, and the French language completely eluded me initially! However, after a month, we knew enough to get the right food and 6 croissants, not 16! Thanks- Jonny. Yes it is scary at first but the more you get into it, the better you get!

What do you like? Crime Investigations? You simply select or upload any French text that you like, read through it in French with automatically provided English translations, and then work through it again translating from the English back into French. The Great Translation Game gives you immediate feedback on your translations, which helps you recognize and correct common errors in your French writing.

This kind of writing practice with material you are genuinely interested is a cornerstone of a good French learning strategy. However, there are a few ways you can enhance your speaking abilities and develop a more authentic accent. One of the best ways to do so is by indulging in French movies and music, which can enhance your French listening skills and make challenging accents and dialects more familiar. Some people say that beginners can become fluent in one year, but that of course depends on your experiences abroad.

This is an excellent blog. Many people are eager to grasp a new language and French seems like the easiest and most beneficial foreign language to learn. These queries that often pop up in the minds of people leave them worried. Thanks for answering all these queries through this wonderful blog. My conclusion is that LIVING in France is the best way and only people with an ease to pick up languages can do so living outside the country france.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Ready to get fluent faster? Try Clozemaster — over 50 languages and thousands of sentences to help you take your language learning to the next level. Skip to content No matter what your age or skill level, learning to speak French has immense personal and professional benefits.

Beginner A1 Beginner French language learners can understand and use basic phrases and familiar expressions. Advanced Beginner A2 The advanced beginner can also understand basic phrases and expressions, as well as those related to everyday life.

Advanced B2 Advanced speakers of French can understand abstract and concrete topics, including those in complex and specialized fields.

Basic Knowledge of Romance Languages First and foremost, having knowledge of another romance language can inform your French speaking skills. Games for Learning French Language learning games are a great way to stay entertained and interested as you learn. Practicing French Conversation Another way you can speed up your French learning is by practicing French conversation.

You may have heard a few theories about how many hours it takes to learn French before you made it to this article. But these theories certainly provide food for thought. The Foreign Service Institute FSI , the main provider of language-training for the US government, completed a study on how long it took native English-speakers between the ages of 30 and 40 studying at the center to learn different foreign languages and then ranked them in order of difficulty.

According to this study, they then grouped them into 6 different categories based on their closeness to the English language. For each category, they also assigned them an estimated number of hours necessary to reach proficiency. See the full list here. For English-speakers, French falls into category 1. According to the FSI, it would take an English-speaker approximately weeks or hours of study to become proficient in the French language. It goes without saying, this is just one study, and just one theory so take it with a grain of salt.

If French isn't the first language you've studied and even if it is , you've probably heard mention of CEFR at some point. Ever heard people talking about levels A1 - C2? Those are CEFR levels. It's basically a standardized framework for describing language ability and it's recognized worldwide.

What does this have to do with how long it will take you to learn French? Well, CEFR supposedly uses a "guided learning hours" framework to estimate how much classroom time you'd need to reach a B2 level.

This reference also assumes that for every hour you spend in class, you will dedicate 2 hours of independent study in your own free time. If you want to get a better picture of how long it will take you personally to learn French it's time for a little self-reflection. Answer the questions below for more insight into the language-learning process. This might seem like a bit of an odd question but your first language plays a big part in how quickly or slowly, you learn a foreign language.

Obviously, the closer French is to your first language, the easier it will be. So, if your first language is also a Romance language , it should, in theory, be easier for you to pick up French. Here are a few other things to consider. Does your first language share the same alphabet or will you have to learn a new one? Are there any similar expressions or words in your first language? Do French and your native language have any sounds in common?