The long road to learning French

I’ve been trying to learn French for years and it finally feels like it’s starting to click.

When people ask me why I want to learn, I tell them my reasons are three-fold: for work, to communicate better with my mom’s side of the family, and to challenge myself to understand another language. I feel a bit ashamed admitting that I’m only fluent in English, when so many people in the world are bilingual or trilingual. In Europe, it isn’t uncommon to speak two, three, or even four languages fluently. As someone who has only ever spoken one language, I’m curious about what it’s like to chat, watch TV, and even dream in another.

I started during the pandemic with Duolingo. My week-long streak became a month, became a year, became four years—but I still wasn’t able to hold a conversation. Duolingo only got me so far, and I didn’t want to keep banging my head against the sassy green owl.

I signed up for a course at Alliance Française, which was a lot of fun. The best part was it forced me to actually start speaking in French, and listening to other real French speakers. The only downside was that Alliance Française—while tax-deductible—isn’t cheap. So while I saved up for another course, I found a tutor via Preply. (Funny story: the lovely Susan Heyward from The Boys recommended Preply to me.) Weekly hour-long 1:1 lessons with my tutor Colette skyrocketed my French skills. If I had to choose one thing to recommend to people who want to learn another language, it would be a good private tutor.

Colette found great ways to ground French in the real-world for me. So instead of just studying verb tenses, she recommended French books, TV shows, YouTube videos, and music. I started watching the news in French, and listening to French radio. I even switched my Garmin to French!

My sister and I went on a trip to Montreal, and I had a whole conversation with a bookstore clerk entirely in French—what a rush! That probably sounds lame but I don’t care. That interaction alone gave me the motivation to stick with it and keep going. Maybe I’ll even write a blog post here in French one day.

Allons-y !