Hi all! I don’t know that this is a question about French per se, but I figured I could get more specific information here. I’m a university student learning French right now and would like to spend the summer activating everything I’m learning in France and just enjoying the place. But all the language courses I look at seem to have the very traditionalist method of emphasizing grammar and vocabulary drilling instead of the natural learning that I’ve learned to enjoy hear at LingQ.
I was wondering if anyone knows about programs that would be productive but be mainly focused simply on the continuous usage of the language. I really just want to learn to speak French, but I would like a focused environment of some kind so that I’m not just goofing around in the country for a while. The funding will come from a scholarship from my university, so some kind of ‘course’ is an essential.
Thanks!
Hiya, I have a few suggestions. Bear in mind I’m assuming that you’re at an intermediate level or above given that you’re studying French at university.
Assimil Using French is a course for intermediate learners and above (they also do a beginner’s course called French With Ease) -https://www.languages-direct.com/using-french-super-pack-assimil.html
There’s a ‘passive’ phase where you focus on listening and comprehension and then an ‘active’ phase where you try to use what you’ve learnt to form your own sentences/thoughts.
Languages direct is a good resource for finding courses/books, as you can see Assimil also produces workbooks and other courses too - https://www.languages-direct.com/shop-by-language/french
Glossika has good reviews for the most part. It’s an online service that focuses on learning (I think) primarily through comprehension of authentic sentences. It’s $24.99 per month when billed annually, so not the cheapest…
They also produce a course called French Fluency (1-3): Glossika Mass Sentences which is around $100 for each book.
Living Language also produce courses which I’ve heard good things about. They offer ‘essential’ and ‘complete’ courses and have an online service which also starts at $25 per month.
Speechling.com is a cool language coaching service which works by you listening to a professionally recorded sentence and then recording your pronunciation and submitting it for feedback from one of their voice coaches. The premium unlimited version starts at $19.99 per month, but they also have a free version which allows you to submit a limited number of recordings per month.
Michel Thomas also produced a five disc Advanced French course which will run you $45 if that form of learning appeals to you more.
You can use the sentence audio from these courses in anki if you want to get some of what you’ve learnt to stick.
I’m sure there are many more that I’m forgetting but those are some big hitters so to speak. I’m very interested to hear any other suggestions on this topic too.
I was wondering more about classroom type deals or something involving interaction with other people in the world.
Ah, in that case fluent forever have a list of US-based immersion programs that you might be interested in - Immersion Programs to Learn Languages
I found some really promising programs in here – thanks!
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