As it happens, whilst it may be a fun challenge to learn French from say Mandarin – the very fact that 60% of the words are shared in English and French might mean it’s more effective for you to learn French from English, possibly leading to faster learning.
You can focus on how words such as “occasion”, “restaurant”, “sensible”, “attention”, “spectacles”, “libraries”, “pain”, “main” are pronounced different in French even though they sometimes mean exactly the same thing such as “occasion” and “restaurant” - or many not! whilst “restaurant” very definitely means the same in both languages, “occasion” means both “occasion” as in an occasion, but also means “second-hand”.
Another layer relating to the similarities and differences of English and French words is that you’ll note that the same spelling of a word in both languages leads not only to a very different pronunciation but also perhaps also entirely different meanings:
“Main” in English relates to size or importance where it means “hand” in French. Another thing to note here is that “main” is usually an adjective whereas it’s a noun in French. “Pain” in English relates to a highly unpleasant physical sensation but means “bread” in French.
You’ll also experience false friends that can easily trip people up at times, such as “sensible” which is not only pronounced differently in French but has an entirely different meaning that may not be initially so obvious. A “sensible person” in English is someone who is able to make good decisions and judgements based on reason. A sensible person in French is a “sensitive” person in English. The problem with false friends is that you are likely to gloss over them thinking you know the meaning when you don’t at all.
Another type of false friend would be for example “assisting" at a meeting. The French infinitive verb is “assister” and in the present tense a person could “assiste” at a meeting. In English this would be taken as helping out in some way, but in French it just means attending the meeting. “Elle assiste à la reunion” simply means “she attends the meeting” or “she is present at the meeting”.
Je vais assister au match de foot = I going to attend the football game - it doesn’t mean anything related to helping out.
This is just a side note - no need to pay any attention to this at all!
BTW attention is another one, which if someone shouts this out to you as you’re walking on the pavement means “Be careful!”
Wow! I could go on forever, I’d better stop now.