Learn French online: the best resources & experts: Kristin Espinasse
Kristin Espinasse’s lovely Word-a-Day website has been a secret favourite of ours for many years now.
Supplying charming vignettes of her life with each new word, this celebrated author is a great resource to build up your vocabulary for general conversation. This is one to visit regularly to expand your vocabulaire beyond every day objects.
Not only are they helpful, interesting and quirky posts, Kristen’s gorgeous pictures to accompany them will have you dreaming of the French countryside until your next visit. You’ll get to know all the characters who interact with Kristen – it will seem almost incidental that you are learning new words.
Without a doubt our favourite thing about Kristen’s site is how clearly her charming and endearing voice comes through in every post. Following Kristen’s updates, you’ll really feel like you’re being invited into her own world, far removed from any of your own personal dramas.
She shares some incredible stories of her life – struggles that all Francophiles and people en genérale alike will identify with. As she begins her recent post on the phrase ‘en panne’: “Today’s word-a-day reminds me we all need a Plan B!”
What are your favourite online French learning resources or experts?
Jump to:1 – The introduction
2 – Find a tutor in Paris – without leaving your home
3 – A solution for French grammar woes
4 – Vocabulary with soul (this page)
About the Contributor
Judy MacMahon
Thanks for the info about Laura – she’s been my ‘go to’ at about.com for everything about the French language. I personally love the Quizlet and Duolingo websites and apps because neither allow you to advance until you’ve mastered the stage you are at and both also tell you the truth – if you spell something wrong, there’s no forgiveness lol. Quizlet is an extraordinary resource. Duolingo is beautifully designed for iPad and certainly, while fun, is most definitely not a ‘game’.
I love Word-A-Day it is just such a charming site. It’s a nice and different way to add to my French learning too – makes it a bit more interesting!
Vocab is definitely the best part of learning any language! I’m a word-nerd so I love learning a new word and then figuring out how it relates to English words*.
And that moment when you’re stumbling through a conversation with a native speaker and suddenly you just happen to know the perfect – yet quite obscure – word for the moment and everyone looks impressed. So satisfying 🙂
*(this only really works with French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as a few bits in Greek and Latin)
I study French at University and what is done in class is simply not enough- I don’t think you can ever hope to become fluent through a twice monthly conversation class with fifteen other people. Instead, it takes a lot of work, and I’m so glad there are such amazing resources online- I especially love Laura’s site.
I also completely agree Elise- I love impressing people with a random word I’ve somehow picked up. `Yappy dogs` was a great one- people did not see that coming!
What a great integration of life and blogging!
(and language learning and daily life!)