French language

The savvy francophile’s Tips & Advice about learning to speak French

29 03, 2024

How Learning French is like Learning to Ski — Part 2

By |2024-03-29T10:27:16+11:00Mar 29, 2024|0 Comments

Learning from your mistakes. This is easy enough to take when you just get a little ding and lose a heart from Duolingo, but sounding stupid while speaking to a real live person is another matter. It is without question my biggest weakness when learning a language.

9 06, 2022

You, me, and Napoleon: We all had trouble speaking French – what’s your experience?

By |2022-06-11T12:43:18+10:00Jun 9, 2022|0 Comments

These four articles about learning French will ruffle a few feathers. That’s because my essays are full of subjective statements about how bloody hard French is to learn. This is especially so, I point out, for anyone not lucky enough to be young and locked up in a garret in Paris with a French lover—with the deliberate intention of doing nothing else but learn French.

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