14.31 - Understanding French better to understand France better. A dream?
This FREE newsletter shares the question I'm often asked & how I answer. I'll introduce you to some great French communicators and fun too (!) because life AND learning French should be fun, right?+++
Bonjour et Bienvenue - welcome all
Last week in le Bulletin I spoke about Understanding France better.
Today I will introduce you to three of the top online French teachers. Do you know them? Please let me know if you follow them or who you follow to help you with your French language learning challenge.
I’m thrilled to welcome you here to read le Bulletin if it’s your first time and even more so if you’re a long-time reader/subscriber of this FREE version of le Bulletin newsletter. I hope you enjoy it with deep & rich stories from MyFrenchLife Magazine Contributors. You’ll hear about their experiences, tips, and recommendations, on how best to experience France beyond the cliché… and also from time to time you’ll hear from me and what I’m thinking about or what I’m wrestling with…
If you enjoy this edition, please note that we also offer another version of le bulletin for paying subscribers, that has an even greater resource of writers… >80 amazing writers—providing a weekly explosion of France… Would you like to join them (?) it would mean a lot to me to support my work and you’ll delight in the increased immersion depth.
Please consider upgrading to an annual subscription. Merci.
Judy - 10.8.’24
1. The Question: What is the best way to learn French? How can I better understand French? What are your tips?
What a great question!
And there are so many answers, so let me answer you this way.
It depends!
The answer is: It depends upon you!
It depends upon your current level of French competency - how committed you are - how much time you’re prepared to commit - how much money you can invest in private classes, courses, going to France etcetera.
It all comes down to personal preference, personal interests, and at all times where possible to LIVE IN FRENCH.
In MyFrenchLife Magazine we have numerous French language learning series and many advice articles… more on these another time.
But today I thought we’d dive into three great French teachers with large profiles and Instagram audiences. Why have I made this choice? Firstly. If these are either not at your level or talking about topics that interest you, I’m hoping that this will prompt you to search further afield on Instagram to find what works for you…
I like using Instagram and Substack as learning methods/platforms when I am on the go. Both work well as a refresher and also a way of helping me keep my French au courant. I don’t speak argot (slang) but neither do I wish to speak archaic French, the quality of the French I speak is important to me.
Here are just three examples of online teachers focused on Instagram and Subsrtack.
a) FrenchTeacherCarlito→
Charles has >$1m followers on his Instagram account alone and I recommend it for intermediate French speakers. You’ll also find him on TikTok and ALSO on SUBSTACK (written, audio, video, vocab etc) - excellent…and his own website… so the choice is yours.
If your French level is higher than Intermediate you’ll find these little videos et al are a very good way to revise.
Here is just one relevant video post example but if you follow here you’ll also discover free workshops, newsletters, and more. The most recent workshop was held last Sunday and here’s what was covered.
Secret #1: Our Unique 'Game-Based-Learning' Method… To Finally Break Through the French-Learning Plateau!
Secret #2: The Secret to Freeing Your Speech… and Speak French with Unshakeable Confidence!
Secret #3: How to Master French Grammar… and Turn Even 'Subjonctif' Into a Piece of Cake!
And… at the end of the workshop, questions were answered.
b) Learn French with Yann →
Yann teaches beginners and Intermediate level up to Upper Intermediate.
Yann can be found on the Italki platform and also on Verbling where you can access his schedule and do a trial lesson and finally on SUBSTACK, where you’ll find masses of written dialogue, audio, video, conversation tips, grammar tips, and more.
🇫🇷 Understanding Spoken French In The Movie "Intouchables"🎬 #16
And some important rules for understanding native speakers
c) Pronunciation with Christophe - Christophe Patris has an important differentiation and focus: pronunciation →
You will find Christophe on the following platforms Verbling, Italki, Super Prof, Instagram and SUBSTACK.
Here is a relevant example:
🥖 Parlez Comme un Pro à la Boulangerie ! 🥐
🥖 Talk Like a Pro at the Bakery! 🥐 > English translation below the text
And another - the story about how Christophe came to be a teacher of French pronunciation:
🌍 "Mon histoire : Pourquoi j'ai fini par enseigner la prononciation française..." 🎵
So that’s it for today… Understanding French better… Would you like more like this? or different? Please tell me about your preferences.
I’d really like to hear about your level of French learning, who your preferred French teacher is and what is your preferred method of learning.
I’m super motivated by your responses so please tell me your story in the comments below.
Judy
Now… moving on… let’s find out what’s been happening at MyFrenchLife Magazine & le Bulletin newsletter this week.
2. I invite you to follow us on Instagram → @MaVieFrançaise
Our account is bursting with news, views and articles, video chats, poetry, introductions to new magazine contributors… and more… follow us and join in @maviefrancaise … See you there soon, I hope.
AND, And, and... and don’t forget the weekly detailed guest post by Jennifer Andrewes who is now 646 km into her 2500km solo walk, from Canterbury UK, to Rome via France. Switzerland and Italy. Beyond her stamina, persistence, physical exertion, mental health and so much more… Look at her beautiful photos! We celebrate you, Jennifer!
Here she is after 30 days and 646 km!
And here is a snapshot of the @MaVieFrancaise Instagram account this week.
3. In My FrenchLife Magazine you’ll find these new articles ↓ ↓
Escapades:
→ An early Spring Day in the Haut Var, Provence: Cotignac — Part 2/3
by Suzanne Vidal
→ Annecy — Pearl of the French Alps
by Mike Werner
Arts and Culture:
→ Henri Troyat: To write, always to write, is often to live
by Jacinta Bayard
Un grand merci
Thank you to all MyFrenchLife™ Magazine Contributors!
If you’d be interested in becoming a Contributor to MyFrenchLife Magazine
I’m open to applications, Just drop me a private note.
CLICK THROUGH & read all the new articles on MyFrenchLife Magazine ↓
↓ Just click the image below to read all the new articles ↓
4. “Thank you for subscribing ‘le Bulletin’ newsletter” Judy MacMahon
Judy MacMahon
Fondatrice
MyFrenchLife.org
You can always email me at info@myfrenchlife.org
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#Collaboration with online french language teachers*
In the Bulletin yesterday I was speaking about the best way to learn French... on the basis that the better your French the better you will understand France.
We all learn different ways. We all enjoy different methods of learning at different times of our life and our language learning journey.
I find that certain types of teachers are very useful for refreshing my language skill when I'm on the move.. and here are three of those. I also ask who you follow, and why???
Heads up to Charles, Yann and Christophe, all of who I've featured in this weeks FREE le Bulletin. You may wish to respond to any who comment.
Warm regards
Judy McaMahon
@frenchteachercarlito - https://frenchteachercarlito.substack.com/
@learnfrenchwithyann - https://learnfrenchwithyann.substack.com/
@pronunciationavecchristophe - https://prononciationavecchristophe.substack.com/
Salut Judy! I'm on vacation visiting family in the USA - so I'm an "aoûtienne" this year ;)
For those who don't know: the French media talk about "juilletistes" & "aoûtiens" in reference to those who take their summer vacation in July or August. In English you could translate those words as "Julians" or "Augustians".
I learned French in Greece, by total immersion in a French school when I was 12 years old. A bit of a sink-or-swim method, but it was very effective, probably because both my sister and I were high-achievers in school and our mom was French. Although she was French, she did not speak to us in her native language when we were little, for fear of impacting our performance in school when we lived in the states. She gave us lots of moral suppport during our French learning experience. We both learned French more or less fluently in 3 months. And we both live in France now - I arrived in 1978 to study vet med & my sister in 2000, midlife crisis style, after 15 years of life in the USA.
Necessity and total immersion seem to be very effective in learning any language quickly. One only has to look at the population of immigrants in any country to observe that. Of course that's not an easy approach to recommend...
I decided to spare my children the agony of becoming bilingual that way. From their birth in France, I spoke to them only in English & their French father only in French. They grew up bilingual with relatively little difficulty in school. I'm very proud of succeeding in doing that with all three of them.
Merci d'avoir écouté mon récit ! 🙂🇫🇷 🇺🇸