I’m learning French by a non-class-based method. The key (so I hear) is language exposure. I was inspired by Steve Kaufmann’s book – The Way of the Linguist. He is really encouraging about learning other languages, speaking 9+ himself. Basically, he says, if you want to learn, you can, you don’t need classes, you just need to want to learn and have some good material, get exposed to it and get started. Most other people you hear on language learning are really discouraging. At the same time, he writes realistically about the work that will be required. He also founded a useful web app called LingQ.
Method
My method includes the following components:
- Reading my French Bible (La
nouvelle version Segond révisée), often alongside an English Bible. - Watching French movies from Netflix.
- Reading the Bible in French and talking with my friend who speaks French.
- Sometimes visiting a ‘French table’ that meets at a coffeeshop once a week for an hour or two.
- Working through lessons in LingQ.
- Reviewing vocabulary with Quizlet.
- Listening to Radio France.
Resources
- LingQ
- Lire la Bible, Alliance et Société biblique française – the Bible in French in a number of different versions.
- Quizlet
- Radio France
Blogs
- the Linguist – Steve Kauffman’s Blog, general thoughts about language learning and the LingQ community.
