Started listening to news podcasts in French (just a few minutes a day on weekdays). I don’t catch everything (sometimes I don’t catch anything!) but I find it helps my brain get used to various French accents. 1 week ago

i am also learning it but really doing it on my own and it’s not being easy at all but, i am really coping and enjoying, i need someone to speak with. Which is practically exhibiting what i have been able learn so far. It’s quite amazing even though learning on my own and i love it. 1 month ago

Of course it’s still ongoing, as any language acquisition is (even that of our own mother tongue), but I can say that after 3 years of casual exposition and almost without any formal study I have achieved a satisfying level of French for oral and written communication.

These three years were spent in Beijing, China. My children are in the French school here, so I was privileged to use the language in my daily life to a certain extent. I was learning French and Mandarin at the same time, while speaking Portuguese at home and English mostly with my neighbors.

I still plan to live in France some day and perfect my French, and will of course continue to have exchanges with the school and friends in the francophone community, so there will probably be more progress in the years to come. This has ceased to be a goal for me though, partly because I don’t have to bother any longer, the language has become useable and its learning has become a natural process! 8 months ago

I’m giving this a try again, particularly because my line of work would actually benefit from it. Luckily my employer actually provides free french training through a company that uses a combination of computer software and over the phone tutoring.

Right now I’m just waiting for the dvd to come in the mail, but I’ve already been evaluated online and over the phone. It’s kind of funny the disparity between my comprehension and my communication skills—I ranked a level 15 (considered fluent) in comprehension, but a 5 in communication (considered beginner intermediate). I think part of my good mark in the comprehension is that I’m excellent with multiple choice testing, and I’m very good at figuring out what something means by context. So the result could have been skewed that way, because I am no where near fluent. When I’m speaking with people in french, as long as they use common words and speak slowly I’m okay, but once slang gets thrown in and people start speaking at a normal pace, I tend to get a bit lost.

Fingers crossed that this program actually helps! 8 months ago