Learn French the Quick, Painless Way

Did you take a foreign language class in high school? I did, too. And did you think, in your teenage ignorance, that this class fully prepared you for whatever foreign language challenges may come your way? So did I! And like me, I'm sure you were proved grievously wrong - maybe even embarrassingly.

I was, as they say, at the head of my French class. I could conjugate with lightning speed and translate vocabulary sheets better than any upperclassman. The summer after my sophomore year I signed up for a trip to France with a school group. I was eager to prove my intelligence and show off my ease with the French language. But when I arrived in France the only thing I proved was that I had a super-inflated ego.

I could not understand any of the locals. And worse, they could not understand me! It took me much too long to form a sentence in my head. And when I tried to speak, I just stumbled over my words. In the end, my French teacher ended up handling all the communication needs and I sulked back to the United States vowing to never attempt French again.

Years later I decided to tackle my "fear of French". I was determined to learn the language as quickly as possible and prove to myself that I had the ability and intelligence.

I wanted to learn French in order to attain a goal. Why do you want to learn French? Perhaps you will soon be visiting a French speaking country. (If this is the case, I am certainly jealous.) Or maybe you have a friend or relative that speaks French. Some of us would like to increase our earning potential at work or make ourselves marketable in other industries. Learning a foreign language can also boost your intellectual performance and help you become a more well rounded individual. Or perhaps, like me, you choose to learn French simply for personal enrichment.