French the natural way: when the usual fails, find success with us!
Coucou tout le monde,
When everything else is not working, where to go to?
Here is what Barry shared:
Like many people, I tried apps, books, podcasts and YouTube videos to learn French. They weren’t working. When I first saw Alice on YouTube, I dubbed her “the lady with the white board and corny stories for kids.” It looked amusing, but not a way to learn a language. Boy was I wrong.
After watching her videos on acquiring French the natural way, I was hooked. Plus, the subscription was so cheap I figured I had little to lose.
Quelle coïncidence, quelle chance ! that the same morning I subscribed, I stumbled on a live online meeting of community members chatting and reading stories. It was so much fun, and that was just the first day!
Barry Rico with us in Pau, October 2023I thoroughly enjoyed working my way through the levels and supplemental stories on the site, while attending online community meetings every chance I got. There are meetings to read, meetings to chat, meetings with Alice and meetings to delve deeper into the content. A year later and the site is still a part of my everyday life. Plus, I now have friends from all around the world with whom I connect regularly online.
As Alice will tell you, the French language has a flow and a musicality to it that you just can’t get through an app designed around games and quizzes. Instead, let your brain do the work naturally. By listening and listening and listening to COMPREHENSIBLE stories your brain can’t help but pick it up.
You can ACQUIRE the language if you just give it a try.
Quoi de neuf ? What’s new?
New Audiobook
Barry Rico is still with us one year later AND he also wrote a whole book in French by himself! His book is now available as an audiobook too.
Listen to Barry’s captivating story about Bruno.
You probably know the adventures of Marie and her clever dog, Médor. But do you know Marie’s magical uncle, Tonton Nono? He has a giant flying orange to take Marie wherever she wants to go. Tonton Nono‘s real name is Bruno, and he is Marie‘s mother’s brother. Here is his story when Bruno was young and how he discovered magic.
A comprehensible story written in the past tense with unique characters and exciting twists to keep you wanting more! Rich vocabulary and structures are repeated throughout the stories to give you optimal input.
Reading this book helps you think in French naturally. #readingispower
Download the book here.
Story of the day
Exciting news! I kicked off a new daily habit in the Community Chat – ‘l’histoire du jour‘ (story of the day).
This is your chance to read and listen to a comprehensible French story every day.
Remember, the goal is to grasp the essence of the story, not every single word.
The more you hear and read French, the more you understand. Before you know it, you understand French with ease. You think French naturally and finally you speak French freely!
Check out the Community Chat for a new story every day. Keep us posted whether you enjoyed the story and why.
That is what our member @TY posted about today’s story – Les gnous – :
I love this story! It is one of the stories that I went back for more details and pondered.
Read and listen to this story for FREE! Turn the Audio Sync view button on to hear and read the story at the same time.
Keep yourself accountable and motivated.
P.S. Our February reunion was another delight! At the end, Isabel shared: ” Merci, Alice! C’est la première fois que je suis ici! J’ai adoré ! ”
Watch the recording here – only available to our members
We are meeting again LIVE on Zoom on Wednesday, March 27 2024. Save the date. More details soon!
For more community live meetings happening each week, find all the details here.
P.P.S If you don’t want to pay a recurring fee and you just want to pay once. You can now GO SOLO!
Until March, 31 get 300 Euros OFF our Baby Pack. 149 Euros only!
Enter Coupon Code : BABY
Melissa wrote on Trustpilot:
I am enjoying this learning platform. I love the solo option. I can take my time and process this beautiful language. Customer service has been so helpful. I highly recommend this program and I am so thankful for what they offer.
French the natural way: start now! Special March offer on our beginner course
Coucou les French learners,
This week, I start to acquire Chinese again! I had started Chinese last year with the amazing Diane Neubauer but I then stopped. I had millions of excuses like:
– “Now is not the time (it can wait)”
– “I can’t justify investing in myself”
– “Chinese is too difficult!”
– “I don’t live in China and I don’t plan to go there, so why bother?”
– “I’m too old to learn a new language; it’s so much easier for my children!”
Then Suquing Chen from Lazy Chinese contacted me to do a language exchange, Chinese/French and I accepted.
I thought to myself: I commit. #letsenjoytheride
I am so happy I committed because our first session was so good! I felt empowered.
It made me realized how beneficial it is to get to know another language. It is a gateway to cognitive enrichment, cultural connections, and personal growth.
What’s stopping you?
Do you also have millions of excuses stopping you from acquiring French? Let’s list them:
- Lack of Time: “I’m too busy with work, family, and other responsibilities.“
- Age Factor: “I’m too old to learn French; it’s easier for younger people.“
- Difficulty: “French is too hard, especially grammar and pronunciation.“
- Fear of Failure: “I’m afraid I won’t be good at it or won’t reach fluency.“
- No Immediate Need: “I don’t need to know French; everyone speaks English.“
- Not Enough Exposure: “I don’t live in a place where French is spoken, so why bother?“
- Financial Constraints: “French courses or tutors are too expensive.“
- Procrastination: “I’ll start French someday, but now is not the right time.“
- Previous Bad Experience: “I had a bad experience learning French at school; it’s not for me.“
Now let’s overcome your excuses. It involves shifting your mindset:
- Time Constraints: Implement daily routines. Start your day with a cup of coffee and a Baby Stage session curated for French beginners (with video, transcript and glossary). Sit back, relax and enjoy! Understand French with ease.
- Fear of Failure: Embrace mistakes as part of your journey. Focus on progress, not perfection. #trusttheprocess
- Lack of Motivation: Set clear goals and connect them to your personal interests. Chose compelling French stories you understand. Find what motivates you.
- Perceived Difficulty: Break down your journey into manageable steps. Start with basic phrases and gradually progress.
The Baby Stage first session starts with the most basic and used phrase. Access it for free and see for yourself!
- No Access to Resources: Our program offers exceptional value at an affordable price, providing you with a cost-effective way to progress in your French journey.
Remember, consistency and a positive attitude are key to overcoming excuses and making progress in French.
Commit. Start now!
It all starts with two simple words.
I commit.
Until March, 31 get 300 Euros OFF our Baby Pack. 149 Euros only! Enter Coupon Code : BABY
Why Baby? Because if you are a French beginner, you are like a French baby. You can’t speak French yet but you listen to people around you speaking French. You listen to me speaking French to you. You look at my gestures, my facial expressions and my drawings. You try to understand me.
Step by step, you understand me. French becomes clear to you. You understand French with ease.
Transform yourself. Feel empowered. Start now!
Until March, 31 get 300 Euros OFF our Baby Pack. 149 Euros only! Enter Coupon Code : BABY
- One-time payment.
- Baby Stage with step by step videos with transcripts, audio and glossaries.
- Baby Stories for French beginners.
- Exclusive full-HD videos download.
- Lifetime access!
I’ve been studying french off and on for about 6 years, but never found a course or app that held my attention or that really committed to the ‘comprehensible input’ approach. This approach is used very successfully by Alice and it helps the student attach meaning to the words and sounds without translating it back to their mother tongue.
Every thing so far has been far more focused and helpful for me than what I’ve tried before.
Additionally there are plenty of supplementary materials for reading and listening! It really is a wealth of content all designed to solidify your French skills.
P.S. Our February reunion was another delight! At the end, Isabel shared: ” Merci, Alice! C’est la première fois que je suis ici! J’ai adoré ! ”
Watch the recording here – only available to our members
We are meeting again LIVE on Zoom on Wednesday, March 27 2024. Save the date. More details soon!
For more community live meetings happening each week, find all the details here.
French the natural way: Join me for one hour live tomorrow!
Coucou les French learners,
It is just a quick reminder that we are meeting live for la Pause chocolat de février 2024 !
Wednesday February 28
5pm UK / 6pm France / 12pm EST / 9am PST
Join me live on Zoom for a story reading session followed by lively chats, all in comprehensible French!
SHARE your small victories in your French journey: what do you want to celebrate with us? You completed a whole Stage (Baby, Infant, Teen…)? You managed to read or listen to a whole book in French? You understood a French podcast?
It is you chance to celebrate each accomplishment, whether it’s understanding a challenging sentence, mastering a new structure, or successfully participating in a conversation.
Click here to join us, I can’t wait to see you!
(In case you cannot attend, we will miss you but you can watch the replay here)
Gain New Friends and Get Involved with the French Learners Community. #youarenotalone
Increase your vocabulary and comprehension #storyispower
Reduce your stress #relax
Communicate with real people in French #youcandothis
(You don’t have to speak if you don’t feel ready to, you can use the live chat to communicate)
Now if
- you prefer to set your own pace without the influence of a group, allowing you to focus on you individual needs.
- being part of a community involves scheduled meetings or interactions, which do not align with your availability or preference for flexible acquisition times.
- joining a community induces anxiety because you feel uncomfortable speaking or sharing your progress in front of others.
- you don’t want to pay a recurring fee and you just want to pay once.
Click here to GO SOLO !
Get full Access to
- Step by step videos with transcripts, audio and glossaries.
- Stories adapted to the chosen Pack.
- Exclusive full-HD videos download.
- One-time payment.
- Lifetime access!
Simo Mace shared on Trustpilot:
This method is highly effective for beginners aiming to reach a B level proficiency. This approach provides a comprehensive range of materials to facilitate an immersive language learning experience. Tailored for optimal results, it caters to the diverse needs of learners, making it an excellent choice for those embarking on their language learning journey.
What are you waiting for? Join us now and make real progress in French! You will gain:
CLARITY: progress step by step through stages and make French become clear to you.
COMMUNITY: meet weekly and keep yourself accountable through the most caring and invested community.
TRANSFORMATION: feel empowered. Be fluent in French. Transform yourself and get a new soul.
P.S. Got friends, family, colleagues and clients who want to become fluent in French? Share this with them, they’ll thank you for it!
P.P.S Let us know whether you would join us for a unique 5-day immersive program in Pau, in the south-West of France. Click here to answer, it will take 2 minutes. Merci beaucoup !
French the natural way: 2 tips to stay positive
Coucou les French learners,
This week, Keef shared with our community:
I just can not understand any language even after 2 years of everyday listening and trying to read. Speaking, I don’t find a problem. That’s the easy part for me. But I’m finding French almost impossible to understand. I spend a lot of time in France but I cannot understand anything. My partner is French. – I can not understand anything, she says. HELP.
Are you feeling depleted like Keef? Are you finding it almost impossible to understand French? Are there people around you telling you you cannot understand anything?
You are not alone! Embarking on a French journey can be both thrilling and challenging. You feel you are making progress then one day, you feel you don’t understand anything!
However, it’s essential to maintain a positive mindset. Here are two key strategies to not only stay motivated but to relish every step of the process.
Celebrate small wins
Break down your French goals into smaller, achievable milestones. Celebrate each accomplishment, whether it’s understanding a challenging sentence, mastering a new structure, or successfully participating in a conversation.
Recognizing these small victories will boost your confidence and motivation.
I asked Keef:
Are you a new member in our community? Have you started the Baby Stage?
Start by going through each Baby Stage session, they are built to make you understand the most used structures and words in French. Once, you understand them, you will start to understand a lot more French.
Also, try to have a positive attitude: don’t think “I cannot understand anything”, instead think “Oh, I understand this, amazing!”
Even if you understand little French which I am sure you do, changing your mindset will help you improve.
Try the first Baby Stage for free. It is designed for total beginners. You acquire – il y a – which means there is/are and is useful to introduce people or things. Each session comes with a video, transcript, audio and glossary. It’s all in French spoken clearly and slowly so you understand what you are hearing and reading.
Once you understand, that’s it! You start to think French and then you can speak French.
Embrace the process
One thing I have found to be helpful is to have fun with it. Maybe draw a figurative line in the sand to say “BEFORE I had difficulty and it was ‘hard'” and “NOW I am trusting that, bit by bit, I will be able to recognize (either by hearing or by seeing) the words.
B-r-e-a-t-h-e … because if you are stressed and feeling defeated, it’s like one’s eyes are squeezed shut and one’s fingers are in their ears as far as they can go. It is hard for anyone to enjoy the process that way. You can do this. And, choose people to listen to who are affirming (NOT critical) to your efforts. Bon voyage! 🙂
Relax and enjoy! Watch, read and listen to the 6th most necessary condition to understand French (It is a FREE resource just for you!).
Nick shared on Trustpilot:
Alice uses the “comprehensible input”method to teach French. This means – all of her lessons are conducted in French. There is 0 English (except maybe in a couple of pre-lessons).
As you go through the stages, you build on knowledge from previous lessons, and eventually you find yourself understanding the language.
It really works, but you have to be patient. Alice manages to make each lesson very interesting, and sets the tone. She speaks slowly and clearly (speeding up slightly in the later stages).
If you don’t really want to learn French, but need to pass an exam for example (grammar etc), this isn’t the course for you.
If you want to learn the language to be able to watch TV shows in French, and have some level of fluency, this course will be a good starting place.
What are you waiting for? Join us now and make real progress in French! You will gain:
CLARITY: progress step by step through stages and make French become clear to you.
COMMUNITY: meet weekly and keep yourself accountable through the most caring and invested community.
TRANSFORMATION: feel empowered. Be fluent in French. Transform yourself and get a new soul.
P.S. We are meeting again LIVE on Zoom on Wednesday, February 28 2024. Save the date!
P.P.S If you don’t want to pay a recurring fee and you just want to pay once. You can now GO SOLO!
Melissa wrote on Trustpilot:
I am enjoying this learning platform. I love the solo option. I can take my time and process this beautiful language. Customer service has been so helpful. I highly recommend this program and I am so thankful for what they offer.
French the natural way: follow those 3 steps and you will become fluent in French
Coucou les French learners,
I didn’t send a newsletter last week because we have been moving to another house. But I am now back in almost full swing and I wanted to share Corinne’s relatable experience:
Learning French with no pressure and no memorization is such a nice change from other methods I have tried when learning French. They use simple sentences that build your vocabulary gradually through repetition, drawings, colors, and emphases on new vocabulary words. Each new story builds from the previous story which helps to recall words or phrases already heard and adds on new words or phrases. It’s exactly the method of learning a language that I have been searching for but could not find anywhere until now. Thank you!
Forget about memorizing vocabulary lists and their translations, learning grammar rules, verb conjugation tables, and syntax. It doesn’t work!
Now let’s go back in time… Do you remember when you started to speak your native language? Did you learn how to conjugate a verb in the past tense ?! You didn’t do that and yet you were able to first understand your native language, then think in it, and finally speak it spontaneously.
This is called the language acquisition process and your brain is wired to go through this process with no effort.
Trust me! Follow those 3 simple steps and become fluent in French the easy way!
Step One: Understand
Just as toddlers absorb language by observing and understanding contextual cues, you immerse in content slightly above your current proficiency level, allowing you to make connections and derive meaning without the need for direct translation.
Start with simple stories or stories you know already in your own language. When you are a beginner, start by watching stories. Watch stories that are presented at a pace suitable for your comprehension, ensuring you understand the content while gradually absorbing (not memorizing) vocabulary and grammar in context.
Your focus is on comprehension rather than stressing over vocabulary memorization or grammar rules, making it an engaging and effective way to acquire a language.
Be captivated & make the language acquisition process enjoyable and accessible.
Step Two: Think
Thinking in French is a pivotal stage in language acquisition that naturally follows comprehension. When you understand French well, your brain gradually shifts from translating words or phrases from your native language to forming thoughts directly in French.
Once you read and listened to a story and you understood it, try to reflect on the content. Try to retell the story or the main ideas in your own words in French. Do not worry about making mistakes, it is part of the process. Let your ideas flow in your brain.
The more you hear and read French content, the more you understand, the more French will flow in your brain.
Paula shared:
I find myself spontaneously spurting out ” elle/il est ne pas content!” when I see someone unhappy or “c’est un problème” when I have to wait in line and I’m in a hurry. Don’t know why but my mind just switches to French in my brain. This never happened before. I even think or say it the words with the same story telling enunciation as Alice! C’est bizarre mais ça fonctionne.
Step Three: Speak
Speaking French is the last step in your journey. It is the ultimate goal of comprehension and proficiency. When you can speak French fluently and spontaneously, it demonstrates that you’ve internalized the language to a remarkable extent.
Stephen Krashen who introduced the acquisition-learning hypothesis, wrote in 1985:
Speaking is a result of language acquisition and not its cause.
Read, listen and watch about who Dr Stephen Krashen is in French (it is a free resource!)
Engage in small, low-pressure conversations, even if it’s just with yourself, in French. Our live events help you to just do that. You get to read and discuss stories with other fellow learners. You get to laugh together and you feel inspired to keep speaking French!
Become a member & watch all our live sessions.
JOIN THE MEMBERS COMMUNITY LIVE MEETINGS
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE. SHARE YOUR JOURNEY. KEEP YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.
Trust your brain will do the job! Once you understand what you hear and read, it is stored in your brain forever.
Trust the process. It worked when you were a toddler and when you acquired your native language so it works for French too!
Embrace the 3 steps to acquiring French U-T-S
– Understand
– Think
– Speak
What are you waiting for? Join us now and make real progress in French! You will gain:
CLARITY: progress step by step through stages and make French become clear to you.
COMMUNITY: meet weekly and keep yourself accountable through the most caring and invested community.
TRANSFORMATION: feel empowered. Be fluent in French. Transform yourself and get a new soul.
P.S. We are meeting again LIVE on Zoom on Wednesday, February 28 2024. Save the date. More details soon!
P.P.S If you don’t want to pay a recurring fee and you just want to pay once. You can now GO SOLO!
Melissa wrote on Trustpilot:
I am enjoying this learning platform. I love the solo option. I can take my time and process this beautiful language. Customer service has been so helpful. I highly recommend this program and I am so thankful for what they offer.