Coucou les French learners,

I am motivated and excited about my new plan to acquire Portuguese. This weekend, I met my online Portuguese booster on Verbling, Clóvis Alves who shared lots of different ways to get input every day. I am hoping to meet him for an hour weekly and to listen to comprehensible input every day, even if it is only for 10 mins a day.

I also have a personal objective. At the end of July, I will be presenting about Story Listening at the Agen workshop and I would like to be able to tell a story in Portuguese to my audience. Having a short term achievable goal motivates me to keep up!

So far, I’m in love with this beautiful singer, Ana Moura. This song is uplifting and at the same time nostalgic, n’est-ce pas ? Don’t you think?

So today I also want to share different resources and ways to get French input everyday, even if it is only for 10 mins a day.

I really like this idea of being your French booster. To be honest, I don’t feel I am teaching French, I rather facilitate the language and motivate people to read and listen in French. I try to find the right resources which my learners will enjoy. Just yesterday, I was so happy to have found the right book for one of my learners. The book, Le gentil petit diable et autres contes de la rue Broca, is neither too difficult, nor too easy for him so he is happy to read it. This brought joy for the rest of my day!

Let me boost your French! And remember to trust the process!

Ecoute

If you don’t know Steve Kaufmann yet, I urge you to subscribe to his YouTube channel. Steve Kaufmann is 72 years old, he has learned 17 languages, 9 of those since the age of 60! His recent video about listening more to improve your speaking skills makes total sense to me. Many language learners think they should speak from the very beginning when they should expose themselves to the language first.

Watch youtubers as long as they are comprehensible enough to you. I believe videos are easier to understand than podcasts because of the images. You are also able to see the face and how the lips move which ease the comprehension. These are a big bonus to understand the message.

Français Authentique and Français Immersion are good to start with because they speak slowly. There are videos made for French learners.

The other videos are not aimed at French learners, so the pace is faster but the content is interesting which what is what matters most.

NyCyLa is a French mum who loves in California with her French husband and daughter. She vlogs about her life there and the differences between France and the US. Her daily life is kind of interesting to follow but she speaks quite fast.

Hélène se promène is a French teacher from Québec who travels around the world. Her videos are fun and informative and you get to hear the québécois accent. Check out her website which has the transcripts, quizzes and grammar explanations.

Paparicain is an American dad living in Paris. His short videos explaining his experience as an American living the French life are very funny.

And of course my videos aim at being comprehensible as well as interesting. I try to offer a mix of stories, guided tours, recipes and (coming soon) book reviews. My last video is a Greek myth, le Roi Midas.

Lis

Last week, I shared tips to become an autonomous reader. Here are other resources you can add to your reading list:

Watch my StoryTime playlist where I read children’s books as well as fables. Reading out loud is a wonderful tool to help you learn to read smoothly and build fluency skills, continuity and confidence. This article on the benefits of reading out loud to your kids mentions that “it helps you cultivate your internal listening skills, and it build up your storehouse of words and grammatically correct phrases and sentences.”

BookBox French is another brilliant channel where you will find stories synchronizing the text, audio, and visual.

I love Podcast Français Facile which offers many short texts with audio to start reading and build confidence.

And of course, StoriesFirst has a collection of stories written in totally comprehensible French. You can read Le Roi Midas here.

To acquire another language is a long process. What is most important is the journey:

David Le Breton est sociologue and anthropologue français.

Remember to check out my Instagram account where I post reading passages from French books and poems.

I love hearing from you! Let me know which videos you love to watch and which books and poems you love to read in French.

Happy French acquisition!

P.S. Got friends, family, colleagues or clients who want to become fluent in French? Share this with them, they’ll thank you for it 🙂