«It’s impossible to practice and improve your French on your own, without a teacher.»
Have these ideas ever crossed your mind? If you’re reading this article in French, you might be wondering how to keep from losing everything after all the effort you’ve put in?
Let’s face it, you’re not going to take French for the rest of your life, and no matter how much you love your French teacher, one day you’re going to stop. You’ll stop your lessons because of a move, a degree or a break-up… On that day, you’ll be faced with a dilemma: how to practice and improve your French on your own?
In this article, I’m going to share with you all my secret resources for practicing and improving your French for free and without a teacher. I’m sharing with you my 13 years of experience that have helped me improve my language learning. Thanks to these tried and tested resources, you’ll be able to set up a tailor-made routine to keep in touch with the French language, without having to travel.
🚨These resources are not a substitute for a course or a teacher!
❤️ are my favorites!
Improve your French quickly and easily with theses points
- Change the language of your electronic devices to French: all your devices! This is the first step. Your brain will quickly get used to the change (computer, GPS, phone, Alexa, Google Home, etc.)
- Put your applications in French: Facebook, Instagram, etc.
- Write a diary or letter regularly to your invisible French-speaking friend, etc.
- At the end of the day, write down or verbally repeat 10 things you did during the day: I woke up, I called my friend, I watched videos, etc.
- Write one sentence a day on your note app on your phone. Just one sentence.
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Did you know that you can change the language of your Google page to French? It’s an easy way to discover French searches.
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You’ll find lots of answers to your questions on Quora.
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Download the French-language newspaper applications and activate push notifications. This way, you’ll read the headlines several times a day.
- Instead of translating words in your mother tongue, use the French dictionary to understand the meaning of words. It’s a little more difficult, but so much more interesting for building your vocabulary. (Larousse ❤️, Le Robert, L’internaute)
- Search your French content on YouTube
Practice and improve your listening skills with podcasts
Listening to podcasts is, in my opinion, the best exercise in the world for improving listening comprehension.
I recommend my podcast: Le Français avec Yasmine. It’s available on Spotify, Itunes and Deezer. You can also subscribe to the newsletter to receive it in your mailbox every Thursday morning. ❤️
If you want to know more about my career, you can listen to my interview here.
In this article you’ll find 52 podcasts I’ve tested and approved for my students.
Transcriptions to learn French
If you’re not comfortable with podcasts and prefer to start slowly, I recommend audio resources with transcriptions.
You’ll be able to listen and read at the same time. It’s great for pronunciation, memorization and sentence structure. Interested? I recommend the following resources:
RFI Savoirs ❤️
Le journal en français facile❤️
Listen to French music
Listening to French music is also an excellent exercise. Here are my Spotify playlists.
Stay informed with French news
Learn French by meditating
Do you like documentaries?
ThinkerView (politically oriented)
Or are you more of a cinephile?
Here are some TV programs to help you learn natural French
Master Chef and Top chef (available on YouTube)
Quotidien (very very satirical)
Reality TV: there are many different opinions on this subject. Some people will tell you that it’s not a good idea to learn from reality TV. I think they’re wrong. Reality TV offers an incredible opportunity to learn colloquial French. I don’t find the content of reality TV intellectually stimulating, but I do think it’s a wonderful resource for learning slang.
Take a cooking class to improve your French
Take part in webinars
Do you know MOOCs?
Social networks are nuggets for easy and fun learning
Konbini News ❤️
My favorite YouTube channels
Learn French humor
Fary ❤️
Paul Taylor ❤️
Les inconnus ❤️
Practice your reading skills
Learn French with apps
The complete guide to practicing your French for free online
I hope you’re now reassured that there are lots of free online resources to help you practice your French at your own pace. I’m curious to know which one(s) are your favorites. Join my newsletter and podcast below and tell me what your favorite resources are.