subject: How to Help Yourself Learn Conversational French Fast [print this page] How to Help Yourself Learn Conversational French Fast
If you need to learn French fast, the most important thing is going to be that you don't frustrate yourself in the attempt. Every time you get frustrated while trying to learn a new skill, you become fixated on your failure instead of the material you're trying to absorb. Finding out how to avoid this pitfall has confounded many people who have a real need to pick up the French language but who cannot find a way to get a handle on it quickly. The frustration may be arising from your materials rather than your own mistakes.
The key to learning how to converse in any foreign language is to actually listen to people conversing. This doesn't mean listening to monotone narrators have fake conversations on language tapes. People speak with drama, emotion and purpose and, if you want to learn French fast, this is the type of conversation you need to be listening to. There are materials that can provide this experience for you and, when you find them, you're likely going to want to toss that phrasebook out.
You can learn French fast when your brain is required to work with materials that mimic real life situations. This gives the language a purpose and it becomes easier to translate the words you don't know and to use context to translate those words that still give you problems. These little victories can help your morale quite a bit. Though materials and methods are important, your own belief in your abilities is also very important if you want to learn French fast.
Though it may not seem directly related to conversation, song is also a powerful tool to help you learn French. It works because of the innate expressiveness of music. If you can't remember the exact words to a song, for instance, you can oftentimes reconstruct it in your head by humming the melody and remembering the mood. Of course, once you learn a French song, you have access to a completely portable learning tool that you can use anywhere.
If you're frustrated with your learning rate, consider employing other materials to help you learn French fast. It may not be that your abilities are lacking, but that you're addressing this challenge in the wrong way. With the right materials, there's no linguistic challenge that you cannot tackle and no reason to be frustrated.
