#tbh the funniest part of this article is them basically being like

[penadura]

fashion or whatever

[thegoodomensdumpster]

Oh, tu es Francais? Je connais un peut Francais mais je ne suis pas parfait. Aves-vous des conseils?

Yep, I’m french. I’m not going to turn this blog into a site to learn french tho, so I’m gonna answer in English and maybe this’ll help other people learn foreign languages.So I’m being asked advice on how to learn french. Like any other language: practice. Here is how I learned english:- at school (yeah, useful for basic stuff like the gist of grammar, orthograph and conjugaison. Not so much for sounding natural and having fun tho. But you absolutely can’t cut that part out of the learning process.)- watching a shit ton of cartoons, tv series and movies in english. First with subtitles in your own language, and little by little without it (or in the language you want to learn, tho they don’t always match the audio so it can be a bit jarring). That’s how I made the most progress tbh. Netflix and other streaming services where you can access different languages and subtitles all directly in one click are excellent in that regard. You can watch Good Omens in french if you want to train your ear listening to it! I also recommend Disney movies in french, the french version are great most of the time. I personnally learned watching Doctor House on Megavideo (rip little website, forever in my heart) and cartoons such as Invader Zim and Beetlejuice. Find what you like and stick to it!- penpals are fun! Not just on the internet, tho that’s the most practical thing, but getting to send actual mail and little gifts sometimes is fantastic. Websites like Tumblr where you can interact and get friendly with people who share your interests are a nice way to start. I used to go on a website called Interpals, not sure if it’s still thrieving as it used to. It goes without saying: if you’re a minor or if you have issues ( emotionnally, psychologically, etc ) be EXTREMELY CAREFUL how you interact with people online and how much you let them know about yourself. Don’t give your real life mail address to people you don’t trust, and talk to your parents / tutors about it before jumping into a snail mail correspondance with anyone.- Duolingo. I’m not even kidding. If you can’t learn a language at school, it can help you practice the basic stuff, and get a hold onto the structure of the language. It’s not the fun part, because it relies on being repetitive so things can become instinctive, but, eh, it’s free!- reading (news article, fics, novels, anything that you like, read read and read! you don’t even have to take notes, just get familiar with the language and slowly but surely you’ll realize you’re retaining more information than you thought)- listening to music, looking up for the lyrics, and learning them and singing along to songs has done wonders for me, and it’s clearly one of the funniest part of learning languages I have experienced. You don’t have to sing along if you don’t like singing of course, but at least learning the lyrics and saying them out loud is a good exercise- play video games in the language you want to learn (especially if you’ve already played it in your native language first, that way you won’t be lost and you’ll be able to piece up things together and discover new words rather effortlessly)- now the most difficult part imo (besides the boring mandatory school stuff about conjugaison grammar etc) is getting familiar with how people REALLY talk irl. That’s a higher level of learning a language. So... podcasts, Youtubers / streamers (like, if you’re into gaming, look into gaming channels from people who speak the language you’re interested in. If you know the game you won’t be too lost, and a lot of the technical language is still in english so that’ll allow you to focus on how people talk, on how they shorten some words, on the expression they may use). The best of course is to immerse oneself in the country among people who only speak the language you want to learn and you are forced to understand them and speak with them, but if you don’t have the means for that, try to hang out on social networks and group chats.

- and of course, you need to practice actively, not just as a spectator. Talk, sing, write, and when you write try not to first write in your native language and then translate it into the language you want to learn. Go straight to the language you want to learn. Make mistakes. Learn from them. You’re gonna be alright if you write sentences that don’t make any sense. And if you try talking to a native speaker of the language you want to learn, there are always ways to make yourself understood.TL;DR : my main advice is to find a thing you are passionnate about and seek out resources about that thing in the language you want to learn and talk with foreigners about that thing. Learning a language takes time and effort, and this is the most fun and painless way I’ve found!