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LEARNING FRENCH

Bar work, boyfriends or classes: The best techniques for learning French

The idea of a 'working holiday' - in which you come to France to improve your French while also taking in the sites and soaking up French culture and gastronomy - is a popular one, but how can you maximise your language learning?

Published: 21 August 2023 16:34 CEST
Updated: 22 August 2023 09:15 CEST
Bar work, boyfriends or classes: The best techniques for learning French
Bar work is a good way to improve your French, if it's compatible with your visa. Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Many people assume that once you’re in France you will ‘just pick up’ French. While this might be the case for some gifted linguists, most people will have to work at it if they want a reasonable grasp of the language.

Of course some people find it easier than others to learn a language and naturally we all learn in different ways – some prefer the structure of a class while others like just getting stuck in to a good conversation with the locals.

But however you learn, here are some techniques for maximising the language-learning while you are in France.

Formal classes

French is a highly structured language with complicated grammar, so unless you’re a truly talented linguist you are probably going to need at least some formal lessons to understand the building blocks of the language.

READ ALSO A language expert’s top 3 tips for learning French

You will be able to pick up enough for basic interactions like ordering in a shop, bar or restaurant, but if you want to get past that level and have proper conversations involving the past, present and future as well as concepts like wishes, hopes and desires then you will probably need to get your head around French grammar rules.

Understanding how the language is structured will make it easier for your to learn on your own later.

There are, however, lots of choice about the type of classes you do – from evening classes that fit in around work or other studies to intensive courses that plunge you into French studies for 8 hours a day, five (or even seven) days a week.

If you’re coming to France to study, some language schools also offer to set up accommodation with local families – this is a great ‘total immersion’ exercise as you’ll be speaking French with your host family in the evening even after classes have ended.

Depending on the length of the course you may need a visa, and not all language courses will qualify you for a student visa.

READ ALSO Can I get a French student visa for a language course?

Informal classes

The biggest drawback to intensive language courses is that they’re expensive. If it’s beyond your budget, however, there are some cheaper options.

Check out apps such as MeetUp or Facebook groups for foreigners in France for Language Exchanges – this involves meeting up French people for a couple of hours and talking, half the time in French, the rest of the time in English. The idea is that you help French people who want to learn English and in exchange they help you with your French. Typically held in bars or cafés these are either cheap or free (in the case of the free ones you will probably be expected to order a drink while you are there).

Likewise conversation groups are an informal type of French class in which you meet up to chat for an hour or two and help each other out with vocab, grammar and pronunciation. 

If you’re in France for a few months at a time you may also be able to find reasonably priced French classes via your local mairie, at the library or through the Université pour tous programme.

READ ALSO How to find affordable language classes in France

French TV/radio/podcasts

You don’t need to be in France to do this of course, but when you are here it’s a good idea to consume as much French media as possible.

Read daily French newspapers, listen to French radio or podcasts and watch French TV or films – it will all help you tune in to the rhythm of the language and hear how words are pronounced.

If you’re watching French TV and films it’s a good idea to turn on subtitles in French – this will help you keep up with the plot but also help you understand how the written words are pronounced. 

READ ALSO 5 Netflix series that will teach you French as the locals speak it

It’s also a good way to understand France – its culture, politics, entertainments and preoccupations – better.

Au pair

A popular choice for young people is to come to France as an au pair, as this offers accommodation and employment (albeit low-paid) as well as language learning opportunities.

It’s so popular in fact that a special au pair visa exists, which requires you to enrol for a formal French language class.

The advantage for your language learning is that as well as those formal classes you will be engaged in day-to-day chat with your host family and their children, so it’s a really immersive language experience.

The downside is that it is hard work (and of course you have to like working with children).

READ ALSO What you need to know about being an Au pair in France

Bar work 

If you’re looking to build your language skills and learn some colloquial French then working in a bar, café or restaurant is a good choice – although it’s best to have some basic French already before you attempt this.

As well as learning the names of lots of drinks, this will give you a crash course in colloquial chat and some colourful French phrases, especially if you work in a place frequented by talkative locals.

You do, of course, need to ensure that working is allowed on your visa – if you’re here on a visitor visa then you do not have the right to work, while students are limited to a certain amount of hours per week.

Bar and restaurant work tends to more formal in France – meaning you’re likely to get an employment contract and pay tax on your earnings, although there are some places that are prepared to hire people on a cash-in-hand basis.

Dating 

In George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels, the anti-hero Flashman claims that all he needs to learn any language is “a month in bed” with a native speaker of that language.

We’re not endorsing that as a technique (and we’ve never seen any peer-reviewed research on the efficiency of this method) but it is true that dating will give you good practice in the more colloquial forms of French.

France has plenty of choice when it comes to dating apps, and if you’re not dating then there are some that you can set to ‘friendship’ if you just want to meet native speakers for a coffee and a chat.

READ ALSO How to tackle online dating in France

Leaving aside other considerations, the best type of French partner is one who speaks no English at all – as it will force you to have conversations in French.

Speaking of apps, there’s also the ride-sharing app BlaBlaCar – it’s handy for cut-price travel around France but a four-hour car journey with a native speaker also functions as a good language workout.

The ‘bla bla’ in the name refers to the fact that you can signal on the app whether you like a chatty journey or not.

What do you think are the best techniques for perfecting your French? Tell us in the comments below

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LEARNING FRENCH

Is the English language really just ‘badly pronounced French’?

A French linguist has been making waves with his boldly-titled book 'The English language does not exist - it's just badly pronounced French', but does the professor actually have a point?

Published: 23 April 2024 14:35 CEST
Is the English language really just 'badly pronounced French'?

The French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini is clear that the title of his book should be taken with humour and a pinch of salt, beginning his work by explaining that it is a ‘bad faith proposition’.

Clearly, the English language does exist and equally clearly the French are a little uneasy about it – with numerous laws, national bodies and local initiatives attempting to fight back against the anglicisms that now litter everyday speech, from ‘c’est cool’ to ‘un job’. 

But Cerquiglini argues that the supposed ‘influx’ of English words that are now used in France, especially tech-related terms, is nothing compared to what happened when French literally invaded English in the Middle Ages.

And the close similarity that the two languages enjoy today – around 30 percent of English words are of French origin – speaks to this entwined history.

“You can also see my book as an homage to the English language, which has been able to adopt so many words… Viking, Danish, French, it’s astonishing,” he told AFP.

The history

The key date in the blending of English and French is the Norman conquest of 1066, when Duke William of Normandy invaded England with a small group of Norman knights and made himself the English king William the Conqueror.

What happened next was a radical re-ordering of society in which English nobles were displaced and William’s knights were installed as a new French-speaking (or at least Norman-speaking) ruling class. 

The use of French by the ruling classes continued into the 13th and 14th centuries, by which time French was the official language of the royal courts, diplomacy, the law, administration and trade – meaning that ambitious English people had no choice but to learn French in order to take part in official or legal processes. 

Cerquiglini says that half of all English’s borrowings from French took place between 1260-1400, with a heavy slant towards words related to nobility, trade, administration or the law.

But a large group of non-native speakers meant that the French spoken in England was already starting to evolve, and the French words ended up with different pronunciations or even a different meaning. 

As early as 1175, the records show a Frenchman in England snootily remarking that: “My language is good, because I was born in France”. 

English and French started to part ways from the mid-1400s, by which time the two countries no longer shared royalty (the last English possession in France, the port of Calais, was lost to the French in 1558) and gradually systems such as the law courts and trade began to be conducted in English.

French remained widely spoken as a second language by the nobility and the elite right up until the early 20th century and French is still the most widely-taught language in UK schools.

The similarities

It’s not always easy to distinguish between English words that have a French root and those that have a Latin root, but linguists estimate that around 29 percent of English words come from French, another 29 percent from Latin, 26 percent from German and the rest from other languages.

But many of the English words that do have a clear French root are related to nobility, administration, politics and the law.

For example the French words gouvernement, parlement, autorité and peuple are clearly recognisable to English speakers. Likewise budget, revenus, enterprise and taxe, plus avocat, cour, juge, magistrat and evidence.

Amusingly, the French and the English obviously found time to share many insults, including bâtard [bastard], crétin, imbecile, brute and stupide.

Adaptation

But most of the people in England who were speaking French did not have it as their mother tongue, so the language began to adapt. For example the French à cause de literally translates into English as ‘by cause of’ which over time became the English word ‘because’.

There are also words that started out the same but changed their meaning over time – for example the English word ‘clock’ comes from the French ‘cloche’ (bell), because in the Middle Ages church bells were the most common method of keeping track of the time for most people.

When the mechanical clock began to appear from the 14th century onwards, the French used a new term – une horloge – but the English stuck with the original.

The differences

One of the big differences between English and French is that English simply has more words – there are roughly 170,000 words in the English language, compared to about 135,000 in French.

And at least part of this comes from English being a ‘blended’ language – that English people hung on to their original words and simply added the French ones, which is why you often get several different English words that have the same translation in French eg clever and intelligent both translate into French as ‘intelligent’.

Another difference represents the class divide that the Norman invasion imposed between the French nobles and the English labourers.

For example the words pig and cow both have Anglo-Saxon roots, while pork and beef come from French (porc and boeuf) – so when the animal is in the field being looked after by English peasants it has an Anglo-Saxon name, but by the time it is on the plate being eaten by posh people, it becomes French.

There’s also a tendency in English for the more everyday words to have Anglo-Saxon origins while the fancier words have French origins – eg to build (English) versus to construct (French). In French construire is used for both. Or to feed (English) versus to nourish (French) – in French both are nourrir.

Faux amis

One consequence of English and French being so closely linked in the bane of every language-learner’s life – les faux amis (false friends).

These are words that look and sound very similar, but have a completely different meaning. If you don’t know the French word for something you can have a stab at saying the English word with a French pronunciation – and often you will be right.

But sometimes you will be wrong, and sometimes it will be embarrassing.

READ ALSO The 18 most embarrassing French ‘false friends’

Often, faux amis are words that have changed their meaning in one language but not the other – for example the French word sensible means sensitive, not sensible – which is why you can buy products for peau sensible (sensitive skin).

But it once meant sensitive in English too – for example in the title of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility – over time the meaning of the English word adapted but the French one stayed the same.

The title

And a word on that title – La langue anglaise n’existe pas, C’est du français mal prononcé (the English language does not exist, it’s just badly pronounced French) is actually a quote from former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau.

He did apparently speak English, but doesn’t appear to have been very fond of England itself – his other well-known quote on the topic is: “L’angleterre n’est qu’une colonie français qui a mal tourné” – England is just a French colony gone wrong.  

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