How I Used French Classes To Become Bilingual
Of course, I was taught French during my school days but never took it seriously. As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t important to me and never would be.
Turns out I was wrong about that.
I was sent to France for work; I found myself wishing Id paid attention in my French classes. Its not that easy to find someone in France who speaks English fluently, it turns out. You’d have better luck finding a Finnish speaker in Portugal (well, almost).
Whew, I really felt lost. Nonetheless, I made a silent resolve not to learn the language, since I wasn’t going to be coming back to France.
But on getting back home, my boss told me I would be going back in 3 months. This time I would stay longer. There and then I made a commitment to myself to learn French before the 3 months was up.
Now, I prefer audio books, since I can listen to them when my hands are occupied. I bought a complete French audio class and started listening to them whenever possible: on the train, at home and even while jogging!
It took me a little while to start catching on to what the audio lessons were trying to tell me, but after a couple of weeks it started to click. The thing which really worked for me where the English translations of the spoken passages in French.
Little by little, I started picking up the language. About 6 weeks later I found that I could speak French passably; I even had a brief conversation in French with my boss and managed not to lapse into English at any point. I think I surprised her there!
She asked how Id done it; I explained that Id been using audio books in my effort to learn the language. She was very impressed with my initiative and made me the head of the company delegation for the French trip! She told the rest of the group to pick up the same audio lessons Id used and start studying as I had.
When I made that return trip to France, I had a much better time. I could communicate with people ” and Id learned it all on my own! I didn’t take a single class, I didn’t have to hire a tutor and I didn’t even crack open any French tutorial books!
In just three months, Id managed to learn a good amount of French using these audio lessons. Best of all, I did it by studying in my own free time. I didn’t have to set any special time aside to learn French, I listened to the audio books while I was doing other things.
If I could do this within 3 months, I am certain anyone else can do it too. If there is any language you would love to learn, follow my footsteps and you will be pleasantly surprised what can happen in just 3 months, with the power of audio books.
Tags: Language
