Tackling the next target – improving my French

 After a couple of  weeks of my daily routine, given a few tweaks, I felt it was pretty settled. I’m ever hopeful that it can continue once Mr VV has returned, although I may need to get up earlier. So, it was time to look at the next project. One of the things that I really wanted to target was my French language skills. A recent online survey I completed marked my level as B2, which was quite satisfying. I’m not sure my speaking ability is at quite this level though, although my hour on the phone to Bouygues went without a hitch. Maybe it’s just a question of confidence. However, one of the hardest things for intermediate speakers is to get over the hump from B2 to C1 and above, that is, achieving fluency.

I do have some slightly more modern headphones ... 

When we left the old house I either sold, donated or left behind virtually all my French learning materials. I don’t even have a dictionary (note to self: buy one in Intermarche next time you go shopping). I do still have all my French literature and about half of the books are with me here, the rest will arrive with Mr VV. So, in the interests of frugality, I needed to find a free way of improving my French. Being without TV is great. Now the super-fast 4G router is set up (thanks, Bouygues) I spend part of the evening watching YouTube videos. I suppose you could argue that it’s not much different to watching TV. However, you get to really be selective with viewing and follow ‘ordinary’ people too, or at least people who share your interests and passions. For example, I’ve long subscribed to my favourite yoga, low-impact exercise and van life channels, so maybe it was time to see what was available for language learning.

There were tens, if not hundreds, of channels devoted to French language learning. I was spoilt for choice. After watching quite a few, I narrowed my personal selection down to three: InnerFrench, French Mornings with Elisa and EasyFrench. InnerFrench is a channel targeting intermediate learners run by French Prof Hugo Cotton, who is actually based in Pologne (Poland). There’s a range of materials from ten-minute explainer videos aimed at conversational skills to thirty-minute podcasts. Although targeted at intermediates, Hugo’s diction is so clear that I can usually speed him to 1.25x or 1.5x. That’s the beauty of YouTube; you can speed up or slow down the videos, and most have sub-titles too. This is probably my favourite channel, although I’m a bit biased as Hugo is a vegan!!

My second selection was French Mornings with Elisa. In addition to a few longer vlogs, what I really like about this channel is the ‘Learn French in 3 minutes’ concept. In a really short video, Elisa covers one particular aspect of conversational French. For example, “Why you shouldn’t say ‘c’est bon’”. But what really drew me in was her analysis of the slang and idioms used in the Netflix series Call My Agent (Dix Pour Cent).

I started my YouTube French journey with the well-known channel EasyFrench (there’s Easy German, Spanish, Russian and loads more too). There’s also SuperEasyFrench for beginners. The three Paris-based presenters make short ten-minute videos that are filmed on the streets of Paris. Yes, real live French people. So you get a wide variety of accents and informal speech patterns (and speeds). It’s all sub-titled in English and French, too. Recent videos I’ve enjoyed are: What’s your morning routine? What are French women like? What do the French think of British? With over 137 videos on the channel and one added each week there’s plenty to keep me going.

It was Hugo on the InnerFrench channel that gave me the idea of hunting out French vloggers with common interests. I’d listened to a fascinating podcast on his channel about language acquisition (as opposed to learning). He’s a big fan of Krashen Theory. I’d not heard of it before, but to me, it makes sense. My take on it is basically that the best method to develop additional language skills is to ‘acquire’ it as opposed to ‘learn’. There are several aspects to this theory, but one is to focus on listening, reading and writing rather than speaking, at least initially. And not worry about the grammar. Hugo recommended that one of the best ways to overcome the intermediate hurdle is to practise these three areas. Furthermore, it’s important that the content should be ‘comprehensible input’. That means, slightly more advanced than your current level and in a subject that you’re interested in. So, I set off to find some YT channels with French-speaking vloggers featuring my specific interests: yoga, vegan and van life/campervan travel.

The campervan box was ticked easily. In fact, it was a recommendation from InnerFrench. The Gregsway channel is run by a young Belgian guy travelling Europe and the world in an old Hymer. He’s also interested in Tiny Houses (another of my dreams). Yoga in French seems much harder to find. The yoga channel that I found with the most subscribers is Yoga Chloe Bloom, then there’s Yoga with Marine and Yogafit Aurelie. I will try them all in turn, as they all have different approaches to yoga, some a little too hippy for me, others too energetic! In fact, Yoga With Kassandra, my current favourite channel has a few videos in French, being Canada based, so I might try these as a starter. The French vegan video research is ongoing and I’m planning to write that up over on the Vivez Vegan website.