Learning a new language —whether you do it during your school, college, or university, you find an online course or program and dedicate a few hours every week, or you go live abroad for a year to a francophone country— can be extremely challenging.
If you want to pursue a Bachelor's degree in French, you want to study abroad in France to gain a cultural experience, you wish to work for a big department of international affairs, or just take French for college credit and get some credits out of the way, you should know you also need to learn about the culture and intricacies of the country.
People usually recommend finding programs abroad if you wish to learn a new language because immersion is the best way to learn a language. If you spend hours studying with other students that speak your same language, you won't learn as much compared to the experience you'll gain having to communicate with people that don't speak your language.
However, if a year abroad is not an option for you, you can look for beginner, intermediate, or advanced courses and programs in your home school or college. In a beginner level course (or fren 101) you will learn basic vocabulary, grammar, introductions, culture, and other requirements.
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In an intermediate level course (fren 201), you would have a bigger academic challenge and you would have immersion into reading and writing, as well as cultural, historic, and knowledge of the arts.
Finally, during an advanced level course (fren 301) you would have an even greater immersion into the language and students usually learn more about culture, the arts, traditions, slang, and other cool things.
Keep in mind that you won't go from one level to another after one semester of education. Levels of difficulty usually take over a year to accomplish.
If you want to graduate with honors and all of your credits approved, you should work hard every school year and meet all of the degree requirements of your bachelor's program.
French quotes that you should learn
Learning a new language is not only about learning to read and write in another language, but it is about learning history, culture, slang, literature, and more. A language is not only words and sentences, but it is also filled with tradition and soul, and if you want to dominate the French language, you need to pay attention to all the intricacies of a language.
One of the important aspects of a culture is learning the sayings and proverbs people in the country use because it speaks to the beliefs of said language. Keep in mind that there are plenty of francophone countries apart from France, which means that there are thousands of different sayings that belong to each country.
Below you will find a quick list of famous proverbs used in France but you can find a full list of the most famous French quotes on our article 10 interesting French quotes by artists that you should learn.
- "Je pense, donc Je suis" - Rene Descartes: This saying is probably one of the most famous proverbs of all times and it refers to our existence as human beings. The literal translation is “I think, therefore, I am.” As far as phrases go, this has to be one of the most popular ones because it is known worldwide.
- "Aimer, ce n’est pas se regarder l’un l’autre, c’est regarder ensemble dans la même direction" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery: this proverb means “Love doesn’t mean gazing at each other but looking, together, in the same direction.” This expresses the common belief that being in love means wanting to look at each other all day but what Saint-Exupery expresses is that love is about planning a life with your partner and seeing a future with that person.
- "On ne voit bien qu’avec le Coeur" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery: this French proverb means "We see well only with the heart” and it refers to the feeling a piece of art might generate in a person and how art is not entirely about what we see but what we feel.
The differences between learning French and English
Students tend to believe that learning any language will be the same and it doesn't matter if it is French, Spanish, English, Russian, German, Italian, or Portuguese. However, this can't be further away from the truth.
Each language has its vocabulary, rules, pronunciation, alphabet (although languages like French, English, Italian, Spanish share the same alphabet), structures, cultural background, and more.
French and English are very different languages and students usually report how hard it is to learn both languages.
Don't forget that you can also pick what focus of the language you want to learn. Are you taking the class to prepare yourself for immersion, are you literature or arts major and are interested in language studies, or do you need a minimum of credits for university? You should pick your courses depending on the focus that you want!
If you are looking for a course or a program for university credit you can search online for courses or study with the helo of a private tutor. You can find a French or English private tutor right here on Superprof or you can go learn more about the differences between these two languages in our article French vs. English.
Keep in mind that anyone who is pursuing a major in language studies will need a bunch of university requirements and will have to learn a minimum of languages if they wish to get their bachelor's degree.
And please remember that it is better if you take one language per semester. For example, you can take French during your first year, then Italian, and then Spanish. This way you won't have to deal with learning new languages all in one semester.
Famous French Musicians and Singers
France is commonly known for being the home of hundreds of famous singers and musicians. If you are learning French and you love music, we recommend you check out some French music and have some fun while you learn and study the language a little more.
Artists like Edith Piaf, Johnny Hallyday, Jacques Brel, Vanessa Paradis, Julien Dore, Manu Chao, and much more, have shaped what we know and love about French music.
People tend to believe that all the famous French artists or any musician with honors in their careers were born in Paris. And even though many of them were born in Paris or liven in Paris, there are plenty of other great artists across France and from other francophone countries.
Don't forget that there are plenty of different genres to take into consideration when looking into French music. For instance, there's classical music, opera, cabaret, musicals, theatre, and contemporary music like rap, hip-hop, pop, rock, disco, electronic, and more.
Picking a genre to follow and listen to should be easy, all you have to do is find the artists of the genre you're interested in English!
If you feel like having a full immersion into French music won't help you learn more in general, you can always try other tricks to help you improve your skills. You can look into online courses, literature, academic studies, work experience, and many other general options.
Find effective French courses online when you search for a professional private tutor on Superprof today!
The French pronunciation of Famous Global Brands
Learning the correct pronunciation of words is as important as learning literature or math in school. Students tend to believe they have a choice when it comes to pronouncing words but this is not true, words sound a given way in each language and we can't change it.
For example, English speakers tend to mispronounce the word, Cartier. Cartier is a French luxury goods conglomerate that designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells jewelry and watches it was founded by Louis-François Cartier in Paris in 1847.
People tend to ignore the fact that sometimes in French, the last letter of a word is silent. People pronounce Cartier by saying every "r", however, the correct way of saying this word is by not pronouncing the last "r", which sounds like "Cartie".
Louis Vuitton is another brand that people across the world tend to say wrong because they say every letter in the word but forget that in French not all words or not every syllable makes sounds.
For more information check out our article on the French pronunciation of Famous global brands.
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