Tips for Studying

Tips for Studying French (or any language)

* Study for short, intense bursts. Your brain tends to learn language best in about 15-30 minute chunks. It's better to be very focused for only 20 minutes than it is to be distracted and "studying" for hours on end. If you still haven't understood everything after 30 minutes, take a break before coming back and trying again.

* Every study session should have a specific goal, and it should be different from the goal you had the previous study session. Your brain learns best not only when it can track your progess (when you can say "I know 5 out of 10 words that time" versus just "I think I might have done a little better") but also when it sees new challenges. After a while, "learn 10 words" becomes too repetitive and your brain stops paying as much attention. Switching goals will help keep you focused!

* Every so often, set small goals that you can achieve quickly and focus on those rather than trying to learn everything at once. You're not going to magically become fluent overnight. But you can learn, say, 30 words perfectly in a week with only a little bit of effort. Do that every week and in a year's time you'd know over 1,500 words!

* Always keep your end goal in mind. Why are you here? Why do you want to learn French? When you feel like you'd rather just ignore it and watch TV, think about that goal. What will make you happier in the future? Putting in the work now and being able to say you speak fluent French, or doing nothing for the next few minutes?

*Study in a way that matches real life. Context matters - your brain will tend to recall information in the same way you learned it. In other words, you have to practice what you want to do in order to actually do it. If you want to be a faster runner, you wouldn't just read about running, would you? You'd have to actually get up and go running. Therefore practice with tools such as flashcards, while useful for fast review, are not nearly as effective as practice conversations are!

*If you can't find anyone to hold such practice conversations with, just do it with yourself! Practicing both halves of the conversation is not only good repetition, which helps you remember things, but your brain actually can't tell the difference between that and a real conversation.

* Find ways to incorporate French vocabulary into your everyday life. Label your notebooks with the French names of each class. Write your daily to-do list/assignments in French. Confuse your parents by responding to them in nothing but French for ten minutes. Play games with yourself to see how many things you can name in French every day. Even these tiny bits of practice will add up quickly!

* Practice in ways that are genuinely interesting to you. What will you remember more - a fun story about something cool, or another boring textbook chapter? Find ways to incorporate your French vocab and grammar into your interests. For example, if you love playing video games, search YouTube for a French video game review and see what you can understand. If you love drawing, Google some sketching tutorials in French. The possibilities are endless if you use a little creativity!

* Listen to French as much as you can. Stream a French radio station or listen to French music. Play with the language options to watch many DVDs in French. There are many ways you can listen to French even while you're doing other things (like homework!)