Study Abroad: The Best Way for Me to Learn French

By Ashley C., guest blogger studying French in Lyon, France

I’ve been taking Spanish classes for like six years, and I barely know how to say anything. I’ve been taking French for about four weeks, and I know how to say nearly everything I want to say. The difference? Spanish is harder than French. Just kidding! Iʼm picking up French much faster because Iʼm always, always using it. Iʼm in class everyday, and my instructors will not let me forget the words that we used the day before. I canʼt forget the present tense, because Iʼll use it again and again and again throughout the week. The present tense, the past tense, and the future tense are always in my head and I canʼt imagine going home and forgetting them now. When I took Spanish, I had class (where we mostly spoke English, by the way) for about an hour and then, when I left, I didn’t speak Spanish or think about Spanish until the next class, or when I did my homework while watching the tube, and Iʼm still terrible at Spanish because of it. You have to use the language you want to learn; you have to work and work and work at it, and make sure you donʼt forget it. You really, really need to immerse yourself in the culture, and thatʼs what these immersion classes are all about!

I think the immersion class for French is especially good, because French pronunciation is just terribly hard. When I took a French class in San Francisco, I wasn’t able to practice my pronunciation because my American professor couldn’t pronounce the words very well either. Itʼs a really special thing to be around people, born and raised in France, who want to teach you French. Though my pronunciation is still pretty terrible after a month here, itʼs getting better and itʼs much better than when I came. Spanish pronunciation is much easier for me, most likely because I’ve lived in California my whole life (there are many Spanish speakers in California), but to learn French, I really had to come all the way to France to do it.

Click for more information on AmeriSpan's French school in Lyon, France.

Click to see all of AmeriSpan's French schools in France.

Read all of Ashley's blogs from Lyon France.