How I went from 0 French to passing A2 in 6 months (Realistic learning)

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Hello everyone, I always loved the French language and I tried multiple times to learn it over the years. But I always failed and got bored after a week of learning. I took it seriously in July 2020 because I need to get to B2 French to be able to immigrate to a French speaking country.

Here’s how I progressed:

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1. Taking private classes or small-group classes: This is essential for me, at least for those of us who aren’t disciplined to study on their own. Having a native teacher to interact with a few times a week is so important. YES it’s expensive, but if you have the resources, push yourself and enroll in a private class or a small group class. It will pay off.
2. Course books: Your course book is your guide. In my class we used le nouveau taxi A1 and A2 along with the activity book. They’re great books, short lessons and packed with info. However, they’re a bit outdated. So we will be switching to Saison 3 and Saison 4 for B1 and B2.
3. Google translate, Apple’s new translate app and DeepL come in very handy when you need to translate text. They may not always be accurate, but they definitely help.
4. Linguee dictionary: My go to dictionary. The UI is modern and they provide examples for each word.
5. Memrise (desktop, website) (free version): Very helpful for phrases, especially slang phrases that aren’t taught in text books. The free desktop version is absolutely brilliant. I prefer Memrise over Duolingo, I found Duolingo to be all over the place and the sentences were absolutely ridiculous lol
6. Lingvist (desktop and mobile) (paid version): I purchased the annual subscription after finishing A1, this vocab website/app is helpful for practicing common words in context. No for complete beginners.
7. Drops app (paid version): Visual learning at its finest. A beautiful app for studying vocab, it’s like the old school picture dictionaries but better. The free version allows 10 mins of use per day which is great but I needed a bit more so I got the paid version when it went on sale. highly recommend.
8. Busuu (Desktop)(paid): I just recently got the annual subscription for busuu mainly because of the feature where it allows you to get corrected by native speakers. It’s the closest to a regular course and it’s divided by each CEFR level. They offer a placement test, so you know from which level to start.
9. Conjugation apps and websites: Some of my favorite conjugation apps: Conjuu French and French verbs. One is paid, the latter is free. Both are great. Conjuu always you to practice the verbs though, so I do recommend to pay for it. My favorite conjugation website: Reverso conjugator.
10. Entertainment: Listen to french singers as much as possible and change your Netflix language to French, that way you get the dub option for English tv shows as well. And Netflix’s dub is above average and well-synced for the most part. And don’t forget YouTube, there are loads of French channels. From just regular vlog channels in French to Youtubers who teach you French!
11. DELF books: I use a DELF book with each level. I used ABC DELF A2 and it has loads of exercise. I will be using ABD DELF B1 book along with my B1 course. It covers all aspects of the language: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.
12. Conversation apps: Tandem is a good source, but I found that most of the users aren’t too serious about learning. and 1 in 10 actually reply to your texts. So Tandem is a hit or miss.
13. Podcasts: I used Coffee break french but I got bored of it easily to be honest. You have to pay to see the transcript and I don’t think it’s worth it. I highly recommend Duolingo’s podcast though! It’s bilingual and the stories are very interesting. So you basically pick up words from story telling.
14. Books: CIDEB app has a selection of stories assigned to each level, currently reading an A1 book, not gonna lie, I find it a bit difficult and it seems like the books are more suitable to a more advanced level than what they claim.

So B1 and B2 to go :)

Tell me about your progress and your tips and tricks? would love to hear from the community!