Learning French takes dedication and persistence but there are ways to speed up the process. The people that immerse themselves in the French language are the people that learn French the quickest. We are all busy and find it hard to set time aside to study French. The key to learning French quickly is to incorporate studying into your everyday routine. Once studying French is a part of your daily routine you can set aside less time for study in your free time. When you are actually studying in your free time you want to stay completely focused and have no distractions.



Below are five specific ways to accelerate learning the French language.

1. Incorporating studying into your daily routine means taking advantage of all the time you spend not working during your busy day. This could be your drive to work, a walk to work, all your breaks, your lunch hour, your bathroom breaks, your morning routine before leaving for work. Take advantage of all the time during your work day you are not actively working. Start by picking up a disc man or I pod of some kind. You want to have your French learning audio CDs and downloads ready for use throughout the day. Calculate all the time during your daily routine where you are not working and write down the number of hours per week. You would be surprised. During this non active working time, plug in and start listening to your French study courses.

2. Make sure the materials you are using for study are effective. You can study all you want during your downtime but if the method of study is poor you will not learn a thing. When choosing a good audio course on French you want to make sure it is an audio course that allows you to immerse yourself in the language. This does not mean just learning nouns. Try to stay away from courses that are excessively heavy on teaching nouns. Learning nouns in French is necessary but make sure it has a good mix of nouns, verb conjugation, grammar and conversational French. The immersion method offers the best way to learn the language quickly.

3. When learning French words you can always have a stack of index cards and use them when you have some downtime. But when you are learning words be sure to use your imagination. For example you may want to group certain words together and imagine a scenario that is particularly memorable. Be creative and make your own scenarios. This is much more effective than just memorizing words with no creative thought.

4. Power studying is important when you study during your free time. So you have had a great day immersing yourself in the French language. To really accelerate the process all you need is 15-30 minutes of power studying in the evening. Power studying means absolutely no distractions with a specific goal in mind. Do not allow yourself to listen to music, watch TV, talk on the phone or get up from your study area. The more disciplined you are with your power studying the less time you will need to master French.

5. Language Exchange is the icing on the cake. Once you have immersed yourself in study you need to learn how to use it in conversation. Language exchange is an activity that should be fun! During Language Exchange you spend one hour teaching your language and one hour learning their language. This is what will bring you to fluency without actually moving to France.

Remember that consistency and discipline is key. Before you start following any of these steps you should write down your daily schedule. It is also a good idea to have a checklist. The checklist could be a way of tracking your daily activities. This will keep you accountable for your actions.

Above all though make sure you have fun with this. Be proud of yourself and take a moment to pat yourself on the back. There will be days where it will seem like a huge pain to study. But with time you will realize you are really starting to absorb the language. During these moments of realization be sure to take a moment and feel good about what you have accomplished to that point.

When you are learning French be sure to learn as much as you can about the culture. All of the idiomatic expressions alone can give you tremendous insight into the French culture. The more you study the culture the more interesting the language becomes.