My level at reading is around A2 but my listening is almost 0, no matter how much youtube and shows i watch it feels like i can barely understand any of the spoken french unless its specifially spoken at kindergarten level and even then i struggle.

Are there some better ways to train listening because i dont feel like im doing any progress like this.

Thank you in advance

Books for learning French beginners A1 and books to read french short stories A1 any recommendations?

TLDR but it might just help.

So, speaking French in your head? Well, I did that on and off for some 20-30 years. Let me explain. My situation was that my family of 4 lived in a 2 bedroom flat in Cronulla Beach, Sydney, Australia. My husband and I owned our flat (opposite the ocean) but could not afford a house so, when the eldest of our 2 boys reached high school, we gave him our bedroom to facilitate his studies and learning and we slept in the living room on a mattress on the floor. (BTW, this was a worthwhile sacrifice as he has since obtained a PhD in Photovoltaic Engineering and is currently a research fellow at UNSW).

However, wind back to the 1990s and early 2000s when this happened. My only workspace was in a corner of the living room and my youngest with ADHD found great amusement in making fun of me trying to speak French. So what happened? I knew he would not tire of his mimicry "game" so all practice was internalised. Even after both children left home I could not bring myself to practise French orally so I stopped.

In the meantime, a close friend who is fluent in French, moved with her partner to Perpignan, France to live permanently. I decided to visit so I booked a return fare SYD-CDG-SYD. Several times, between booking and departing, I tried to practise French but gave up as pointless. I arrived in Paris and could speak a little but understand next to nothing as the majority of my self-study was written and grammar-based, not, as it should have been, aural and oral.

That was fine for Paris as most Parisians speak English but not so in the south-east of France in the Pyrénées-Orientales so I spent 4 weeks speaking with my friends in English but with their friends sometimes in English but mainly in Franglais - if they knew a bit of English then that could mash with my bit of French and we would chop back and forth.

So, to cut a long story short, I came back home intending to return next year and be able to understand French to a certain degree and be able to communicate better in it. I have started using French in Action which I have owned since 1990s but never had the time or drive to put to use. I supplement with Duolingo mainly for just speaking and listening, Natulang for speaking and thinking on my feet and Dreaming French for purely listening. It's only been a few weeks and the difference is quite astounding. My mouth has freed up and I am tripping over my tongue less and I am beginning to aurally comprehend as well.

Pour conclure, je dirais : n'abandonnez pas.

I mean , I admit French is a tricky language, even for us native speakers, but every language has its own difficulties. What makes French harder than other languages, nearly impossible ?   » French is *hell »(*ironic) You‘d better have a pretty solid reason to tell people not to learn it lol. Not making fun of you it just makes me laugh and I’d like to know.

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Score: Listening: C1 | Reading: C1 | Writing: B2 | Speaking: B2

Before commencing my French journey, I spent the first week skimming through Reddit posts to understand the complexity and feasibility of this journey. The forum has been very helpful and now it’s time to give back to the community!

Background:

• No prior exposure to French or any Romance language.
• No formal paid courses.
• Near-native proficiency in English.
• Dedicated 2-3 hours per day - every single day.
• Working full-time, with a very supportive family.

Journey:

Research Phase (Month 1)                                                                                                        

• Assessed the possibility of accomplishing B2 with limited time and budget.
• Explored several resources, shortlisted ones that would work for me. This took considerable time but was essential to avoid wasting time with resource hopping during the learning journey.
• Evaluated TEF Vs TCF and decided to target the TCF.

Foundation & Comprehension Phase (Months 2 – 5)

• Focused on developing comprehension skills and learning the language.
• Resources:
  • Busuu – To learn basics in a structured manner.
  • Anki – To jump-start vocab learning in the initial days. This was only needed until I learnt enough to start reading French content.
  • LingQ – To read stories and absorb the language naturally.
  • Others: Coffee Break French, Inner French, story books and grammar books.

Expression Phase (Month 6)

• It would have been good to start speaking/writing earlier, but I didn’t feel ready to express myself in French until this phase.
• Used ChatGPT to practice translation exercises, write simple sentences, and practice speaking.
• Continued immersion through podcasts and books.

Exam Preparation Phase (Months 7 – 10)

• Practiced with mock tests for Listening and Reading (F*ckTCF/FreeTCF).
• Found a native tutor on Preply to practice speaking twice a week. We practised recent EO topics from Reussir TCF.
• Practiced Writing mocks with ChatGPT and Gemini. AI tools were incredibly useful in Writing practice to identify and fix recurring grammar mistakes.

Overall, it was a challenging yet satisfying journey. Looking back, consistency played the biggest role in achieving the target. While the TCF chapter is closed now, I will continue integrating the language into my daily life.

For those of you wondering if achieving CLB 7 is possible without formal courses or a French background, I want to assure you that YES – it’s definitely possible! Bon courage to everyone on their journey!

Bonjour! I live in the USA and want to get the sports I watch with French commentary. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get NFL games, PWHL games, NHL games and WNBA games with French commentary? If you know how, please explain like I’m 5 years old. Thanks!