this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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I moved from California to Montreal a few years back to study, and now I'm staying for good. I tried duolingo on and off for far too long, but I found it super uninteresting and hard to remain committed to.
Best strategy I've found is called comprehensible input. The idea is to find books or other reading material that you can get the basic gist of when reading, despite not understanding every single word and phrase and grammatical construction. The more you read, the more you'll find yourself able to understand, which is also very motivsting!
Also, make sure it's material that actually interests you. The idea is it's better to read extensively, reading things that actually interest you to some degree and keep you mentally engaged, than to just really intensively study a much smaller amount of (less interesting) material.
This actually mirrors how we acquire languge. The idea is to intuitively understand French by having seen a lot of it rather than to basically memorize French. You ultimately want to be able to glance at a sign, for instance, and just know what it means without having to translate in your head.
Some resources I found useful were these French illustrated books in Dollarama, but even better is a series of books designed to be comprehensible input by Olly Richards. He's a native English speaker and polyglot who has written a bunch of graded readers that gradually increase in vocabulary and difficulty. He has several books for French, including beginner short stories, intermediate short stories, beginner conversations, intermediate conversations, climate change, WW2, and philosophy. The nice thing is he actually does a good job of making the stories and content interesting to an adult learner, unlike the children's books at Dollarama.
Even his beginner books might be a little too advanced for your level so far, though, from what you say. If they are, it'd be best to find some material at a lower level that you can understand a little better. After all, if it's too hard for you, it will make the process much slower and less enjoyable, which will make it much more likely that you quit. You could even simply try googling "french comprehensible input" to try to find material suitable for your level.
One last resource is the government of Quebec offers free in-person courses for immigrants and many French learners. They are part-time, and they offer multiple options for hours per week, so you could pick what works best for you. It would be worth checking to see if you might qualify for those courses once you move here.
I have been trying to learn French on and off for 7 years now, and I have learnt nothing. I have come to realise exactly what you said here. However, my interest in a particular brand of philosophy is cryptic enough when translated to English, which means I'll understand absolutely nothing when in its original French.
I will be sitting for classes with a personal tutor when I can (one of my goals for next year) to improve my skills in speaking and perhaps listening, alongside actually working on my French with a fixed curriculum. I still have absolutely no idea how people just learn to speak a language without vocabulary; what do they even say? How would I say "My team obliterated their opponents" when watching a football (soccer) match, when I hardly ever use the word anywhere else?
Would you happen to know any good books on Linux, Networking or Security written in basic French for a neanderthal like myself?
I love a specific type of French music, love reading what little I can in French, and yet, here I am languishing in misery and beating myself up because I just couldn't pick up the language. I hate it, but that is the truth.
Kudos for the great response!