How long would it take to learn French?
I'm Chris. French teacher at OuiCommunicate.
This question is often asked by people who are in a hurry to learn French.
Luckily, you are in one of the best places to answer this.
Here's what awaits you.
Who am I, and why should you trust me?
My name is Chris and I am a full-time professional language tutor. I have a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Literature. I also have a Post Graduate Certificate in Education that allows me to teach languages in high schools. I am qualified to teach in the USA (CT), Britain (QTS status) and Belgium.
I teach French and English as a first and a second language. I am qualified to teach German also.
I learned my first foreign language when I was 8 years old in Belgium. I then took 10 years of Dutch as part of my school curriculum.
I have the international standard TEFL certificate (teacher of English as a foreign language) and have worked with many learners of French and English.
I perfected my own knowledge of French by building a curriculum that contains over 30 hours of instructional video and 900 pages of exercise sheets.
Let's answer the question
How long does it take to learn French?
Let me tell you a quick story. When I was at university, I passed all my exams with the exception of German. The exam counted for double the credits because it was my major. In June I had “zero” marks and at my exam in August I scored 80%. I went from the state of knowing no German to passing a university exam and I did it in two months.
Would you have confused me with a real German? Of course not! but I knew the structure of German and how the language functioned. I had learned the mechanics of German as well as the key vocabulary.
Doing this in French is more than achievable provided you are using the right tool. Two months might be extreme but 6 months is a realistic goal.
The tool you use will be one of the most crucial elements – and it won’t be the one you think is most logical. For German I used an old grammar book given to me by the secretary of our faculty.
My learning went quickly because it was targeted. And believe me, I tried all the methods under the sun before that: conversation partners, watching old episodes of Derrick, watching Goodbye Lenin in a loop…. but only REAL learning got the job done.
Below: proof I went from "zero" to 16/20 at my exam.
What is "real learning" of French?
Because you are a novice to language learning, you will have to trust the opinions of others. Sadly, the overwhelming majority of these come from non-specialized sources and are pure “B-S”.
Google ranks the opinion of any teenage blogger who has a talent behind the pen, and Reddit or Quora contribute to even more noise. Go on Facebook and you will find it full to the brim with even more opinions on how people have tried for years and that the pronunciation is “oh-so-hard”.
(Yeah right, French pronunciation was actually my “icebreaker” – a fun activity I did with 8-year olds that took no more than 2 hours)
Real learning of French implies cutting out the noise and getting to the core of the language. Asking “what is French and how does it work?”
You must understand what we mean by “language” and see clearly into the mission ahead. You must see French as a tree with a trunk, some thick branches and very thin branches at the top.
Structure will be your best friend. A methodical approach to French with meaningful goals that serve a purpose and that resonate throughout the language. Avoid the hyper-targeted “how to order coffee?” – learn the big skills instead. Ordering coffee will be a point of detail later on.
A list of your biggest time wasters
1. Conversing with native speakers
Conversing with native speakers seems to make sense to a novice, but the fact is, you don’t walk away with anything quantifiable. It gives the illusion of learning and might even boost your confidence. I had as many as 8 partners for German, I never learned a thing. or at least nothing I could walk away with and say “I learned these things today”
2. Group classes
The simple reason all language schools encourage customers to buy group classes is not because they are “better”, but because otherwise they would only get money from one paying customer for every class. They’d rather pay the tutor for one hour and have income from 20 paying students for each hour.
These classes are great at projecting the “we’re all in this together” atmosphere, but the teacher quickly turns into an entertainer. These classes are not targeted and are not designed to help you learn French sooner than later. (I taught such classes myself and I know their limitations)
3. Films with subtitles
Every Youtuber you know rants about how well this works, but this method is akin to watching professional athletes do their sport and hope to extract knowledge from it. Do you exactly know what they are doing on the court?
When you watch such films, you have no idea what you are looking at on the level of the language. You have no context. And the mathematical chances of encountering (and understanding) all the foundational parts of French are extremely low.
4. The famous apps and websites
Think of it this way: what is the purpose of these big apps? Do you think Duolingo was made for anything else than to provide a game? Do you think that they had in mind a revolutionary solution to learn all the languages in the world?
The reason these apps are so widely used is precisely because they were built with volume in mind. Their structure had to be scalable and designed to be sold to the biggest common denominator.
5. Tutoring services
The issue with tutoring services is their shallow purpose: volume over quality. Typically, a savvy website builder constructs a platform on which freelance tutors work for a cut of their rates. The pyramid structure format is very common in the field of languages, and quality is in direct contradiction to the owner’s desire for volume.
You will never know their selection process for tutors or even if they have the ability to judge of a good tutor. (Most language platform owners are from completely unrelated fields – business being one of them)
6. Language tests
Language tests were invented by governments to establish the level of an expatriate. Some larger schools then became official testing centers, which then opened the floodgates to an abusive system.
Remember that a language test is not the same as language learning. It is the same difference as between driving your car and studying for the test.
If you walk away from this article with just one truth, know this
I am not implying that all language providers are out to get you, but the fact is that the field of language teaching is unregulated. You do not require any sort of diploma or ability to start a language school.
I have seen with my own eyes some well-intentioned French tutors who were bad and yet had immense Youtube followings. The reason for their success was because they provided the crowds with what they wanted. Instead of proposing knowledge, they echoed the uniniformed desires of the crowd.
A second truth you must know is that not every school was built with the same purpose in mind.
The learner of French who wishes to learn fast must find a school that was built for this purpose. It will require a particular structure and some specific tools. Your tutor will need experience and a university level in linguistics.
Each language school has different abilities and limitations. For example, I am unable to make learning French “fun” because I designed my resources with result in mind.
Can it be done?
The lady in this video is originally from NY and wished to learn French relatively quickly. I am pleased to say we achieved conversational level in less than 200 hours.
Today, she is fluent and happily lives in France where she meets new people and uses French daily.
i daresay that if we had to do it again, it would go even faster due to my improved resources and my experience.
A brief rundown of a typical language
When a novice starts out in a language they see a Jackson Pollock painting. Or rather they see “words” that are foreign and seem to make no sense. I was in the same position during my first year at university when some students handed me a pile of 50 pages of photocopies and say “this is the basic German vocabulary we must know”. I just saw words and didn’t know how to approach them.
A typical language has different types of words: verbs, prepositions, adverbs… which all have a different function and behave in a different way. By knowing what they do, how many there are, and how they are likely to behave is a first step to putting some order in our learning.
In the French sentence “Je m’appelle Chris” (my name is Chris), there are skills such as the relationship between sound and letter or the fact that in French we say “I call myself Chris”.
By putting this in context and understanding where it sits within the French language, we can gain a sense of perspective and understand where we are heading. Is this behaviour common in French? Is it an exception? Are there other phrases like this?
If I were to learn a new language starting tomorrow, I would first start by ordering the 8 types of words. I would then ask myself what the rules of pronunciation are, and how the tenses work. I would look for structure and a system.
Most languages have prepositions in them. These are words like “in, with, under, on, behind…” Once you know their full number and how they differ from English, you can accelerate your learning. Better still if you are working with an expert linguist who can guide you through this.
When I learned German in 2 months, this is what I had to do: understand the rules of the game of German. I needed to know how to pronounce it, how the tenses matched up with English, the order of the words, how to build a negative sentence and other similar skills. Playing with Duolingo or engaging in random chats would NOT have helped me pass ny exam.
Every language has types of words that play a role in the sentence. The sooner you learn this and understand the mechanics, the sooner you will learn French at a good level.
Lastly: the psychological element
A factor that we underestimate when learning a language is the psychological element. It comprises all the mental blocks, self-image and distorted views on language learning.
Before climbing a mountain, you might have an idea of what it represents until you’ve done it. You have now corrected the distortion between the truth and your idea. French is the same.
For example, you might think that French is overly easy, or on the contrary that it is unattainable.
When I learned German, I had to clear my mind of all negative self-talk and just face the language in a “clean slate” type of way. I opened my old grammar book and got to work.
A basic understanding of human psychology will have us know that humans hate change and they hate making an effort also. Many learners flake out, give up and never achieve French.
The little voice inside their head tells them they are no good at languages or that a different app would make their learning easier. They will convince themselves they have “no time”.
On this website, I propose a system that is designed to counter the effects of psychology: there is no way out. All that my students need to do is watch a video, complete a worksheet and show up at a class when they are ready to discuss their progress. It is infinitely simple and made to prevent any sort of escaping through the side door.
Bravo for reading this article!
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Let's Get It Done: Your Path to French in a Year.
Each Annual Plan includes full teacher support in addition to the classes
Course Description
Our annual plans combine Chris's proven year-long course material with the personalized coaching you need to master 90% of what truly matters in French.
Start Me Off in French ! – 420$ / 10 hours.
- 10 hours of close tutoring by video call with your bilingual French tutor.
- Covers the foundational aspects of French such as pronunciation, the present tense, greetings, asking questions, negative sentences, and more.
- Bilingual explanations from the point of view of a native speaker of English for a clearer understanding of French.
- Easy transition towards our Plan 1 for Beginners
Plan 1 – Beginners – 349$/year.
- Full Access to Chris’s Year-Long Course: Over 30 hours of video instruction & 900+ pages of PDF worksheets guiding you step-by-step through French.
- 20 x 20-minute Personalized Coaching Sessions with Chris: Book these flexible 1-on-1 sessions when you’re ready to apply what you’ve learned and get direct feedback.
- Unlimited Human Support: Chris is available anytime for questions between sessions.
- Your Path to 90% Fluency: Master the essentials and build a strong foundation in just one year.
Plan 2 – Advanced – 325$/year.
For Intermediate Learners Ready to Refine & Speak More Naturally
- Full Access to Chris’s Year-Long Course: Includes all 30 hours of video instruction & 900+ pages of PDF worksheets (same as Plan 1).
- 6 Hours of Personalized Coaching & Conversation with Chris: Focus on advanced conversation, specific challenges, or targeted fluency practice. Use these hours as you wish.
- Unlimited Human Support: Get your questions answered directly from Chris.
- Consolidate & Excel: Take your existing French skills to the next level of natural, confident communication.
Plan 3 – Just our videos – 50$/year.
Access Chris’s Full Video Course – No Coaching Required.
- Access Chris’s Full Video Course – No Coaching Required
Full Access: Use all 30 hours of our condensed video instruction as your main source or as a powerful complement to other learning methods.
- Ideal for: Self-starters, those using other apps/textbooks, or learners seeking extra structured explanations.
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