I can't learn French in France!

My name is Chris and I teach at OuiCommunicate, a school that I started in 2018. We specialize in teaching French to adults.

The issue of not being able to learn French while living in France is a common one. We realize that there are multiple variables to learning French and that the task is harder than we thought.

Common problems include the fact that people speak too fast, that there is a lack of time to learn properly and that the French classes don’t seem well designed for speakers of English. In this article, I will explain exactly what is going wrong.

Step 1: Know thy self!

Who are you?

If you are like many of our students, you are an English-speaking person who lived in an English-speaking country with its traditions and ways of thinking. You went to school in a certain way and you developed ways of analyzing and of solving problems that were common to your country. (It takes no degree in anthropology to notice that the average French person is a tad more “philosophical” than the average American,)

in short, you have a certain language that makes up your identity. Language plays no small part in this either. They say that a language shapes our thinking and as a true bilingual myself, I can vouch for this: I don’t think in French as I do in English. I would even go as far to say that there is a personality change.

Again. who are you?

Looking into our identity as individuals will go a long way into understanding our learning issues. English is a language that functions according to certain language principles such as intonation. This is the way we “modulate” our message to shape how we want it to be perceived by others. It can also create “phrasal verbs” such as “knock out” in which we combine a verb with a preposition. These are just two examples among many.

Looking into our identity as individuals will go a long way into understanding our learning issues. English is our basis as learners. It is the language that shaped our notion of “normal” and that has programmed us as communicators. Especially on a subconscious level, it is our “highway code” for communication.

Step 2: The invisible obstacles

Language schools seem like the most normal thing in the world: “customer needs language” and goes to purchase one at one of those schools. Just as one would buy food to satisfy a hunger. It’s an action/reaction type of logic.

The truth is that it’s not so simple due to the multiple hidden variables unknown to the customer. “language school” in itself doesn’t meet much of a unified definition. It is commonly a building with classrooms, tables and chairs and a language specialist. To the outside observer, they all seem quite the same.

However, once we look into the structure of a school, we see it is not so simple. Why did the manager start a school? Are the teachers paid pro rata and are they outside contractors? How much freedom do they have with the programs? Does the manager speak every single language that is taught in the school, and if not how do they control quality? Do the teachers have any incentive to represent the school to the best of their ability? Is it a school designed to entertain or to get you to the level you want? How do you know they are able to do this? The list of unknowns is very long.

Further obstacles include the unseen dynamics within the language school. It should be known that “the best” French school in the world is seen by many as a handy way to get a badly paid job for immigration purposes. Long-term visa comes in and “au revoir” !

The classroom format seems to offer the promise of a group dynamic in which we “learn and progress” together but this is far from true. Speaking time is greatly reduced, as is the possibility of targeted feedback. The “one size fits all” format quickly becomes a group class for entertainment.

Lastly, there are the subconscious factors and pre-conceived ideas that shape our position towards learning. Humans are naturally attuned to ease and shortcuts. Learning thus presents itself as a disruption to the system, which will be opposed by our subconscious being. We start to lose focus, make excuses and jump ship to the next available learning method. What do you truly think about learning French? How achievable do you consider it to be? Do you measure it in months or years? Is your subconscious already making up excuses as to why you don’t have time this week?

Step 3: Know thy environment

There is such a thing as a “social aquarium” that defines the student and the teacher. As a speaker of English, you have lived for several decades in a certain social aquarium that has defined you culturally as a person. We mentioned already that this includes a certain academic tradition and the many subconscious factors surrounding your first language.

Now that you find yourself in France, you are in a different social aquarium. Your French teacher has equally been shaped to think about French in a certain way and to teach it in a certain way. And unless they have spent as many years as you have in your social aquarium, we can safely assume that they don’t know for sure where you come from. In other words, they don’t know what it’s like to be a speaker of English and they don’t share the same subconscious “language identity”.

We thus have two people from radically different backgrounds in a classroom, and one is going to tell the other about French without truly knowing how it feels to be a speaker of English approaching French.

A common problem with French teachers “from France” is the fact that their teaching is deeply rooted in a certain francophone tradition that makes sense to the French. In a sense, they cannot be anything else than they already are. They cannot become you, and can only remain French and teach it in a way that resonates with their own cultural background.

Not only are they not particularly aware of their bias, but neither are you. Their bias is unknown to you, and so is your own bias towards English. Indeed, the average learner of a foreign language has not spent time reflecting on their own first language to better understand where they come from. It is rather an automated influence that acts on a subconscious level. This equates to learning without knowing yourself as a learner and teaching without knowing the learner either.

The sense of confusion that speakers of English encounter in such French classes comes from an inability between teacher and learner to understand each other on a deeper level.

Step 4: Seeketh a solution !

Finding a suitable language teacher is like finding a good lawyer: hard, if you don’t know what you are looking for. They all seem to be equally well qualified and don’t have any distinguishable trait to help us in our decision. The fact that they know French as natives should be quite enough, in theory.

As it stands, there are 4 main choices a student can make when looking for a French teacher. (We will not mention the other variables such as the fact of representing someone else’s language school VS our own)

Option 1: A French teacher “from France” who is francophone through and through, and has no depth of understanding of your own background as a learner of French. They have never been a native speaker of English themselves and cannot know what it’s like. They rather teach French according to a francophone logic.

Option 2: A French teacher “from France” who has studied English as a second language at college level. This teacher would be a native speaker of French, qualified to teach languages and know your first language at a relatively advanced level, though they would still not be natives themselves.

Option 3: A native speaker of English who has become a French teacher. They would have the advantage of understanding you on a cultural level, and better still if they were college-trained to reflect upon English or French in an academic way. They wouldn’t fully know French at a native level, but they would have a fair idea of how French works.

Option 4: A native speaker of English and of French who understands you on a cultural and on linguistic level. This teacher would be university-qualified, they would be perfectly bilingual, and they would know French and English inside and out. This teacher would be able to teach English as a First and as a Second language and would be able to do the same for French. They would have knowledge of living in both “social aquariums” (English and French) and be able to bridge both languages and cultures together. Top marks!

This 4th solution is the one we propose at OuiCommunicate. As perfect native speakers of English and French, and university-qualified, we offer a cultural and linguistic understanding on the highest level.

The advantage of being understood as a speaker of English has the potential of making your journey easier since we know exactly what “makes sense” to you before you even start learning. We will know the reason for the errors and how to explain them to you in a way that resonates with your background. As specialists of English, we know the elements that shape your language map.

Although this is a considerable advantage, it should be known that other learning obstacles still remain. No vain promises shall you find here!

The subconscious factors such as a resistance towards learning, your own comfort towards self-discipline, your appreciation of learning myths, your background with language learning, your degree of self-belief, and many other factors will continue to play a role in the background. We should not believe for a second that we are sole captain on board. Our achievements as learners of French will continue to be shaped by forces we cannot see.

These influences make our kind of teaching all the more valuable perhaps. Any advantage that a learner may find should be welcomed amid a challenging road to French. Why indeed take on the extra obstacle of working with a “strictly French” teacher? It would start to look like an unnecessary detour and hurdle.

An article such as this could not hope to cover the extensive amount of factors that will get in the way of the learner of French, most of which are invisible to the non-specialist. Variables such as time commitment play a role too, as does the environment of the classroom which may not be the ideal place for learning to happen.

The best proof of all might be to look around for other expats who have achieved a good level of French. If none come forth, perhaps this article speak true.