Learning French as a British expat in Belgium
Hi, I'm Chris. Head teacher at OuiCommunicate.
We're home to speakers of English who wish for a step up from traditional French classes.
I'm a Brit and a Belgian. I lived in Belgium for 30 years, then the UK, and now the US.
I've been coaching expats in French since 2018.
I hope this article will shed some light on some common problems and how to solve them!
Addressing the problems one by one
1. French pronunciation is hard
I understand why someone would think that. Problem is, it’s one of those things that is repeated on social media by students and teachers alike until it becomes true. The fact is, there are many factual and linguistic reason why French is much easier than English. And I really mean “much”! It is made hard to you by teachers who only have French as a native language and don’t quite understand where you are coming from. In our classes we cover French pronunciation in less than a hour. It’s that straightforward.
2. French grammar!
In the English-speaking culture grammar isn’t a “thing” in school, which is why it seems very foreign when taking French classes. This has to do with the structure of English but also with the teaching culture. I taught English GCSE and A Level and apart from a few homophones (whose/who’s) and split infinitives, the program is quite light. Of course, you have to (also) be a QTS English teacher to know these things which I am. Different tools for different languages!
3. It sounds all muddled
People say “When I speak French it sounds nothing like the natives and it’s all muddled”. The reason is that there are stages in language learning. Everything in life we do as beginners is slower than when we are experienced. At the moment, your brain is finding it hard to process sound waves and turning them into information at top speed. Also, “speaking” is not the be all and end all of a language. There are many other construction blocks that you can work on than just speaking.
4. French conjugation
This is perceived as being hard by speakers of English and too academic. Again, there are cultural and linguistic reasons for this. The structure of English makes it a language you can just repeat. In school in the UK, we never speak about conjugation because what is there to speak about? Then again you wouldn’t have spoken about “declensions” as we have in German? We have to accept that French is a conjugation-based language. Conjugation is simply the fact of explaining how verbs behave in different tenses.
7. No time to learn!
This one makes sense. And just as francophones can’t think as non-francophones, so do a lot of teachers find it hard to think outside of their tradition. Selling you a language by the hour will fail because it’s the wrong unit of measure. In those 60 minutes, you barely learn 2 minute’s worth of French. We favour 20 minute classes that go straight to the essentials, but only when you’ve done some learning at home. The program is on this website and available 24/7.
5. My classes didn't work
This is not a problem specific to Belgium, but rather worldwide. 99,99% of all French classes are taught by francophones who happen to be quite bad at thinking as non-francophones. This is why they teach you French in a way that makes sense to them as francophones. If your francophone teacher doesn’t have a full native view on your English, they simply can’t know where your difficulties lie. And they will also miss a lot of mistakes simply because they don’t understand why you are making them.
8. It takes years!
First we must define “what” takes years. Speaking like a native? Yes, certainly. However, you can realistically learn all you will need in 90% of all your French interactions in less than a year. A language is built on a skeleton. You need to know this skeleton to be able to later improve your French and take it where you want. We have a 40-class plan in which we actually tell you which topics you need to know. Learn them and…know them! It ‘s so simple it’s child’s play!Â
6. Speaking VS learning
Do you know what the Number 1 cause of not knowing something is? It’s simply to not have learned it. A lot of English speakers are culturally more pragmatic and want to go straight to speaking. But what will always happen (100% accuracy here) is that they will develop a “foreigner’s French” that will frustrate them even more. They believe in a thing called “key sentences” as if we could just learn “Donnez-moi un croissant” to “survive” with the essentials. This approach will fail because we must learn the underlying structure of French.
9. French is so hard
Think of the curve of a bell. English and French have different curves. Whereas the entry into English is very easy at first, it hits a wall later on because English is like a little club that is fully understood only by natives. French on the other hand is harder at first because there is some learning to do. But when you understand the logic of French, you can then fly. I wouldn’t say the same of German, which still remains airtight 10 years down the line. Trust me, French is a very inclusive club!
If your French teacher doesn't quite "get" you
If you need flexible bookings
Try an English-to-French bilingual school
We can make your life easier!
1. Who are we?
It’s nice that a teacher be a native speaker of the language they teach, it’s better if they also speak yours as a native. Press play to learn about our bilingual teaching of French.
There’s so much depth to this website, we think it’s easier to show a video than to try to lay it all out in pictures and in writing. This is why we deliver results: no more grey zones!
