Why Is French So Difficult? | FRENCH FRIDAYS

[@ReganShorter]

Hey everyone! I ended up uploading this today, on Thursday, rather than the normal Friday. (Just ignore my personal ramblings about days in the video!) I have a link to French is Beautiful in the description. Make sure to visit her page! And if you're also learning French, I want to hear about it. Like any skill, I think it's easy to see a lot of progress at the beginning. But as progress becomes slower and it takes longer to build new skills, it can be really frustrating!

[@youngwolf1009]

Regan Shorter Keep going !

[@marie-aimeedaronnat5152]

Very interesting video ! I think we never stop learning a language...I'm french but there's still a lot of things that I don't know about my mother tongue ! :) Toi et tous les gens qui apprennent/ont appris le français êtes très courageux, ce n'est vraiment pas une langue facile (les français la parlent et l'écrivent mal bien souvent) ! ^^ J'aime beaucoup tes vidéos, c'est vraiment intéressant de voir ce que des gens d'autres pays pensent de nous, ça permet une prise de conscience ! :)

[@ReganShorter]

That's true! Even native speakers have things they can learn too. It's the same for me in English! I'm particularly fond of slang and idioms. Merci bien pour ton commentaire... Ça me fait heureuse! À mon avis, l'apprentissage des langues démande un peu de la vulnérabilité.

[@baileygirl99]

Learning French is such a process! I've taken 5 years now (4 in high school, and I'm finishing up my first year of college French courses now). I feel like it was a lot easier at the beginning, when I was just learning vocab and absorbing information about grammar and such, but now that I'm in a more advanced level class, I'm finding myself at walls where I make little progress. I hate being at the point where I can say "I speak French!" But I'm not confident enough to speak it fluently, so I feel like I can't really say that I have that skill, you know? Also, I haven't studied abroad yet, so I'm hoping that if I ever get the chance then my French skills will improve! My main problem with lack of progress is how little French I speak on a daily basis; I really wish we spoke other languages more often in America than just English! Great job with this video, good chat!

[@ReganShorter]

I agree! The grammar becomes more subtle the further you advance as well. After living there, I'm much better at listening comprehension and getting the 'gist' of what is being said. I've always been a perfectionist, and that's what held me back from speaking. I had to give that up during study abroad because my host family ONLY spoke French. There was no way to communicate if I was too afraid to speak. I totally know what you mean about not feeling good enough to tell someone you speak it! I still struggle with that today. I want to start learning Spanish as well. Where I live it's much easier to find people who speak Spanish than French!

[@bozzohlecloune1071]

My advise would be do not try to speak French fluently

[@bozzohlecloune1071]

French really is a difficult language. The grammar is awful. Most French people don’t speak perfectly French. Not to say about the writing. Therefore the first aim is trying to communicate and be understood. One of the paths of the learning journey is to read French. Do not hesitate to start with books for children. Reading is also key for us Froggies to speak and write properly our own language. Another path is to watch TV series or movies with subtitles, in English first, afterward in French (if available). This will give you a good hint on how French is actually spoken and educate your ear on it. Bon courage et félicitations pour vos efforts.

[@joshchotiner]

Tu me manques, Regan! J'ai adoré. Pour ma part, je suis tout à fait d'accord avec toi sur l'idée que, c'est quand on ne se focalise pas sur les progrès qu'on fait, on avance plus. Par contre, je voudrais y rajouter quelque chose : je dirais que cela permet d'avancer surtout quand on a déjà un certain niveau. Je pense que la grammaire est très importante, même si elle n'est pas très marrante à apprendre. Et les bases doivent être apprises en première (mon avis personnel). Notamment, je pense que la grammaire s'apprend le mieux en étudiant de manière très active et engagée. Par contre la fluidité, la confiance, et (dans une certaine mesure) le vocabulaire peuvent s'apprendre sans qu'on n'y fasse forcément très attention. Moi j'ai gagné beaucoup en capacité communicative depuis que je suis en France, et il n'y a rien de tel que l'immersion totale pour ça, mais je trouve que ça m'a beaucoup plus aidé à apprendre des nouvelles expressions, de nouveaux mots, et surtout des références relatives à la culture que des points grammaticaux qui m'étaient inconnus. Heureusement que j'avais bien appris au lycée, à la fac, et quand j'ai fait mon échange à Aix en Provence. Bon, tout ça pour dire que je trouve toujours que l'apprentissage d'une langue comporte tout aussi bien une partie active qu'une partie passive. Le truc, c'est d'apprendre à équilibrer le côté études assidues et le côté experience pratique, tout en joignant l'utile à l'agréable. Sinon, je suis content de revoir une de tes vidéos dans mon fil d'actualité ! J'espère que tout se passe bien pour toi, et on doit s'organiser un Skype bientôt !

[@ReganShorter]

Ohhhh la grammaire! Quand j'étais au lycée, je l'adorais. Mais aujourd'hui... pas du tout. Je suis d'accord qu'il y a un équilibre entre les deux. (Fluency vs accuracy!) Je retournerai à Sainté cet été!

[@lisasmith1798]

Love your videos I just stared my French journey and its driving me crazy. For example on can mean you or we! . Like are you talking about us or to that person I’m so confused I guess its all about context!! Anywho I think my English brain is getting in the way.

[@ReganShorter]

Yea, "on" is confusing and convenient! I typically only use nous when writing. It's convenient because you need to memorize fewer verb endings for speaking though!

[@jackpote1094]

Hi Regan, if you're still curious about this question, have a look to this article : www.sociolinguistique.fr/cours-5-3.html Most of french people don't know or partially about that, even if everyone has a personal opinion ;) I found that after my first spanish lessons : how one language can be so convenient and the other so confusing ?! Thanks for your videos

[@BakiPrOfficial]

Your vids are very interesting! Je suppose que tu parle français vus le temps que tu a passé en France :) D'ailleurs j'ai une petite question pourrai tu faire un jour une vidéo pour nous les petits parisiens qui te regarde, pour parler des difficultés des français à apprendre l'anglais :p ? Peux être que tu auras du buzz sur le youtube français qui sais haha 😂

[@ReganShorter]

Haha c'est une bonne idée!

[@arwaqurni3779]

I learned French for 4 years and I can't speak fluently because I don't have French friends or people speak french and everyone around me speaks my native language which is Arabic . i'm really having a hard time to improve my french languge so i'm thinking to move to france after 5 months .

[@sblog4409]

Well,iam here

[@dcllaw677]

Surely not so difficult as Chinese, Japanese or Arabic? Or am I mistaken?.

[@aminm7714]

David I speak French, English and arabic and I think that arabic is the hardest language of them all.

[@motomark790]

You are mistaken.

[@kevinjoseph2650]

for a english person french is not the most difficult but it certainly the most diffiultt romance language

[@cardiyansane1414]

I can’t speak , can’t form a sentence... but at least I can understand a bit when others are speaking. I’ve been studying for 1 month now ...

[@ReganShorter]

For 1 month that's really impressive!

[@sakuraclow1486]

It's very interested

[@youngwolf1009]

I'm from algeria and my country is culturaly close to france so for me it's one of the easiest languages in the world ! Arabic is my mother tongue, french is my second language and now i'm learning english and spanish lol #TheGirlWhoToldThePeopleAboutHerLife

[@ReganShorter]

That's amazing! Arabic is one of the most challenging languages, right? I love your dedication to so many different languages. I'd like to start learning Spanish as well.

[@youngwolf1009]

Regan Shorter You might find Arabic difficult in the proncounciation but it's more simple than french for exemple you only have past and present for the verbs comparing to French ( Participe passé, plus que parfait ) and all that lol Learning French will help you a lot if you want to start Spanish cause these languages are very similar :)

[@desiputtar89]

Is learning English easier for you?

[@BulmaDiosa]

Hola que bonita eres señorita

[@dcllaw677]

Surely not comp