Learning a new skill like a language can be very fun, and also differentiate you from your professional competition. Here is my story about how I learned French, and some tips on how to accelerate your learning.
Although I was able to learn French fast, it took me considerably longer to master speaking a foreign language. A lot of people think it is hard to learn how to speak French, but I’ve always had a sort of natural facility for languages. I grew up speaking German and English in my household, so I was already bilingual before I even tried speaking French. I actually started off pretty casually. I had a friend who was a native French speaker, and she agreed to be my conversation partner. Besides that, I used an online French course and some software that had been recommended to me. It definitely helped to master the basics in my spare time. I did not really have time to take another course at that moment, so it was nice to be able to learn the really simple stuff on my own.
Overseas courses
Still, I never mastered how to speak French until I finally took a course overseas. I did a study abroad program, staying in a French academy in Paris. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Learning to speak a foreign language is easy if you can really immerse yourself in the culture. When you have to know how to speak French just to get by, order food, or get directions, you can pick it up pretty quickly. The thing is, you don’t even really need to work on it that much. The desire to learn is so strong when you’re trying to immerse yourself in a culture that it comes almost naturally.
