How long do I need to study French? Come inside for a week
";Let me answer with what we did in September. We spent the month working on one word: le temps. Time.
You might think we would run out of things to say about it rather quickly. By the end of the month, I estimated that the structures we had worked on could produce around 2,000 different phrases once learners put their own lives into them.
Nobody had to learn 2,000 phrases. The surprising thing was how much they could say by working closely with one word.
So what did that work ask of them? A good starting guide is about 25 minutes on three occasions each week. That gives you time to watch a short tutorial and spend around 15 minutes writing your own examples. Roughly 75 minutes across the week, at times that suit you.
Here is what happens inside The French Room.
Why spend a month on one word?
The words I choose come from research into high-frequency French. Jacqueline Picoche identified 907 words of particular value to learners, drawing on Etienne Brunet's work on word frequency. We work with one of those words for a month and look at it from different angles.
With le temps, we could talk about having time, taking time, how long something takes and how much time is left. Along the way, we dealt with grammar, pronunciation and French word order because those questions came up in the phrases we wanted to use.
That is quite different from looking at the word "time", writing le temps next to it and moving on.
3 short tutorials a week
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I add a new tutorial about the month's word. I call these Rendez-Vous Tutos. Each one introduces another way to understand or use that word, and most are under ten minutes.
You have access to everything I record and post. There is a replay and a PDF for each Tuto, so you can follow as they arrive or make your own study times later in the week. If you use The French Room app, you can set learning reminders too.
Suppose a Tuto gives you prendre le temps de, "to take the time to". I might say:
J'ai pris le temps de boire mon cafe tranquillement ce matin.
That tells you something about my morning. What would you put there to tell me about yours? Perhaps you took the time to call someone, go for a walk or finish a job you had been putting off.
You can begin with the structure I have shown you, then make a sentence you are likely to need again.
Your notebook does a lot of the ground work
I guide you in taking notes for yourself. In the Tutos, I suggest specific things you can do with the word: phrases to try, details to change and questions to explore. You write down the words, phrases and grammar you want to keep, try them in your own sentences and build a bank that is specific to you.
I call this working notebook your Cahier. Cahier is simply French for notebook. It can contain crossed-out attempts, questions and phrases you have returned to several times. It is there to help you use your French, not to look immaculate.
Allow around 15 minutes with your Cahier for each Tuto as a guide. You might do that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, or save some of the writing for the weekend. That is how the three short tutorials become more than three things you watched.
And if you want to speak?
You can bring the word you have been working with into a Live Group Class, where you listen, respond and find out which phrases you can reach for in conversation. New learners can join a group at half-term or at the start of a new term, subject to a suitable place being available. You can see current class availability here. The class adds its own time to your week.
Voice Mastery Studio bookends your French week rather neatly. On Monday, I set a short Voice Task built around the month's word, usually a two or three line dialogue. The recording itself takes about 20 seconds, and you can submit it during the week. On Friday, I send you written feedback: what is working, one thing to refine, and something to carry into your Cahier.
You may spend longer preparing or recording again. That time is yours to choose, so I have not included it in the 75-minute guide.
What if you are reading this long after September?
Le temps may be a distant memory by the time you find this article. We may be deep into an entirely different word. You can join the current one without having to catch up on every word that came before it.
The Tutos on le temps have not disappeared. At the end of each month, that word's tutorials move into the Vocabulary Library inside the Bonjour Brilliance self-study membership. You can visit them when you need them. There are also Libraries for Grammar, Listening, Pronunciation, Reading and Practical French, so you can follow a question that comes up in your own work.
That is my answer to "how long do I need to study French?" You could begin with about 25 minutes for each of three Tutos this week. I will provide the word and guide you through it from different angles. You bring your own life to the phrases and write down the French you want to be able to use.
Try a free month inside The French Room.
If you would like to join the Tutos as I record them live, the UK times are Monday 5.45pm, Tuesday 4pm and Wednesday 5.45pm.
The quick answer to "how long should I study French a day" is probably as much as you can, in an as immersive environment as you can find.
But the reality for most of us, is that learning French is not going to be our full-time occupation, so the real question is how much French study is enough to get me to my goals?
So, what is your goal? Are you aiming to become the next French literary sensation, do you want to be the life and soul at the next French party you attend or do you just want to order your coffee and not have the waitress reply to you in English?
How you answer that question is going to give you some idea as to how long you will need to study French a day.
What is French study?
I've never really thought about any of my language learning as study. Apart from, that is, when I was learning at school.
The rest has been a largely joyous discovery of how this wonderfully intriguing language works.
"That's easy for you to say;" I hear you mutter at the screen; "you lived in France". True, but that was back then when you could only access French by either being in the country, sitting in a language lab (basically wired up to a tape recorder) or diligently work your way through a text book or two.
It is now completely possible to immerse yourself in French wherever you live. And to discover the language how ever feels most interesting and inviting to you at that particular moment in time.
The ways you can learn are only limited by your imagination. You can watch French TV and films with or without subtitles, set the replay speed to something that feels comfortable. play back over a tricky section of speech over and over again. Read a newspaper, watch a youtube tutorial, level up on Duolingo. I could go on and on.
And none of these options feels particularly like study.
How the learning cycle works
The learning cycle is fairly well-defined as input (discover and understand something new), trial in controlled environments (think stabilisers), revisit and refine original understanding and then start to apply in random, increasingly difficult and uncontrolled environments.
There's no specific timescale for a cycle to complete and stages along the way can be repeated many times before progressing to the next level of difficulty. And with a language, the subject has infinite levels so you never actually finish learning. The exploration just goes on and on with increasing attention to detail and finesse.
What we know about spaced learning
If we think of our language discovery as being much like building a house, with a strong foundation and bricks to build up to the floors above,, then we can accept a few things about learning a language. The first, is that the laying the foundations bit is hard work, slow and doesn't look like much in terms of progress from the outside.
The second, is that as the bricks are laid, the mortar needs time to dry between each laying. And acquiring new skills and knowledge is the same. As each layer of new information is discovered, so it needs time to settle in and be absorbed by the brain.
So, short, regular sprints of learning are more solidifying than one long marathon.
How long should I study French a day?
2. Intervals of learning are more productive than long sessions.
3. Typically an interval is about 15 minutes long.
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