How to learn french?

[leoo]

Hi.
What would be the best way to learn french in the shortest time to B2. please recommend courses and any advice.
I have 6-7 hours per day to learn french and I am ready to learn intensively.
I live in France aswell.
Thank you in advance

[emk]

I made it from an A2 in French to a B2 in 4 months of full-time study.

Intensive courses. The Alliance Française in Paris has several accelerated, in-person courses that might be worth a look. Here's one for total beginners and one that starts at A1. I've never taken either of these courses, but they have 72 hours of class a month, which is a good sign. Also, when considering an intensive French school, ask them how many of their students get a passing grade on the DELF B2 (or a score of at least B2 on the TCF), and how long this typically takes for dedicated students. The nice thing about the DELF B2 is that if you can pass it, you actually have a pretty decent understanding of French. So any school which can reliably produce passing students is probably doing something right.

Self-study. Assimil French or the excellent older Assimil New French with Ease will get you to A2 in 5 months of consistent study, putting in 20-40 minutes per day. It's reliable and effective. But I've never tried to accelerate it by doing 6 hours per day. Maybe someone here knows a good rhythm for doing that? French in Action had a good reputation once upon a time. The old FSI courses can be a bit brutal, and I don't enjoy them personally, but they absolutely work, and they were designed to be part of a 45 hour/week curriculum. And definely see iguanamon's post on the "multitrack approach."

Once you hit the A2 level, I could offer you lots of advice on moving fast. But one key part of making very rapid progress is having a mix of activities, some of which you focus on when you're fresh, and others which you can do when you're brain-fried. When I was working towards B1 and B2, here was my mix:

1. When fresh (2 hours/day). 30 minutes 3x per week conversational practice with a tutor for DELF B2 prep. Writing 50-100 words a day and getting them corrected. Making Anki sentence cards by copying sentences from interesting electronic sources, and looking up stuff I didn't know.
2. When fried. Watching Buffy in French. Reading books or online news articles. Listening to French music.
3. When standing in line or otherwise waiting. Reviewing Anki cards, 20-40 minutes per day.

Your activities would be different, especially if you're starting from scratch. But the general principle is that you should be spending a lot of time doing things in French, and that you need to match the intensity of the activity to your energy level. But I always liked Khatzumoto's rule of thumb (paraphrased): "Am you looking at English right now? Listening to English? Then fix that." The secret to moving fast is to put yourself in a position where learning is the easiest way to thrive. This is why total immersion with people who speak zero English tends to work so well, even if you have no real courses or instruction.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to create a language log and ask questions!

[Cainntear]

Hi.
What would be the best way to learn french in the shortest time to B2. please recommend courses and any advice.
I have 6-7 hours per day to learn french and I am ready to learn intensively.
I live in France aswell.
Thank you in advance

Something I recommend only to native English speakers (and say here because your profile says you're a native speaker) is to start with the Michel Thomas courses (Foundation and Advanced -- I'm not a fan of the Vocabulary course. The Builder/Masterclass is probably worth doing too, though.)
It gives an extremely good coverage of the core grammar in a very short space of time. The biggest issue with it is that you'll find other stuff boring because the usual thing is to teach lots of words before grammar, but you'll just have to put up with spending more time than needed on introductions of things you already know.

I can't say for sure, but I suspect the Assimil French course would be a good companion, because it should introduce a lot of words and revise quite a bit of the grammar you do with MT.

So my rough idea would be...

Start MT French foundation.
When a few CDs in (maybe about halfway through), then start the "passive wave" of Assimil French, to take a bit of a break from heavy thinking, and switch back and forth whenever feels right.
My goal would be to have the Assimil course functioning as a vocabulary thing, by not really doing any new grammar in it (but there will be grammar points that will be incidentally introduced as there will be fixed phrases that turn up using them -- this shouldn't be a problem though).

I would also say that it can be a bit weird moving straight from MT Foundation to MT Advanced, as the two courses were done at different times with different students. That means that there are gaps in the courses and much repeated content, because the advanced students came in knowing things that had been taught in Foundation, and not knowing things that had.
This can be a bit easier to take if you leave a bit more time between the Foundation and Advanced course and do something else instead... like more of the Assimil (or even Duolingo, if you must*). You may well see some stuff that fills the gaps and with stuff that's repeated, it'll feel more like revision anyway.

[* Duolingo is really not a great thing for learning quickly. But one of my biggest issues with it is that it is so bad at teaching grammar that it has tried to overcompensate by teaching a lot of words. But doesn't even do that well. But at least it does it. So if you're taking a break from serious study, it's always an option. You'll probably find that it expects you to know very little grammar, so it'll keep repeating stuff that you find trivially easy. But words... so... yeah, maybe.]

[tastyonions]

Good responses. Going through both Assimil and Michel Thomas thoroughly should get you well on the way.

[Le Baron]

Being in the country is different than learning outside the TL country. However you'll have to do some kind of course to get moving. I can't say I would recommend bothering with Michel Thomas, but that's my prejudice. There's not enough push in his courses to meet your requirement of "in the shortest time to B2".

And that requirement... the shortest time might be longer (or shorter) depending on so many factors. If you have the financial means, get yourself into an intensive French course in France. Luckily the French are so serious about foreigners learning French that they have put a huge amount of effort into preparing both materials and methods. You'll be among other students making the same journey and not simply confronted with all native speakers speaking at top speed and making you feel overwhelmed. Even though you'll need to work hard, you'll be guided so you don't inadvertently waste time.

If you can only go the self-study route, I agree Assimil will help you get going. They're good courses. However consider also one of the all-French Methodes de français/Cours de français as soon as you're able to engage with them. There's also much work to be done outside of the courses. Since you're in the country I assume you want to speak, so prepare for this as soon as you feel you're able to. Also listen, listen, listen. To as much as you can, whenever you can. Listen to people talking on the bus, in the street, in shops, on the TV. Relate this as much as you can to your learning. Read as much as you can. Slowly transition yourself to living in the language. Refer to the elements of your daily life in French (Je me lève, je prends mon petit-déjeuner... je me dirige vers la gare... etc.).

Good luck.

[Cainntear]

I should also have added...

If and when it comes to in-person classes, don't be surprised if nothing really seems at your level -- there will be lots of things in any class you don't know, and lots of things you do.

Don't be afraid to take on a course that might look too hard on paper. You're likely to be working harder than any of the other students, so very well placed to catch up in your out-of-class time.

Also, long-term students of the school are likely to be accepted onto courses that they're really not ready for anyway, because asking them to retake a class would make the school look bad. It's therefore quite unlikely that the lessons will ever go quite as far as they set out to do.

So yeah... see what the highest level they'll let you in at after self-study is, and all else being equal... go for it.

[badger]

Hi.
What would be the best way to learn french in the shortest time to B2.

Légion étrangère ?

[jeffers]

Hi.
What would be the best way to learn french in the shortest time to B2.

Légion étrangère ?

Getting sent to prison in France might work even better!

[Le Baron]

Ne lâche pas le savon !

[Ug_Caveman]

$ curl f t p ://my_brain/French_B2