If you'd like to learn French, here's an excellent resource: French Together with Benjamin

First, to cut to the chase: let me say I highly recommend Benjamin Houy as a language instructor, and his French Together course as a practical, inspiring, yet also increasingly challenging tool for learning, grasping, and communicating in the French language. If that’s all you want to know, and want to get to it, here’s a link: https://frenchtogether.com.

If you’d like to hear the backstory, and the why, please read on….

I don’t know Benjamin personally, and I don’t even remember how I found him or how he found me, but over the years, I’ve explored many different French courses and apps, with the hope of finally learning French, for real. Somewhere along the way I crossed paths with his newsletter and subscribed. I admittedly do not keep up with anyone’s newsletters, no matter how much I love them, but I do enjoy his, very much. I find them insightful and easy to read. Candid, open, offering a full and evolving range of information. Without fail, they share helpful information in a way that feels like it’s a personal coach reaching out and saying, “This is how you say…” and “This is what you do when….”

I had not communicated with Benjamin directly, but when I received an email from him, offering his course as a trial in exchange for an honest review on my website, I leapt at the opportunity. Sure, it was free — and I have been wanting, for years, to really learn French — but there’s also something about Benjamin’s approach that feels unusually accessible — and trustworthy. AND, he’s a native French speaker. I have enjoyed instructors who are not native speakers — but then have later realized just how off their accents were! The fact that he uses native French speakers for his audio recordings is both beneficial and reassuring.

My favorite part of the course is the listening, and finding that I can identify most words — but that if I cannot, even after hearing it several times, I can slow the audio. If I still cannot determine the words or phrases being used, I’ll look at the text. Once I see the word and its spelling, and understand the phonetics, it helps me recognize it later, when I hear it again. The course’s format also provides a terrific opportunity to practice pronunciation while also learning to formulate words and phrases in French.

But, regardless of how wonderful a course is, I cannot emphasize enough, how important it is to take even just 10 minutes a day, as Benjamin suggests, to maintain what I learn, and progress. JUST 10 MINUTES. As with anything else, consistency is crucial. Otherwise getting back to it takes days, then weeks, then months…. This has consistently been my biggest challenge, especially when my life is busy and I am working on deadline. But I have come to realize I should let myself take 10 minutes each day toward a cherished goal.

I should point out, I have studied French in the past, so it might have been easier for me to begin this course — but, with that said, I’ve also had other French courses in the past, and this one feels authentic and reliable in its approach, so I trust that, even if you’re a beginner, you’re in good hands. After all, Benjamin developed this course as a result of struggling to learn new languages himself. He has done the research and development, and experienced the trial and error.

If learning French is one of your dreams, I encourage you to connect with Benjamin. Read his newsletters. Take his course. Offer suggestions and ask him questions! He is amazingly responsive and dedicated to providing excellent instruction and service.

Enjoy!

#FrenchTogether #BenjaminHouy