How I Learned French in 9 Months

For full disclosure, I did take 3 years of French in high school...but most of it didn't stick. A fair amount of my ancestry is French, with some of my ancestors being amongst the first French settlers in Quebec during the 17th century. Despite being born in the U.S., my grandpa's first language was French due to having a French-Canadian mother, and he didn't learn English until he was forced to in kindergarten. My dad studied in France for a while and learned French before he was my age, and my grandpa still has several relatives still living in Quebec. My maternal great-grandfather, also, was from Quebec, so there's a whole lot of French going on in my family. It was this family history and identity that motivated me to learn the French language, and I know that that was the main motivator for me to learn it so quickly.

I stayed in the 7th arrondissement in Paris for 9 months as an au pair, from the fall of 2017 to the summer of 2018. It was utter hell, and traumatic for several reasons—but I stayed to learn French. It had been a goal since childhood to learn this language, and I wasn't going to let one terrible job stop me from doing so. Thankfully, and obviously, living in France gave me daily opportunities to practice speaking French, interacting with locals, and learning more about the culture. I was also required as an au pair to take 9 hours of French classes each week, so that definitely kicked the French-learning into high gear. I had no choice but to speak French, in more ways than you think.

The French boys I looked after spoke little to no English, so if I wanted to tell them not to cross the street; to hold my hand when crossing a busy road; and to tell them not to touch something—I had to know how to say it in their language, otherwise a serious injury could occur, or they'd just continue to be dicks. It's already difficult caring for children in your own language, but start caring for children who speak a different language than you, and the stakes are raised tremendously. If they don't understand you yelling at them to move out of the way when a biker is speeding towards them, you're both fucked. When children's lives are possibly at risk while out and about—especially in a big city—your motivation to learn the local language is necessary.

If you live in the U.S. like me, it's not that easy to find French people to practice with. In France, they were obviously everywhere, so you had daily practice to sharpen your vocabulary recall and remember your conjugations. It's not so easy here in Southern California, and maybe your motivation isn't as dire as keeping a child alive, but you can certainly find what that motivation is. Without your "why", learning a new language will be all the more difficult. I would love to learn Russian, but I don't have a strong "why" (it's mostly because I just want to read posters from the Russian Revolution). Learning French to me means connecting to my family history, making myself more marketable for jobs, and fulfilling a life-long goal. Find your "why", and remember it every time you practice your new language of choice.

This coming year, I want to make the effort to learn German. There's a fair bit of family ancestry coming from Austria, so I'd love to make that familial connection as well. I spent 4 days in Vienna with my sister 2 years ago, and I wished that I had known German so I could speak with the locals and have stronger interactions. I walked through the city knowing that some of my ancestors were born and raised in this country, and maybe had walked around the very spaces I stepped foot on. It's an amazing privilege to know where you come from, and speaking the language(s) of your roots can be a powerful feeling of carrying on your family's heritage.

With whatever language you choose to learn, make it matter to you. Know why you want to learn it, and keep that at the forefront of your mind as you look through textbooks, listen to audio in the language, and meet up with a native speaker. It's a major accomplishment to learn a new language, and helps you gain better perspective on the variety of cultures in our world, and how several languages are connected. Isn't that cool?!

Good luck on your language journey—tell me what language you're learning!