Vegemite Croissant

We’re still plugging away at learning French ourselves, but we’ve hit upon some very good websites and ideas in our efforts to learn.

So, I thought I’d share some resources I’ve put together about learning French:

• Twitter French Teachers List – This list of Twitter users is hand-picked to ensure almost every tweet in the list is teaching you French. Most of the accounts listed are dedicated to teaching French with every tweet. The only account which isn’t entirely dedicated to teaching you French is @lkl, but since she’s the about.com French teacher, she’s pretty valuable to the list when she does tweet about French (and the rest of the time she’s usually talking about French food or culture, so it’s all good).
• @FrenchMot (and @FrenchMotEncore for repeats) – This is my own dedicated Twitter account for teaching/learning French. Obviously, I’m a learner and I might get things wrong, but I try to keep it simple and I check things pretty thoroughly before I post. If you’re interested, I have also written a guide on how to maintain a dedicated educational Twitter account (and why).
• Spreadsheet of @FrenchMot words – Just in case you want to use the @FrenchMot words to create a set of Flashcards, I also add the words to this spreadsheet. This spreadsheet of flashcards is also available in the awesome Android flashcard app, GFlash+.
• French Learning Links – Every time I find a useful website about learning French, I save it in Delicious and tag it appropriately. All my favourite French learning links are in this list, which will continue to grow. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed of my favourite French learning links if you like. The RSS feed can be very useful to add to your Netvibes or iGoogle page for learning French.
• Books on learning French – I compulsively note down any good French textbooks I hear about in Goodreads. This list has all of those, plus a few good books on the process of learning French. It’s best to view the list in “Covers” view.
• Free eBooks on learning French – This is a subset of the previous list, showing just the books available as free eBooks. Some are Creative Commons works, while others are now in the public domain.
• French novels as free eBooks – Learn French by reading some of the best novels written in French! These are mainly books that are old enough to now be in public domain. Some of them are only available with an English translation, but many of them have the French version online too.
• Listen to French novels as audiobooks – Some of the aforementioned French novels in the public domain have been recorded as free audiobooks by the LibriVox project. If you can listen to the French audiobook while reading the text of the French novel, it can really help to improve your French.

I highly recommend these great free ideas for learning French, from the obvious to the unexpected:

• using buddy-finding websites to find a language exchange partner for Skype chats or in real life
• checking your DVDs to see if you can watch the movie/TV series in French
• listening to French radio stations online
• reading French blogs and news that will teach you French
• reading and listening to public domain novels written in French
• free PDF ebooks of French textbooks (or going to your local library!)
• practise pronunciation by reading French news aloud
• playing a French mudd
• change the language settings of your games to French
• use French chat rooms and IRC channels
• watch French lessons or random French stuff on Dailymotion (lots of French users here) or YouTube
• use online flashcard services to increase your vocabulary
• listening to French lessons via free podcasts.

If you don’t mind spending a little money, there are also plenty of good books, audio lessons and online French lessons you can also use to learn French. I’d also suggest reading French graphic novels, bilingual books and French movies with subtitles on.

I hope these resources and ideas can help you in your efforts to learn French – Good luck!