Everything I know about learning French, in one place.
Before you dive in, know this: you can learn French to fluency as an adult. I'm slow, I started late, and I did it anyway. This page is everything I'd charge you for, free.
The first thing I was ever good at.
I was an average student in India. I didn't ace aptitude exams or rank first in my class, and I never saw myself as someone who was good at anything.
Then I started getting better at French, and for the first time I had that feeling. It changed my self-image, then it changed my life: I moved to France, learnt the language to fluency, and started my career in data here.
Foreigners who reach that level are rare enough that I got to give a TEDx talk about it and appear on Easy French's YouTube channel.
On Easy French, speaking with people on the street.
I'll tell you the number: I started in 2009.
Yes, I'm slow. Everyone is. Between engineering school, a first job and moving abroad, nobody gets to work on just one thing.
I find it more honest to count hours than years. In engineering school I spent a few unorganised hours a week on French. That gave me the base to hit the ground running when I landed in France.
- 2009First lessons, a few hours a week during engineering school in India
- 2016Landed in Lille for my master's, with comic-book French
- C2Sat the highest French exam there is
- 39/402026 civic exam for the French nationality
"How I", not "how to".
There's no single right way to learn French. These are my experiments: pick the ones that suit you, drop what doesn't, and replace it with something that works for you. The fastest way to find yours is to try what worked for someone else.
How I prepared for the French nationality
The file, the B2 French, the interview and the civic exam.
Read the guide →How I improved my pronunciation
Ears and mouth first: talking to myself, recording myself, copying accents.
In FrenchMesh →How I enriched my vocabulary
Phrases, not words: the two lists I use every day.
In FrenchMesh →How I improved my listening
Squeezing one podcast or one scene dry, every day, until it's all mine.
In FrenchMesh →How I prepared for the C2 exam
What the highest level actually tests, and how I trained for it.
Coming soon
The whole method, in one handbook.
FrenchMesh: from comic-book French to working in French, 20 minutes a day.