Creative French Language Learning - 4 Fun Ways to Make Learning French Easier by David Bailey

You can use your computer as a creative language learning tool to learn French. Here are some innovative ideas to turn your language education into an entertaining and memorable French language learning experience.

Language Learning Fun #1 - Modify Your French Audio Lessons

There are many software packages available that enable you to transform your voice in any audio. You can cut and paste from one section of the audio to another. You can play the same section of the audio over as much as you like.

So how will this help you learn to speak French?

Well, many French teachers and courses provide you with audio files. You can take those audio files and modify them to create other exercises. There are actually 16 different kinds of French exercises that you can create with an audio file to get more practice. But we will talk about that in another lesson.

With most audio programs that allow you to edit the file, you can make your voice sound more feminine, masculine, or even robotic. You can raise it to a higher pitch or lower bass tones.

Some languages like French and German for example, assign gender to the nouns. So, when you are learning new vocabulary words, you can modify the feminine nouns to a woman's voice, masculine nouns in a man's voice, and the neuter nouns in a robotic voice?

This approach can also be used with other types of vocabulary learning. Perhaps you could record a list of French verbs in the present tense in a woman's voice and a list of French verbs in the past tense in a man's voice. You can make your French lessons more interesting by morphing voices or adding sound effects.

Just do a quick search on the internet for 'voice cloaking' or 'voice modification software'. This will provide numerous resources to choose from. I personally like using a program called Audacity, especially since it is free.

Language Learning Fun #2 - Color Code Your French Language Lessons

You can also spice up your French vocabulary lists with bursts of color on your printer- perhaps nouns in red, verbs in blue, and prepositions in green. You might want to highlight irregular verbs in another color - or perhaps apply bold or italics to make them stand out on the page. Experiment with different fonts and weights.

Language Learning Fun #3 - Surf French Websites and Online Sources

There are several tools that every French student should have. And one of those is at least one online French dictionary bookmarked in your browser (preferably several). Every dictionary works a little bit differently. Some provide sound clips with the pronunciation. Others allow you to submit new words and expressions. (Just remember that not all user submissions will be 100% accurate.) The best dictionaries will clearly indicate which ones are 'verified' user submissions and which ones aren't. They will also indicate colloquial and dialect expressions appropriately.

If you are a poet, then help is as close as your computer. Online language resources also include helpful rhyming dictionaries. An internet search for 'rhyming dictionary French, 'rhyming dictionary German', 'rhyming dictionary Spanish', and so on will give you good results.

It's best to rely on accredited educational sites (domains ending in .edu) when doing French grammar research. For instance, if you are looking for French verb conjugations, try a search like 'French verb conjugations site:.edu'. Although at the time of writing the previous search doesn't work at MSN, it does work at Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and many others. The 'site:edu' portion of the search restricts results to domains ending in '.edu' - which are usually universities and other similar educational institutions.

Language Learning Fun #4 - Online French Chatting and Video Conferencing

You can also use webcams, VOIP, microphones and put them all together to talk with foreign friends and native French speakers from all over the world. Using the French language in conversation is probably the quickest way to learn it.

But just remember that whatever you do, the more senses you can stimulate during the language learning process, the more firmly imprinted the learning becomes. Turn your French language education into a fun-filled sensory experience and you will probably stick with it. If it becomes monotonous, you will probably begin to lose interest.

David A. Bailey, Jr. shares his best, top-secret, and little-known tips and tricks to learn French and other languages fast (based on 10+ years of experience) at http://exlsite.com/languagelearning/french/learningfrench.html

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