u/EasyAsQCD

4 months of French!

Bonjour! A full English breakdown of the results of 4 months of French study for 2-3 hours per day can be found below (after I give an attempt to summarize things in French! I apologize in advance for my terrible attempt.).

TLDR: Close to zero -> Strong A1/Weak A2 in 4 months. CI is effective. Grammar helps solidify input. Practicing conversations is critical.

Depuis quatre mois, j'étudie le français. J'ai commencé quand mon entreprise (c’est une entreprise de Montréal) a dit qu’il y aura cours de français. J'ai été très heureuse! J'aime les langues et je voulais apprendre le français depuis quelques ans. J'ai décidé que j'essaierais beaucoup fort d’apprendre le français. Depuis cette fois, j’étudiais pour au moins deux heures par jour. J’entends à CI pendant trente à soixante-dix minutes chaque jour, lis des livres faciles, vais à mes cours, et pratique ma prononciation. Maintenant, je peux comprendre un peu de média français comme les émissions de CBC. Aussi, je peux parler (un peu mal) avec mes collègues français!

J'adore le français et j'espère que je peux m’améliorer beaucoup dans le reste de 2026!

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Hey all!

I started my French learning journey a few months back (in December of 2025) and thought I would share a realistic perspective of what someone who is working full time can achieve while studying for around 2 hours per day. My studying has been rooted in engaging with Comprehensible Input (CI), though I’ve significantly augmented a traditional ALG regime with classes, grammar work, conversation practice, reading, and pronunciation drills.

I’m Canadian and have always consider French to be a vital part of the Canadian identity; sadly, the prairies --- where I grew up --- are not exactly bastions of Quebecois culture! Unfortunately, life always seemed to get in the way of me really committing to learning until late last year. My company, which is primarily located in Montreal (I’m in Ottawa), announced that they were going to start offering French courses to all employees. I was ecstatic! This was exactly the type of opportunity I had been waiting for, and I decided to commit fairly hard: I was going to take French seriously for at least a year and see where I ended up. I was starting from near zero (just Duolingo for around 30 hours spread over 5 years), but I had messed around with Esperanto a bit earlier, so I had an idea about how to approach language learning. I started that week (mid December 2025) and went hard over the winter holidays to obtain a foothold.

After 1 month of study, I did an oral test to determine placement for my work classes (and an Alliance Francais class that I decided to take as well). In both cases I tested in as a weak-mid A1 (course A2.3 for AF). At this point, I was able to start struggling through things like early InnerFrench Episodes. Now, 3 months later, I can actually talk with my French coworkers (so long as they’re willing to be patient and keep the topics relatively straightforward), order food, read basic French books (CLE A1/A2 novels), and pull info out of French broadcasts. Overall, I think I’m a weak A2: I’m not fluent in any situations but can get by in simple ones. In terms of CI, I can understand videos from Dreaming French easily < 45, well 45-55, ok 55-60, and can struggle through videos in the 60s.

It’s been a fantastic experience, and I can’t wait to continue my studies!

What I did:

30-70+ minutes of CI per day ~6-8 hours per week

6 hours of French classes (Alliance Francais + work classes) per week

3-4 hours of grammar work per week

2 hours of pronunciation work per week

1 hour of French talking group per week

1-2 hours of reading French novels per week

Overall around 19-23 hours per week

Comprehensible Input: Mix of Dreaming French, immersion.co, FCI (YouTube), and InnerFrench. All are wonderful resources! I love FCI (Lucas is the absolute best CI teacher out there), though DF, IC, and IF have all been a huge help. I would highly recommend subscribing to both DF and IC as neither have enough content on their own. I also tried Alice Alye but I really didn’t vibe with her series. I try to mix up the level of difficulty of my CI quite a bit, keeping 50% fairly simple, 30% a bit challenging, and 20% quite tough.

Alliance Francais classes: These have been awesome at helping round out my understanding of French. About 90% of each class is in French (minus occasional explanations in English if a student is not understanding an answer to a question), so there’s a lot of listening to a native French speaker. Plus, I get to hit things that I miss through my self study plus get a ton of practice interacting in French. You really get in what you put out: if you’re willing to make a fool of yourself and try to do all of your interactions in French (asking questions in French when you don’t understand, offering answers when the professor asks the class, etc) you can get a ton of value. If you just sit and absorb things I think it can be useful but loses a lot.

Grammaire progressive du francais: Went through the A1 book and am currently working through the A2/B1 book + the conjugation book for A2. I found grammar work to be incredibly helpful; however, I see it as a far more useful tool for locking in different concepts that you pick up through all the input rather than a core driver of progress.

Pronunciation work: FSI French introduction to phonology is wonderful. Going through the lessons has massively improved my accent.

French talking group: I practice a bunch with other learners of a similar skill level at my work. This is great for building confidence and learning how to communicate even if you don’t have all the right vocabulary.

French novels: I read the Lecture CLE en français facile series. It’s excellent: it helped me build up a ton of vocab and learn all sorts of grammar structures that you don’t really see in low-level CI.

Overall:

Just start learning French. Don’t wait! Go listen to CI and, if you have time, add in the rest. Don’t be afraid to speak: making a fool of myself regularly has helped me learn a ton!