3 Minute French - Lessons 1-3

Bonjour et bienvenue

Bonjour et bienvenue (hello and welcome) to "3 Minute French". I'm Kieran, a language tutor based in the UK, and I wrote this book to help you to learn to speak French.

The lessons in this book are based on the methodology I developed for teaching languages, which I use in all my classes and courses. The methodology will get you speaking quickly, without the struggle normally associated with language learning.

I'll not bore you with my life story or intricate details of the history of the methodology; I know you probably just want to start learning French now, so I'll let you get on with it.

Actually, I've changed my mind, I will bore you a little before we start. It's my book! I'll keep it as brief as I can though.

I've been tutoring people for over ten years on a one-to-one basis in a range of subjects. I love languages, I love learning and I love teaching. I also love chocolate, but this isn't really the place to discuss my chocoholism. I'm very lucky that I get to teach people every day. However, I can't fit everybody who asks me into my schedule so, regrettably, I end up turning a lot of people away. I wish I could teach the whole world but I'm yet to figure out a way of duplicating myself!

The next best thing is to teach through the medium of a book. So, that's what I've decided to do. If you're reading this book, then I will soon be teaching you the glorious splendour that is the French language.

Anyway, I'll stop blathering on in a minute and we'll get started with learning. But, firstly, let me just say this...

Hullabaloo!

No, I'm joking, of course, let me say this instead...

We are all human beings, which means we all possess the attributes that make us human beings. There's a wonderful quote by a man called Terence:

"I am human, and nothing that is human is alien to me"

What it means is that if one person is capable of something, then we are all capable of it, because we're all humans too. There's nothing in the world that I cannot understand if somebody before me has succeeded in understanding it. Therefore, it's only logical that since there are more than 200 million people in the world who have managed to learn to speak French, then you can learn it too!

Anyway, philosophising over. Let's begin.

__________

"French in three minutes?" I hear you cry suspiciously. Yes, this book is intricately designed to get you speaking French quickly and easily.

I've created this book the complete beginner who only has a few minutes to spare each day.

I've set out each lesson so that they can be completed in short bursts, whenever you find yourself with a moment of freedom.

Before you start this book, let me share with you an extremely handy learning tip that helped me to progress quickly and effectively in language learning. When most people start studying for anything, they tend to spend the first day or two studying for hours and hours and get through loads of work, however, very quickly this begins to dwindle. You might feel like spending hours studying French, which is great, but you want that feeling of motivation to continue. However, your motivation won't continue if you actually spend hours studying. Limit your study time to chunks of just three minutes. No more!

If you limit your studying to just three minute chunks, there are three things that will happen...

1. You'll maintain your enthusiasm

If you want to learn anything, you have to maintain enthusiasm or else you won't continue. If you limit your study time to just three minutes, you'll keep French fresh and exciting and you'll be eager to learn. If you spend hours studying, very quickly you'll get bored with French and it'll turn into a chore.

2. You'll study more consistently

It's much better to study for just three minutes once a day than to study for three hours once a week. A spare three minutes is relatively easy to find even in the most hectic of schedules. If you make sure you complete at least one three minute study session every day, it'll quickly become a habit that you'll do without thinking. It's much easier to fit in a daily three minute habit than a weekly one hour habit. By doing this, you'll become a much more consistent learner, and consistency is the key to success.

3. You'll remember things better

This is my favourite reason as to why you should limit your study to just three minute chunks. If you study something for just three minutes every day, you'll trick your brain into memorising the information more quickly than if it were to see the information for hours each day. It'll think, "I see this information every day so it must be important, but I don't see it for very long so I'd better hold onto it and make it into a memory fast!" You'll be amazed at how much more easily things tend to stay in your brain if you limit yourself to just three minutes a day.

So, three minutes is the key! Set a timer, and once you reach three minutes, stop. Then give yourself at least half an hour before you do another three minutes. You should aim to do at least one three minute chunk every day, any more than that is a bonus, but one is fine. Just read through this book and complete the exercises, that's all. You'll be amazed at how much you learn.