Happy Bastille Day! Joyeux Le Quatorze Juillet !
To celebrate the French national holiday, let’s get into a specific aspect of learning this language.
No matter how much you read French, or even practise speaking French, it can still be tricky to listen to French. Native French speakers can seem to speak really quickly to a beginner or intermediate learner, which makes them difficult to understand.
Listening is one of my biggest challenges. I take a Speak from Day One approach to learning languages, and I always encourage language learners to do the same. That means I’m usually stronger at speaking than listening, as I recently learned when I took an advanced French test.
With that in mind, for both you and me to improve our listening comprehension skills, I’ve put together a huge collection of listening resources to help you listen to French. I’ve organised these into five categories:
Whatever your French level – beginner, intermediate or advanced – you’ll find a French listening resource that’s useful for you.
C’est parti ! Let’s go!
Videos for French Listening: Your Key To Understanding French Body Language Most emotional communication is nonverbal. Seeing the facial expressions, hand gestures and body postures of French speakers, you will find it easier to understand them.
Video is the only type of listening practice which allows you to practise this important part of French communication. The following resources will help you listen to French as it is spoken with both words and the body.
French YouTube Channels and Web Shows Here are some French YouTube series channels to help you look at life in the French speaking world.
YouTube is also a great place for French lessons, but we’ll get to those in just a moment…
Live Video Chat with Native French Speakers I’ve had great success in my language learning missions when video chatting with my tutors and teachers. Watching someone’s body language while they are responding to what you say is much more authentic than just watching actors in a movie.
It’s worth checking out the following:
Of course, all this (other than Periscope) assumes you have someone to speak with in French. If you need a language conversation partner, be sure to check out iTalki, where you can find amazing native French speaking teachers and tutors.
How to Watch French Television Online With so many countries speaking French, you can find a wide variety of television programmes in the French language. French TV channels available online include:
French Movies French Video Lessons Fortunately for French language learners, there are a lot of video lessons online to choose from. The best part about lessons is that they follow a structured format and are perfect for those new to the language.
The following is a selection of some of my favorites, as well as a few that have come highly recommended:
Online Radio: Covering All Your Topic Bases I love listening to online radio because it provides such a wide sampling of topics I am not normally exposed to. Want to hear people talk about video games? There’s a show for that! Need to learn vocabulary related to sports? You can find that too!
What’s more, the way people speak French with online radio is much closer to how you’ll hear it spoken in real life. And you will get a wider variety of accents from many different regions and countries.
Music: Exploring the Creative Side of French We use language differently when we are expressing our creativity. Not only that, but we tend to talk about issues and topics that are closer to our hearts and minds., as opposed to describing the weather or asking for directions to the bakery.
Listening to French music can be a unique and entertaining way to improve your listening skills while immersing yourself in French culture and ways of thinking.
Here are some websites and links where you can find French music online:
And for French poetry:
News: Contemporary Topics In Standard Spoken French Having a conversation about the economy, politics, the latest movies or sports may prove challenging if you aren’t up to date. Listening to the news in French will teach you valuable current vocabulary, and teach you the best way to phrase common expressions on popular topics. Plus, newscasters tend to use very standard pronunciation, so this is a good way to hear things said in a very clear (although somewhat fast) manner.
Podcast Lessons: Structured French to Help You Level Up If you’re just getting started with French, then listening to the news or watching television shows might be overwhelming. Online French language lessons and podcasts are a great way to practise listening to the language in a graded, structured approach.
Here are some links to online lessons and materials that will help you learn French, while providing valuable listening practice:
While all of these podcasts are related to French language learners, what if you want to listen to podcasts direct from France? Searching through iTunes is often challenging since they target your search results based on your native language or country of residence. Here’s my hack for finding podcasts in your language of choice which will help you locate the best podcasts in the French language. Be sure to check it out!
Where Do You Listen to French? Be sure to use these resources to increase your exposure to the French language and soon you’ll be improving both your comprehension and fluency with this wonderful language.
If you have any other suggestions or if I missed your favourite place to listen to French online, let us know in the comments.
