HOW I LEARNED FRENCH IN THREE WEEKS WITH BABBEL

MY EXPERIENCE WITH LANGUAGES

Growing up, I decided to learn Spanish in high school and then continued with it in college as well as a semester of French. In college, it was more about completing the class and being done with it for me, than actually learning a language because I struggled hard. Languages have always been something I wanted to learn, but have always been really tough for me, especially being dyslexic, so it was easier to just memorize what I need to know in class to pass the exam. In a class setting, I was always more concerned about having to speak in class and sounding foolish or getting called on to answer a question and not knowing it, than focusing on the point of the class which is to learn a different language. After passing my language classes and checking off those boxes to graduate, I still longed to speak another language. Even after college, I still considered it but felt like it just wasn’t something I’d ever be able to do/I didn’t want to just read textbooks and do worksheets to do it. That’s where I was dead wrong! Babbel is changing the game. I feel like I’ve learned more French in three weeks than I ever did in a semester long class.

WHY FRENCH?

As a little girl, my mom would sing me French songs before bedtime and I loved them. Then as I grew older, I swore I was going to be Madeline, you know that cute little show with the redheaded girl who would go on adventures in France? She was courageous and adventurous and truly left an impression on me. I still plan on going to Paris to eat macaroons under the Eiffel Tower so naturally, I’ve always wanted to speak French. Additionally, when I received my results from a DNA ancestry test I found out I’m 9% French! When I saw that was an option on Babbel, I didn’t even have to decide between any other languages. It was French at first sight!

I wanted to speak a language that was spoken in numerous countries. Did you know that there are a total of 29 countries where French is the official language?! About 300 million individuals speak French in the world! Wow, that’s a BIG number. Babbel has tons of information about the languages they offer, so you can do a little research before deciding. Check out some of the articles Babbel posts on their blog, Babbel Magazine too. One of my favorite articles is about what Twitter accounts to follow if you’re learning French! See it here. Babbel is all about immersing yourself in the natural language and it helps tremendously by adding it to your social media as well. I even follow a French influencer on Instagram now too! 

WHAT IS BABBEL?

Babbel covers more than 10,000 hours of content in 14 languages, from Spanish to Indonesian. The lessons are crafted by language experts, and voiced by native speakers, to get you ready for real-life situations. That’s something I always wondered while learning a language in college, why aren’t we learning more conversational speaking? Babbel obsesses over crafting the tools you need to start having practical, everyday conversations. Being able to speak another language ultimately opens you up to a world that’s bigger and more inspiring. I’m already planning a trip to Paris because I feel more confident in traveling to France because I can speak French conversationally comfortably. 

HOW DOES BABBEL WORK?

The Babbel courses can be accessed on the Babbel mobile app or from a computer. I absolutely love having the option to complete my lessons on my phone too. I completed a lesson while standing in the security line at the airport! How cool is that?! Plus your progress is synced across devices, so you can always pick up right where you left off. Additionally, Babbel uses human voices and speech recognition to get you speaking confidently, which for me, helps significantly because of my dyslexia. I’m more of an auditory learner and was pretty hesitant to try out Babbel because of my experience with languages in school, like I mentioned previously.

Babbel has been the only language program that has truly made me confident in learning a language AND speaking it. Whether you learn best by reading, writing, speaking, seeing or listening, Babbel addresses your individual learning type. Regarding, the French courses, there are seven different levels from newcomer all the way to advanced. Each level is broken down into individual lessons all based on real-life scenarios that are extremely useful in the real world while traveling. Below are a couple of screenshots from the lessons I’ve been taking.

I’ve been learning simple phrases to full sentences about shopping, dining, or even throwing a party for a friend! 

SOME OF MY FAVORITE PHRASES

Tu sors beaucoup moins!

You don’t go out so much! 

Y’all I don’t know why this made me laugh so hard, but it did. Maybe because I don’t go out as often as I used to, or because the photo that went along with this phrase was a lady with her head in a pillow on the couch and that was all too relatable, but either way I’m always saying this phrase around the house to my boyfriend now. 

Je vais apporter une bouteille de vin.

I’ll bring a bottle of wine.

This one is definitely one I’ve been using with the holidays coming up!

Je voudrais un cafe, merci!

I would like a coffee, please!

I mean… does this even need to be explained as to why it’s one of my favorite phrases?!

TIME CONSTRAINT

Being the busy entrepreneurial woman that I am, I have barely any free time, but Babbel makes learning a language so easy and quick with their 10-15 minute lessons. You can choose to do one really quick or if you have more free time, you can do a couple of them. I completed a couple of lessons while Andrew and I were road trippin’ to Waco and it was awesome! What I really enjoyed was that the lessons weren’t all the same over and over again. Babbel changes it up as you continue to learn more, which I believe helped me remember more too.

HOW MUCH DOES BABBEL COST?

The best part about Babbel is that it’s set up as a subscription. I loved this part because many language services require you to pay a big chunk of money up front for everything. As a subscription service, this makes it significantly more affordable to many individuals wanting to learn a new language. I feel like this also motivates you to complete the lessons in a designated period of time too, which having a text book doesn’t do. Every time I complete a lesson, I feel like it was worth it and I truly learned something new, which I never truly felt previously.

I’m so EXCITED for you to learn a new language too using Babbel so we’ve teamed up to offer you 25% off a subscription. The discount brings the price down to just $5.25 per month, the cost of a cafe mocha!! Click here for the discounted price! Let me know what language you’ve always wanted to learn in the comments below.

Au Revoir!

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