i’m trying a couple different ways. like, i’m using coffee break french (the podcast) and i bought a game for my ds called my french coach. i also downloaded a bunch of pdfs and i have a dictionary for french slang. i keep a journal and write down the things that are hard for me to remember.

i go in and out of actually wanting to do it. for like a week, i’ll be really excited about it and run around screaming in french, but then i get bored and i’ll drop it for another week. when i come back to it, i find that i’ve forgotten a lot of the things i just learned.

i know that ultimately i’m just going to have to buckle down and force myself to do it even when i don’t want to, but do you have any suggestions to make it easier?

This website has questions in French, so you can read some of it, and maybe answer one. Lots of major websites have French versions such as amazon.com. If you read a magazine, see if it has a French version, such as People or Vogue. The most compelling reason to learn a language is to talk to someone, so if you see a person who is speaking French in public, say "bonjour" or something to him or her and see if they reply. You could have a brief conversation, learm about a visitor here, and feel proud of yourself later. One more idea is to find and try to listen to French music.
How did you get started with something you don’t want to do – is it a school requirement? Tell yourself you can do better than just learning the basics, and participate in something where French is spoken. You will become more fluent than others, and you can say things like "real French people actually say …"!

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