Coaching: Fast Track your studies

Work on your learning techniques and you’ll significantly accelerate your progress.  The routine that works for you will be your own.  But it helps to be guided in your choices.

Discover how

Learning how to learn

We’re confronted with two challenges when we learn a language.

There’s the fundamental job itself of picking up vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and so on.

And there are the meta-questions that every language learner ends up facing: 

• Where should I begin?
• How am I supposed to remember all this stuff?
• How do I stay true to my identity in my new language?

Understanding how your mind works

Much research has been done into the way we acquire a new language – and by learning from these studies you can save yourself a great deal of time and frustratrion.  By understanding what is effective, you can create routines that deliver lasting improvement. And over time you’ll establish learning habits that will stay with you for life.

Getting the most out of apps

Not all apps are helpful and you may already have had some negative experiences. But nevertheless there are some excellent tools out there that harness the powers of spaced repetition and artificial intelligence to help you accelerate your progress. You’ll be pointed in the direction of the best – and given advice on how to get the most out of them.

The format

A monthly zoom session

In your first Zoom session, your coach will look at where you are with your French studies and establish a target programme for the month ahead.  You’ll look at questions of best practice and how to optimise your time. In subsequent sessions you’ll review how you’ve done and develop your learning routine, based on your experience of the previous month.

Texting when you need it

In between sessions you’ll be able to Whatsapp your coach with any questions that may arise.

Your coach

Richard is a native English speaker who has lived in France for 28 years. As someone who learnt French as an adult, he’s familiar with the challenges that language learners face – and the best ways to overcome them. He’s the author of Tablettes de Chocolat (2019 –), a blog based on his experience of learning French as a second language.

Is coaching for you?

You need to bring lots of motivation to the table for this to work: think in terms of spending an hour a day on your French, half an hour minimum.

If you are all fired up, then coaching is a perfect complement to whatever other language learning activities you may have:

• Studying alone
• Attendance at group classes
• Italki conversation practice
• One-to-one private lessons with a French teacher

Subscription

The coaching service costs €59 per month. Addition Zoom sessions are available at €30 per hour. There’s no commitment over time: when you’ve had enough, it will hopefully be because you are ready to go it alone.