Don't break the French chain
Use Jerry Seinfeld's technique to learn French
Someone asked me this week, “What’s a good app to learn French?”
My favorite app is not a learning app per se. (In fact, learning French with apps is generally not a good idea, but I’ll come back to that later.)
My favorite app is called Don’t Break the Chain (DBTC)
It’s an app to create habits of all kinds, or streaks.
The app name comes from the advice given by Jerry Seinfeld to the young comedian Brad Isaac.
Here's how Mr. Isaac tells the story
He (Seinfeld) said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.
“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”
Don’t Break the Chain is the First Step
I love this story and I love this advice from Jerry Seinfeld!
I’ve used it myself for many years, initially with paper calendars, and now with the app I mentioned.
Learning French is mainly about consistency.
“Playing” Duolingo creates consistency, but unfortunately the app in itself isn’t great to help you learn.
What you want to do is establish consistency but with the right method.
I strongly believe you should start slow and increase over time.
Start with five minutes a day until you’ve created a chain of at least 15-30 days.
Then, you can increase to 10 or 15 minutes.
Don’t go above 15 minutes until you’ve created a chain of at least 90 days.
A Duolingo chain has no value
Don’t create this chain with apps like Duolingo.
Create your own chain with a learning method that’s more effective.
To me, learning French with Duolingo is basically like learning guitar by playing Guitar Hero. You’ll get good at Duolingo, but that won’t translate to real-world impressive French comprehension and speaking skills.
So what should you do instead?
That will be the topic of my next article.
I can suggest the following method for now.
For 5 to 15 minutes a day:
Read something you find interesting in French. It can be a book, an article, or anything.
If you have an audio recording for what you read, that’s even better. For example, my Quebec French Podcast is available in both audio and text.
Read and listen, and look up any word or expression you don’t understand. Look them up using an online dictionary, DeepL, Google Translate, a dictionary app on your phone, anything really.
Do this for 5-15 minutes a day.
Create a 90-day “chain” of doing this.
I guarantee the results will surprise you!
To learn more about our Quebec French classes:
J'aime ça! J'utilise l'app "habits" pour faire quelque chose similaire.