City Lit French tutor Anais Perdaems shares her favourite language learning materials, from textbooks to YouTube to classic novels
Learning a language like French is good for your soul — you get to see the world from a fresh perspective and enrich your understanding of other cultures. Taking a French course is also great for your self-esteem, self-development, and even your cognition and mental health. No instant translation tool can replace this experience.
When you learn a language, you enter into a back-to-basics state that feels almost childlike: you have to slow down, break difficulties down piece by piece, and keep practising. And when you can successfully communicate with native speakers, you’ll find that your perspective has shifted, opening your mind to new ways of looking at the world.
For instance, did you know that French speakers have a phrase, “nostalgie de l’ailleurs”, that means “the nostalgia for elsewhere”? It describes the longing you feel for another time or place, especially one you’ve never experienced. This lovely phrase evokes an emotion that English speakers might feel but can’t fully name until they learn French.
If you’re thinking of studying French at City Lit, the good news is that learning a language has never been more fun. Nowadays, you can access a gold mine of easily available, stimulating resources. As a French teacher, I encourage my students to use these resources to enhance their learning outside the classroom. Here are some of my favourites:
Internet Resources
Beginner:
Learn French with Alexa on YouTube — French teacher Alexa has earned over two million subscribers with her fresh and fun approach to the language.
Intermediate:
Inner French — an accessible website for learning French that includes courses, free resources and a podcast.
TV5 — a free and interactive website offering videos, programmes and news reports in French, plus more than 2000 online exercises.
Advanced:
France Inter — learn French immersion-style by listening to the flagship station of Radio France. France Inter offers a wide variety of programming, including current affairs, news and talk shows.
France Culture — the artsy sibling of France Inter, France Culture is a radio station covering culture, philosophy, science, fiction, literature, radio drama and more.
Netflix — who says learning French can’t be entertaining? Netflix has lots of French TV shows, including hits like Lupin, a thriller about a gentleman thief, and Chef’s Table: France, which steps inside the kitchens of top culinary maestros.
Arte TV — a free European TV streaming service where you can access films, documentaries, TV serials and live performances.
Online Dictionaries
Word Reference — this dictionary offers a very clear layout and navigation. You can also listen to words by clicking on the handy audio icon.
Linguee — a resource that provides a real-life context for French, as many of its examples are taken from the web.
Google Translate — this is a useful tool that has improved a lot during the last 10 years, yet be aware that it is still not always accurate.
Textbooks
Édito, Didier Edition — this is one of many excellent all-in-one French textbooks and offers opportunities to practise the four skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). It also includes sections on vocabulary and grammar, as well as insights into authentic French culture. Édito also has up-to-date content, a stimulating layout and many embedded exercises, making learning fun and easy. It’s ideal for both the classroom and independent learning. My learners at City Lit love how easy it is to access listening activities on Édito. You just download the app, scan the relevant page with the video on your phone and the listening activity pops out.
Pros: I like the visual vocabulary page and revision section at the end of every chapter.
Cons: The grammar pages are good for revision, but otherwise need to be complemented.
Défi, EMD — another excellent all-in-one textbook and I particularly like the progression from one book to another. Défi offers timed repetition and spiral progression which neuroscience has identified as the best way to embed learning. The grammar memo at the end is well-made.
Pros: The dialogue is carefully recorded to embed the vocabulary learned in each unit. It also offers a diversity of accents.
Cons: Students find it hard to access the audio and online content — the website is kind of a maze!
Grammar Books
French grammar is notably trickier than English (aaargh — those irregular verbs!). But did you know that 80% of French verbs are regular? Like anything, it’s good to keep some perspective. For doing so, I can recommend two excellent books:
Studio AQA GCSE French Grammar and Translation Workbook, Pearson Edition — a useful grammar book for Beginners to Intermediate (A1/A2). This book is great for getting started as it delves into grammar in a non-frightening way. The layout is very accessible — basic notions are explained in English on the left page and then drilled down on the right page with six exercises of increasing difficulty. It also includes a selection of irregular verb conjugations with different tenses, which is a very useful tool.
Pros: Makes grammar look easy for beginners. Everyday vocabulary is used in examples and exercises.
Cons: The teenage content might irritate some adults.
Grammaire Progressive Du Français (A2/B1), CLE international Editions — a reference book for teachers and students alike. This book is all you need to express yourself accurately in French and the selection of grammar notions is outstanding. Each notion is clearly explained with many examples and then drilled down with several pages of exercises.
Pros: The visual layout and the excellent selection of grammar notions.
Cons: The explanations are all in French. This means that if you’re learning independently, you might need to complement the book with one of the many excellent YouTube videos available.
Magazines
Bien-dire — this magazine is designed for French learners. It offers reading and listening content in both print and online formats, depending on your preference. Every edition features more than 20 articles written by French language specialists, covering topics like news, history, tourism and much more. Articles are handily pitched at different levels from Beginner to Intermediate. You can also access interactive exercises, videos and music.
General Books
Language learning
Short Stories in French: Beginners by Ollie Richards and Richard Simcott
Short Stories in French: Intermediate by Ollie Richards and Richard Simcott
Both books offer a great collection of entertaining short stories in different genres. They also include a glossary for bold-face words in each text, a bilingual word list, a full plot summary and comprehension questions after each chapter.
Accessible 20th-century classics
Novels:
L’Étranger (The Stranger) by Albert Camus — an existential classic following the life of loner and outsider Meursault.
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — a whimsical tale charting the adventures of a child prince who visits various planets.
L’Amant (The Lover) by Marguerite Duras — an autobiographical coming-of-age novel about a teenage girl living in French Indochina in the 1930s.
Zazie Dans le Métro (Zazie in the Metro) by Raymond Queneau — a little girl goes on a madcap adventure around Paris with a cast of eccentric characters.
L’Écume des Jours (Froth on the Daydream) by Boris Vian — a surreal but heartbreaking love story featuring talking mice, piano cocktails and magical pink clouds.
Poetry:
Any collection by Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon and Jacques Prévert.
Drama:
Antigone by Jean Anouilh — a tragedy inspired by Sophocles’ Greek drama.
Électre by Jean Giraudoux — like the above, Électre is also based on a classic play by Sophocles.
En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot) by Samuel Beckett — a surreal black comedy about two characters waiting in a bleak landscape for a person who never arrives.
Le Rhinocéros (Rhinoceros) — an absurdist drama about a town where people are transforming into rhinoceroses.
Pour un oui ou pour un non (For a Yes or a No) by Nathalie Sarraute — this 1980 play explores the reunion of two old friends who discuss the reasons for their estrangement.
Contemporary authors
Bestsellers (any book by these authors):
- Anna Gavalda
- Guillaume Musso
- Marc Levy
- Joël Dicker
- Yasmina Reza
- Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
- Amélie Nothomb
- Daniel Pennac
Literary prizewinners:
La Place (A Man’s Place) by Annie Ernaux — a novel exploring a daughter's past relationship with her father.
Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano — a hybrid literary work about a teenage Jewish girl who went missing during the German occupation of Paris.
Mondo et Autres Histoires (Mondo and Other Stories) by Jean-Marie Le Clézio – a 1970s short story collection with a theme of teenage rite-of-passage experiences.
Chanson Douce (The Perfect Nanny) by Leïla Slimani — published in English as Lullaby, this literary thriller explores a family’s devastating experience with a woman hired to care for their children.
La Panthère des Neiges (The Snow Leopard) by Sylvain Tesson — the memoir of a French adventurer and writer who travelled to Tibet to find the elusive snow leopard.
Em by Kim Thuy — a poetic, fragmented novel exploring the lasting effects of the Vietnam War on a cast of intertwined characters.
Learn French at City Lit
Studying French is an enriching experience. For instance, it can make travel more rewarding, not only to France but to countries like Switzerland, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Haiti, Canada and Madagascar. It can also open up new career and overseas study opportunities, and give you a deeper understanding of French cinema, theatre and literature.
I hope this list of resources has given you a little bit of inspiration to start your French learning journey. Studying a language can seem intimidating at first but by accessing the best textbooks and immersing yourself in French culture, it can also be fun.
Learn French at City Lit
At City Lit you can learn French in London or online. Browse our French courses from beginner to advanced, try out a taster workshop like French: Sing for Happiness or attend a French film evening.
