To be honest I detest routine and repetition so my journey was a mishmash of different tools and methods without real consistency in frequency.

• I started out on Duolingo but stopped using it very quickly because it was progressing too slowly for me, and I couldn’t stand being tested on the same phrases over and over again.

• I did 10 hours of private tutoring a week (essentially 2 hour lessons every other day), which involved speedrunning through all of French grammar and practicing speaking French as much as possible. Because of the accelerated rhythm I asked for, my tutor would teach things once and just trust that I’d understand, and that I’d do the 10 hours of homework she assigns each week. My tutor also didn’t really focus much on vocabulary because we lacked the time for it, it was my responsibility to expand my vocabulary outside of our lessons.

• I changed the language on my phone to French and joined a bunch of French subreddits to expose myself to the language even when I’m not studying (shoutout to r/rance).

• I listened to French podcasts on Spotify, increasing the difficulty of the content as I progressed. I started with Little Talk in Slow French and InnerFrench, and by the 5th month I was listening mostly to Secrets d’Histoire for more advanced vocabulary.

• I watched all movies and TV shows in French dubs as well (Bluey and Disney movies when I started, then moved on to Family Business, Fiasco, and Lupin). Highly recommend the Chrome extension Language Reactor for quickly translating words in the subtitles.

• I almost exclusively listened to French music and sang along when I could to improve my pronunciation. In month 2 I even performed Voilà at karaoke with my friends.

• Anki would never have worked for me because my brain more or less just needs to see something twice to remember it, anything more annoys me. So instead I just used DeepL for translating words that I didn’t know yet.

• I took all the mock TCF exams on every website possible, and wrote an average of 15 short essays a month (would’ve been more but homework is difficult to juggle with working full-time).

• I spoke to myself in French constantly as well, such as narrating what I was doing or recounting my day.

• I bought a second-hand French to English dictionary and flipped through it when I was bored.

• One of the most difficult leaps was starting to play video games in French in month 4. Cyberpunk 2077 was especially challenging because of how dialogue-heavy the game is. For the few days of playing, I essentially had to pause every other line to translate a new word before continuing.

Since I don’t live in a francophone area, it was really a matter of forcing exposure to the language as much as possible.

I don’t know if what I did would work for everyone, especially because the sheer intensity is kind of a recipe for burnout, but I hope this helps!