LEARNING FLUENT FRENCH

French 1 has been designed to prepare you for the most important and common situations you'll face in the French-speaking world. At the same time, you'll develop a strong foundation in how the language actually works, allowing you to go beyond simple stock phrases to actually building sentences yourself. This is a serious introduction to the language.

Right from the start, you'll begin working with powerful structures and key vocabulary so that you can build useful French sentences. After only a few sessions, you'll already be having meaningful interactions in a restaurant, and soon you'll be shopping, making plans with friends, getting around a city, going out for entertainment, and making travel arrangements with confidence.

You'll build upon these skills through practice with key verbs and adjectives, so that you can express your needs and desires in diverse situations with considerable detail. As you learn how to use possessives, pronouns, and form future tense sentences, you'll expand your range of communication while adding an important level of depth to your interactions. Further work on location along with important commands will round out your introduction to the French language, leaving you well-prepared to dive into your experiences in the French-speaking world.

French 2 picks up where the first level leaves off, deepening your grasp of the fundamentals through new verb tenses and conjugations, an expanding vocabulary, and a broad range of other key parts of the language. By the end of French 2, you'll have begun to make substantial inroads into becoming a more serious French speaker, ideally preparing you for moving on to a more intermediate level.

You'll begin perfecting your verb conjugations in the very beginning, including both past tense and important irregular verbs. From there, you'll continue to build upon the structures learned in French 1, so that your journey through this second level leads to more complex and meaningful interactions in restaurants, travel agencies, stores, and with friends. You'll buy clothing from boutique stores and a cell phone for your trip ; you'll enjoy local cuisine at restaurants, and visit museums with friends. And as your ability to express location—along with giving and understanding directions—grows, you'll find yourself thoroughly prepared for navigating any French-speaking city or neighborhood.

As with all Fluenz programs, these critical scenarios provide the setting through which your grasp of the language's fundamentals is steadily developed. By enhancing your ability with the central topics covered in the previous level (such as articles, pronouns, verbs, and genders), you'll solidify your foundation in the language. Meanwhile, the introduction of new structures and vocabulary (such as new adjectives, comparatives, and superlatives) combines with more serious responsibilities, such as going to the doctor and handling office tasks, preparing you to engage more seriously with the French-speaking world.

French 3 dramatically expands your ability with the language. While Levels 1+2 establish the strongest possible foundation in the language, Level 3 builds upon this base into areas of substantial complexity that add an impressive layer of subtlety and sophistication to your speech. You also begin to develop the ability to connect with French speakers around more personal topics.

By the time we arrive at Level 3, the foundation has been set for a pivotal moment of growth. Building upon all that has been learned in the previous levels, your depth and range of communication will quickly broaden. As your skills develop with more adverbs, verb conjugations, and colloquial phrases and questions, your conversations will become more fluid and naturalIn the end, other important topics, such as the formation of conditional sentences, the use of reflexive verbs, and expressing opinions and preferences will combine with more real-world vocabulary to bring you to an impressive level of competency in French.

Throughout the program, you'll use these skills at home and in the office, while talking to people about your studies and professional life, and in order to rent an apartment. You'll also shop, dine, take pictures, and enjoy the entertainment that the great cities and communities of the French-speaking world have to offer. By the end of French 3, you'll have taken a major step towards becoming a serious French speaker, capable of handling intricate conversations and complicated situations with confidence

French 4 continues adding critical pieces to your communication. From the subtle uses of the pronouns “y” and “en” to more refined object pronoun use, this level expands on the sophistication developed with French 3. It also addresses topics that allow you to express a much wider range of emotion, from opinions and preferences to wishes and desires, or even obligation, as well as to adapt your speech to all types of speakers and interactions.

These areas of the language fit perfectly with the situations you'll find yourself in as you journey through the level. As you learn how to use reflexive verbs and indirect objects, you'll hold conversations about your family and childhood, cultural issues, interests, and more. By the end of the level, you’ll know how to address issues of season and climate, open or close a bank account, and handle more complicated issues. In addition to an extensive vocab on some outstanding topics like street directions, travel plans, beach essentials or sports equipments, you’ll also learn how to make calls and ask for important information.

This level is designed for you to reach a whole new level of fluency and acquire the necessary skills for integrating yourself more deeply in a French-speaking community. French 4 is where you begin to develop the ability to move beyond being just a tourist, student, doctor, or business professional who can capably interact with the French-speaking world. With French 4, you begin to become a part of the community.

French 5 builds on the skills acquired through the previous levels, adding substantial layers of subtlety and sophistication to your ability with the language. You'll master complex grammatical issues like the use of the passé composé vs. imperfect past tenses, speak more naturally through colloquial expressions and lots of new vocab, and communicate more fluidly with greater diversity in tone and structure.

As with all French programs, these skills are developed over the course of 30 full sessions that will take you on a journey through real, daily-life experiences in the French-speaking world. You'll plan memorable trips with friends, arrange meetings with colleagues, discuss the arts, and exchange delicious recipes. You'll also further your ability to handle those things that are critical to establishing yourself more deeply in a community, from taking care of legal matters to more formal writing.

While there will of course still exist many ways to improve your French, and building a larger vocabulary will allow you to discuss a wider range of topics, French 5 will bring you to a point where grammar will no longer be an obstacle to communication. By the time you complete this level, you will truly be an experienced French speaker.