I am always very impressed when I see adult English-speakers who have achieved very high levels of proficiency in French. Is there a secret or a special method for attaining an impeccable level of spoken French? How did they do it? What can we learn from these high achievers who can switch easily between English and French with impeccable accent, grammar and vocabulary?

But let me first say that I exclude those people who were raised bilingually by parents speaking different languages. You certainly can’t beat growing up with two native languages, but for our purposes I want to look at the people who learned French outside the home.

Here for example is a video clip of the American actress Jodie Foster (b. November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California) being interviewed on French television.

Her French is to die for. It is so impeccable that Foster can dub herself in the French versions of her films.

While not at the level of a Jodie Foster, the current American Secretary of State, John Kerry, speaks very good French as you can see here:

Even the former American presidential candidate Mitt Romney does quite a good job in French.

With a bit of searching you will find videos of English-speaking celebrities who can speak French reasonably well. Thanks also to the Internet we can search the biographies of these celebrities and see how they acquired such good French. What do we observe?

Is total immersion the secret?

It should come as no surprise that a major success factor for learning a language very well is total immersion or some combination of working, studying and living in the country where the language is spoken.

John Kerry spent summers as a child in France. Mitt Romney was a teen-age Mormon missionary in France for two years.

But how much immersion does it take to achieve the level of a Jodie Foster? And what exactly do we mean by immersion?

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about about how Jodie Foster learned to speak French.

Foster attended a French-language prep school, the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, and graduated in 1980. She frequently stayed and worked in France as a teenager, and speaks French fluently. …Due to her French fluency, Foster has dubbed herself in French-language versions of most of her films. In 2004, she took a minor role in the French WWI film, A Very Long Engagement. She also understands German and Spanish and can converse in Italian.

The Real Secret: Start Young And Go To School In French

I believe that the most important success factor for very total success in a foreign language is schooling in the language from at an early age. This is the secret, if we want to call it that.

Foster entered the Lycée français de Los Angeles probably at the age of six and graduated at age 18. That’s 12 years of schooling in French. Plus staying and working in France as a teenager. Is there any wonder that her French is so good?

Why is schooling in French so effective?

To understand why attending school entirely in French is important, let’s start with a bit of math. Assuming an academic year of 40 weeks and 30 hours a week of classroom activities, we have at least 1,200 hours a year of in-class learning activities, nearly entirely in French.

Although the figures will certainly differ somewhat from year to year, here are a couple of interesting estimations. Let’s assume that students read at least ten pages a week; that’s 400 pages a year. Writing three pages a week equals 120 pages yearly.

The amount of time talking is hard to estimate, but let’s say that a student speaks at least 30 minutes a day in school or 150 minutes a week of actually communicating in French.

A good part of those hours in school are spent listening to native French-speakers teaching a wide variety of subjects in French. These subjects will include mathematics, history, geography, various sciences, French language, literature and culture. In addition to all this the students will have assignments and tests to study for at home.

The students will also spend time interacting with the teachers and among themselves about these subjects in both formal and colloquial French.

The key principle here is that French is the medium of instruction. Knowledge is acquired in French. In this regard, the depth and breadth of knowledge and vocabulary are similar to what children acquire in France.

But there is a lot more to the school experience. The students socialize with each other and often with native speakers of French. This is particularly important for learning informal and conversational French.

When you think that Jodie Foster experienced all this for 12 years plus spending time in France during these years, her exposure to a wide range of spoken and written French was enormous. But very importantly she used the language extensively.

Why is starting young important?

It’s pretty obvious that the earlier you start the more general exposure you will have to French. But the number one advantage of starting young is the acquisition of a native-like accent. All studies have shown that accent is probably the hardest thing to change or acquire in a foreign language after adolescence.

There is some controversy of the existence of a so-called critical period for the acquisition of perfect accent, but the facts are quite clear. Unless you are very good at imitating accents and are willing to spend lots of time and money with a professional tutor, you will always have an accent if you start learning later than earlier.

Conclusion: there is no real secret to speaking great French

Lucky are the Jodie Fosters and the John Kerrys of this world. In a sense, they grew into French during those key childhood years. What does this mean for the rest of us who have not attended school in French at a young age? Is it too late to learn to speak French well?

I obviously think that it is never too late. In next blog post I will look at learning strategies for adults. But for the time being there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, the big problem for adults is the presence or interference of the native language acquired over many years including years of schooling.

Forget about getting a perfect accent. It’s not impossible; it’s just highly improbable. A foreign accent deriving from your native language is not the end of the world as long as it is not overpowering. Good grammar and diction are much more important.

Learning to speak French takes time and massive exposure. The rule of thumb is that it takes about 9 -12 months of full-time language studies to achieve a good foundation in French.

Another thing that we can learn from high-functioning bilinguals is the importance of actually engaging the language. You will learn French by using it. When French becomes a medium of instruction or the language of work, your relationship with the language changes fundamentally from that of a student of the language.

A fourth point to keep in mind is the importance of seeking or getting constructive feedback. It is very common to hear adult learners keep making the same mistake because no one has ever corrected them. This is a huge problem because native speakers are too polite to correct other adults.

Whether it is in a classroom or with a tutor or coach, the adult learner needs some form of external correction to get rid of those mistakes caused by the learner’s native language.

Stanley Aléong is a polyglot, author, musician, language coach in French, English and Spanish, language workshop facilitator and organizer of French-English conversation meetups in Montreal, Canada. He likes to share his passion for languages and believes that anybody can learn to speak a foreign language well with the right methods and tools. He has also invented a cool visual learning tool called the Essential French Wall Chart Calendar. Reach him at info@langcal.com.