Online multimedia learning resources in Spanish, German, French and Italian. With Real Audio, Real Video, and Shockwave. Connect with a native speaker. Hands down, the best way to learn a new language is to speak it. Too often, people spend all of their time studying grammar. Offers English or French instruction in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Describes programs, facilities, fees and registration process. French Programs Province of British Columbia. Experience French language and culturelearn the language, study in French or find out about exchange programs, bursaries and program funding. Find out more about the learning opportunities available to both Francophone and non Francophone British Columbians. Learn more about training, job opportunities and professional development for teachers in French programs in B. C. Access information and data on French education in B. C., including funding and policies. Contact employees of the French Education Branch through our directory. Best Language Programs To Learn French' title='Best Language Programs To Learn French' />Learn French with Fluenz Fluenz French. About a year and a half ago I started dating a girl who was studying for her Ph. D in French, so obviously that language was her life. When I started thinking about proposing, I decided I wanted to learn French for her and be able to propose in French with several sentences, not just will you marry me. After researching various options I picked Fluenz as my method of learning the free demo on their website is what sold me. At the time only French 1 2 were available, but as theyve released extra discs Ive added 3 5 to my collection. Different people learn in different ways, but I can say the Fluenz style worked very well for me. I took one semester of French in college about 7 years ago, but lost interest and quickly lost what I had learned. With Fluenz, I feel like I enjoyed learning more and that the learning stuck. Rather than being thrown in the deep end and being expected to figure things out for myself, I liked having an on screen tutor explain grammar rules and vocabulary. I also liked the various techniques used, and Ill get into that more after my story. As I started approaching the date when I wanted to propose, I had completed Fluenz 1 2 and about half of disc 3. I was very happy with how far I had come, but I knew I wasnt quite comfortable with translating and pronouncing a proposal all on my own. So I posted on Fluenzs online message board to ask for help. This is an excellent time to point out how constantly impressed Ive been with Fluenzs customer support and interaction with their customers. Fluenz employees are great about responding to questions, whether about the software or the languages they offer, through email, their Facebook page, or their message board. But I was still amazed and pleasantly surprised when, within a day of my posting, I had received a translation from the co founder of Fluenz herself and the on screen tutor for French 1 2, Sonia Gil. Later I even received an audio file from the native French speaker who records dialogue for the software, to help me practice my pronunciation. Fluenz really went above and beyond to help me out. Fast forward to this past Saturday I proposed, and she said oui She was also quite touched and very impressed that I had learned so much French. We want to go to Paris for our honeymoon, and I think through a combination of finishing levels 3 5 and practicing with my now fiance, Ill be more than comfortable communicating in French. A little more about my experience with Fluenz when I was researching various ways to learn a language I settled on Fluenz because I liked their method of teaching through explanation rather than just forcing users to figure out meaning through context. They build on users understanding of English to explain rules and structure in French. Its been really helpful for me to build a foundation in the grammar and useful vocabulary from the beginning. Plus, I appreciate that the lessons are geared towards learning relevant words and phrases for traveling in France and communicating in French, rather than just generic nouns and adjectives. The next several paragraphs are a thorough breakdown of the different sections in each session of Fluenz French. It may be more information than you need, but I appreciated knowing what various exercises would be offered for each session before I made my purchase, and Im hoping you will too. Each disc has 3. 0 sessions. Each session starts with a brief intro from the on screen tutor, followed by a brief conversation in French. They encourage you to listen to the dialogue three times once with French subtitles, once with French AND English subtitles, and once with no subtitles at all. I actually prefer listening without the subtitles first, to see how much I can understand, but thats just personal preference. The conversation is followed by a thorough breakdown of the new vocab and structures by the on screen tutor. This is the most useful part of the program, and the thing that really distinguishes Fluenz from a lot of other language programs out there, because its a clear explanation of the rules and vocabulary of French. I find myself often pausing the explanation to write down notes on all that Im learning. Following the tutorial, theres a section where you can hear and repeat each new vocab wordphrase one by one, to practice your pronunciation and train your ear. Next comes a section where you match a phrase in French to its translation in English, followed by an exercise of matching vocabulary words to their corresponding pictures. The next section involves being given a word or short phrase in French and having to type its meaning in English. For all the typing exercises you have the option of enabling a challenge mode where you have to get accent marks right in order to advance, and this has been great for helping my memorization of words and accents. After translating several short phrases, the next exercise is sentence buildup, wherein you start out translating a word or short phrase, then keep building on that phrase step by step until you have a much more complex sentence. I love this exercise, and think its probably the most useful one for me. Its much more challenging than the matching exercises because you must do all the work yourself no multiple choice so its great for ensuring Ive learned all the details and nuances of the language. Because of the challenge, its also a much more satisfying feeling when I get a complicated sentence right on the first try. The next two exercises are essentially audio versions of the previous two. You must listen to audio samples of the same words and phrases from before, and write them in French. This is great for training your ear to recognize French, but I sometimes wish they used different phrases than the ones I just translated at times Im not so much transcribing what I hear as I am simply remembering what I just wrote minutes before. But Im happy to say this is really my only complaint with the program. The next three exercises all refer back to the conversation from the beginning of the session. First, you record yourself recording each line of the dialogue, then play it back to compare it with a clip of the native speaker. Other programs offer voice recognition software to offer feedback on your pronunciation, which sounds nice, but seeing how iffy the Google Voice app on my phone is at transcribing messages, Im skeptical as to how well a program could detect and critique the subtleties of accent and pronunciation. Being able to compare my recording to a native speakers is a good alternative, and lets me really hear the differences and work to eliminate them. 2002 Calendar To. The next exercise is similar, but instead of reading the lines one by one you do the conversation as a whole, reading one persons part. And the third and final exercise in this series involves listening to the conversation and writing the dialogue in French. On some sessions, the next section involves being given a question in French for example, what do you want to drink and three choices for answers, also in French. You must choose which answer is appropriate and applies to the question. This section appears in only about half of the sessions in the other half it is skipped. The next exercise is another matching exercise like the one towards the beginning, but with new phrases this time.