Fun French Course 1

Would you to like to be able string sentences together to create some fancy but useful French? This course is for you if you are a keen beginner or someone who is a little rusty or perhaps you may have learnt French a hundred years ago and you want to bring it more up-to-date.

‘Present Perfect with regular verbs’ is a thorough online course that will allow you to say what you have done in the past – so that when you have a conversation you will be able to say things like ‘I have lost my wallet.’,  ‘Have you given them back the keys yet?’, ‘They slept very badly last night.’, ‘Blast, I forgot to book a table at the restaurant.’ and hundreds of similar combinations. 

The format builds up sentences, the fancy term for this is sentence mining. Sentence mining means you learn to express yourself in a more authentic French way. Interwoven within the sentences are good dollops of useful colloquial French expressions and commonly used slang because we all use this kind of playful language in everyday conversations. The present perfect sentence mining creates deeper grooves in the French vinyl record in your brain and helps smooth out some of the scratches, which will have you producing everyday practical French, rather than textbook French. 

One of the biggest hurdles for people wanting to speak a foreign language is often confidence. I have purposefully taken an informal approach to create a more relaxed atmosphere where learning to laugh at mistakes actually improves your French. We learn a lot more if we’re having fun. For those of you that have dodgy short-term memories... sorry, I forgot what I was going to say....mmm... oh yes, if you’re rather forgetful I have made some daft associations to the vocabulary and used pictures because the memory loves an image – being daft and using images makes for some super sticky French. 

The way to reach a far-flung destination is to divide the journey up into manageable sections. I break down down grammatical points into digestible chunks but more importantly, I keep emphasising that getting your message across as best you can is the key to good communication. You may veer off your path, trip up or take a rest but then you can dust yourself off and keep going. 

We all learn at different paces but the key to success is perseverance and even more importantly, courage. I have taught hundreds of people French who have seen their confidence grow and had their eyes opened to the fact that anyone can learn a foreign language and believe it or not even enjoy the process with the added bonus of seeing their French flourish. 

Testimonials:
I have gone from knowing a few words on a French menu to being able to construct and decipher some (in my opinion!) quite complex sentences. It feels like this progress has been made almost without trying as the lessons are always fun and full of energy.
Joe 

I have learnt more French in 5 months with Cecile than I ever did in 5 years at school. Her lessons are fun with a practical content, well supported by videos and printed material. Perfect if you want to speak French, rather than just being able to order coffee!
Andrew 

The classes are very clearly structured and you will find yourself learning so much without realising it! I’ve been surprised at how much new stuff I’ve learned in addition to finding that some of the dormant knowledge is coming to life again. The teaching materials are brilliant! Excellent videos explaining any grammatical points very clearly and in ways to help you remember easily. In addition, you receive a summary of the lessons so you don’t have to write everything down when in class. This means you can concentrate and participate fully in class but also have the notes ready made for you.
Cynthia 

Cecile’s lessons are participative and are challenging while being supportive, friendly and fun. They progressively introduce you to colloquial French as well as to understanding the basic rules and forms of grammar and language. How you use, practice or study the language is up to you but Cecile gives you the foundations and the opportunities to exercise your skills and knowledge in very accessible ways.
Graham 

Cecile’s method is exceptional and geared toward a fast but thorough ability in spoken French while still maintaining correct grammar etc. Her classes could be considered as intense due to the amount of work covered, but you won’t feel like its hard work.
Steve

She can teach, she understands and believes in her students. Cecile proved to me that learning a new language can be easy, interesting and funny.
Mya 

Learning a language as an adult was fairly daunting and I didn’t actually think I would take it in. Cecile makes learning fun, effortless and interesting and you’ll find you’ve actually learnt a lot of a new language without realising and thinking too much. It just sort of sticks! You’ll find yourself suddenly blurting out French words, you hadn’t even realised you knew.
Mark C

The reason I start with one of the past tenses is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because when we chit chat we often tell people what we have done - not what we're doing right now as that's fairly obvious. Secondly, for those of you who have done French before you will probably be able to get by in the present tense so starting here is more useful. 

If you don't 'get' grammar forget this bit (it will make more sense once you've done the course). We are covering the present perfect using avoir with regular verbs. We will also cover useful adverbs, adjectives and you will hear how some of the phrases are said when spoken at speed.

Whatever your level you will come out the other side of this course with your French enriched. Come and join me for the rollercoaster ride that is language learning - it can be terrifying, difficult, confusing but the rewards of being able to understand that couple arguing on the café table next to yours or finding yourself blurting out some French and wondering where on earth it came from are thrilling to say the least. Start here by diving into the past. I really look forward to teaching you everyday French.

Merci beaucoup

Cecile :-)