Becoming better at writing in French

Last month, each time I wrote an essay or short paragraphs for a French homework assignment, my teacher would return the paper to me with angry red marks strewn across the page. I always glanced at them for a second, but waved them off. Afterall, I always made the same mistakes. I never had to correct my work afterwards, so I didn’t ingrain my mistakes in my head. I kept going through French class like so–that is, until I saw the AP exam looming just about the horizon.

I decided I wanted to become better in French composition, or else I would leave that exam with a 2/9 on the composition section. And so, I looked into methods of understanding how to write in French better. I looked around at a few sites and finally found Français Facile. When I first went to that website, I exited half a minute later. After all, the layout was pretty old fashioned and so I questioned whether anyone would actually go on such a website. Don’t be deceived!

Français Facile receives many account creations per day. It is affiliated and connected with Anglais Facile, Espagnol Facile, etc. Thus, there are people from France who would like to learn English going on these websites as well. And thus, I could find people to interact with. I posted one message on their forum asking if there were French natives who would like to interact with me either orally by Skype or through e-mails. Now, I’m still receiving messages from French natives asking if I would like to become their penpal. Thus from there, I received many people’s contact information and I write e-mails in French weekly to a few people.

I have worked out this system where a French native and I write in French for two letters and then in English for two letters, and so on. Thus, each person can read and write both English and French at least once. Afterwards, my French correspondant would correct my French and I would correct his or her English. Through this method, I better my French writing and I help my French reading, as well as helping someone else.

Yesterday, I just finished writing a French essay. Today, I handed it in and received it back. There were many less red marks on the paper and my teacher believed that I would receive either a 7 or 8 for that essay on the AP. This is much better than my previous 4s through 6s.

My conlusion? Practice, practice, practice! Even though this is obvious, many people do not do so. The only way to become better at a language is to practice that language. So try whatever you can. Search for networking websites made for connecting people learning languages. There are many on the Internet; it only takes a few minutes to search.