French was my first foreign language too, got me a degree, profession, stepping stone to 2 other languages, and got it to a level where my university French teacher only realised I wasn't French when I told her, after the first semester 😅 Love the channel, Olly, an inspiration x

Wouldn't it be great if you said, "Hi everyone, I have learnt French by having been born and raised in France" and then just played accordeon for twelve minutes

Bon courage à tous ceux qui apprennent le français! Ce n'est pas facile mais avec de la patience et de la détermination, vous pouvez le faire!

Finally I am trilingual now,English, Hindi and Spanish at native level.

The lesson I take from this story is that you can make dumb decisions and put yourself in a lousy situation but if you have drive, willingness and maybe a little luck you can turn them into positive experiences that help you grow as a person. Thanks for sharing.

J'ai acheté votre livre à la librairie. Ça m'aide beaucoup. Tu devrais faire une vidéo en français. J'aimerais voir ça.

It's interesting, Steve Kaufman just put out a video specifically speaking about the "Loneliness in Language Learning" as well. I really think your story of that struggle in Paris is something that not many language learners talk about. There is a mental strain that exists with learning a language and spending hours and hours not understanding or being understood... and that strain is enhanced if you are immersed in a foreign country. That, coupled with homesickness, can put you in a pretty rough place if you aren't prepared for it. Then, even after you get to the point that you can understand and can make yourself understood... there is still another period of time where you still have to acquire enough vocabulary to feel like you are able to speak your mind and really be understood at a deeper, more personal level. There are a lot of jokes that will fly over your head, double-entendres that miss their mark, cultural things that you misstep, etc. I served an LDS mission to France and it was enormously taxing for a long time. It was something that I was completely unprepared for socially. While I'm really happy that I had that experience, it's not something I look to replicate in my life any time soon. Thanks for sharing your story, and for all the work you do :)

Fabulous story. I lived with French co workers at the hotel I was working at and that helped me learn a lot of French plus working in French restaurants. I now would like to learn more than just the basics.

I took two years of french in the early 90s. After that I wanted to learn more. The problem of being in the center of the US was lack of materials. All you could get was maybe a 60 minute cassette tape with a "learn french" book. To get good at listening comprehension you need hundreds of hours of different types of audio. I tackled it off and on for 15 years. Mostly off. Then in 2015 I realized "well there is KZfaq now". A total game changer. So I basically started from scratch. My french comprehension is so much better now.

"nothing happens until you make it happen" a very powerful message to remember in life thanks

Hey Olly, I've been learning French for more than a year now and I think I've noticed something. French speakers say "for example" way more often than English speakers. When we English speakers give examples, we usually just give examples without saying actually the words "for example." But I regularly hear "par exemple" in French, so often that I could probably make a drinking game out of it.

I was always confident that I would never be able to talk in French, and after 5 years of learning it in school I am proud to say that it's true.

Vous êtes vraiment ma inspiration, Olly! Je suis Tamoul (Indien) et j'apprends le français.

Quelle histoire inspirante, Olly ! J'ai dû regarder cette vidéo deux fois. Tu es une vraie motivation.

Currently trying to learn french because my dream school is on Montreal. I'm thinking once I'm done my undergrad to move there for half a year and just get immersion in the language

been in montreal for 6 years and dont speak french. I must learn!

I'm reading your short stories in French at the moment. Really enjoying it and learning lots.

I really like the editing of the part of the video where you talk about your back to school sales. I love the colourful pictures that appear on the screen

I really appreciated this. I studied abroad when I was at a terrible point in my life but it was my only opportunity in school to do it and I’d been wanting it since I was so little. But I was miserable. I got the cute diaries to chronicle everything and I ended up just writing how much I wanted to go home everyday. It was really weird because I didn’t know how out I could or couldn’t be, I got kicked out of my first host family because I’m gay and my school was all American exchange students so I only spoke French at home and in the streets. I really want to go back and do it my way on my terms

This is so encouraging, thanku for making content from us!

Great story, Olly! French was early in my journey as well and holds a special place in my heart.

Hi Olly! I stumbled upon your channel found this video. Thank you for sharing your story in France, I could really relate to this. After I graduated college I moved to Spain to teach English and learn Spanish (on my own). I started seeking out language exchanges and was trying to meet people in the small town I was in. It definitely wasn’t easy and struggled for about a year as a young, curious introvert in a foreign space with no real plan for the future. Just like you, I was also fortunate to meet some amazing, patient people who wanted to help. After about 2 and a half years abroad I was able to get to a C1 and sometimes I can’t believe it. I fell in love with the language and now I’m currently learning French! Thank you for sharing your story, just subscribed!

I’ve only just realised that you wrote the short stories in french book I have been enjoying. Great book and great videos, I’d love to see more of you talking in french. If you could have a video call with one or many of your french speaking friends just for general conversations and broadcast it, that would be awesome!

A timely video as I have been learning French for the past two months. Thanks Olly!

I love hearing people's stories. I like your story and I must admit I can relate to it. I think when I was in a bad place, that gave me an opportunity to go abroad and look for a different life. It was also good for my language learning as well.

Thanks for sharing this Olly. It has given me ideas about revisiting my 'french problem' in a different way.

Your story really resonates with me. I think it's so important to stress that going abroad won't solve all your problems and how difficult it can be as a young guy on your own! You are so right about how once you get to B2/C1 you pretty much don't look back. I am currently on a quest to get proficiency in another language having got to an advanced level in German. Great honest content, thanks :)

Thanks for sharing the story 😊

Hey Olly, thanks for the interesting story. I was a bit like you when I was 24 years old. I thought the same about England as you did about France but ended up coming back to my country after a year in UK. The only difference was that I was already fluent in English before I went to UK. But I had never lived abroad before that, so I kind of went there blindfolded and not really sure what to expect. I had high expectations but I realized soon that the life there wasn't what I expected it to be, and it was really hard to be honest. But I had still a great time, like an adventure and a really good life lesson which I had to learn to realize what I have and to appreciate it. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, although we often think it is. Also my English improved a lot while working with native speakers for almost a year. Cheers Olly from Finland😃.

Excellent vidéo. J'adore et tu donnes vraiment le goût d'apprendre d'autres langues. I teach FSL and I will use some of your videos this school year to show my students how fun it can be to learn new languages. Thank you and Hello from Ottawa, Canada.

Hey Olly, thought it was so cool that you studied jazz piano, just starting to (re)learn French to continue my jazz studies in a French speaking city. Thanks for the great content!

Olly, please let me tell you.... that was a fascinating story of how things happened for you in France... part by fortune, part by luck and part by your determination. Wonderful to listen to... that small opportunity to learn French opened masses of future doors for you, and all credit to you.

So this may be the fifth or sixth of your videos I’ve watched but today is when I realized I have your book of stories for French learners! BTW Love it

wow, very close to 100k subs. congratulates!

I like all your epsiodes but this one is exceptional. I'm 41 and about to move to Germany by myself (after learning German in the UK for a couple of years), so your experience is very motivating! I also agree with your story learning method, I'm reading a lot of native German texts (like Heinrich Harrer's '7 Years in Tibet') and find it has a huge impact on vocabulary.

I'm French, following your channel and I find your story amazing ✨ I actually speak 3 languages at native level but since I'm not living anymore in the country where one of those language is spoken, one of my biggest concern is how to maintain the level. And as you mentioned it at the end of your video, I would be very interested to have a deeper point of view of how you can keep it for life. Thanks for your very fascinating videos 🤗

I am using the story learning method and it feels like it’s working. Thank you ❤️💪👍🏼

As a native french person, I'm always surprised to see how many people are learning french out there. Males me happy :) I had problems learning english back in middle school, and I had to take extra class. Translatinf the resume of books I was waiting to come in french helped me a lot, and I'm very proud of my level now. I'm currently working on my rusted spanish while trying to learn italian. Fortunately, they have a lot in common ^^ German, on the other hand, even if it's close to english, is a whole different thing x) And I learning japanese too, already able to read hiragana and strating katakana. Doesn't mean I'll be able to speak them all properly, but I would at least be able to understand them a little ^^

after spending a year abroad, pretty much how you described but in berlin myself, and achieving that strong b2 level its comforting to know that i will retain lots of this language later into my life and that i can start to shift my focus to other languages i would like to acquire, like french and spanish. thanks for sharing your story olly! and i have definitely owned copies of your german stories. ;)

I’m Dutch and English is my first foreign language. I’ve learned a little bit of Spanish, but French is a language I want to become fluent at. Just because it’s so beautiful :)

French has been my first foreign language too and it has changed my life and began my journey of polyglot-hood, so did your podcast and blogs all the way back so many years ago. So glad to see that it has all grown into such a huge and well-loved language learning course and book series, who have been helping language learners all over the world. Recently I made friend with a fellow language learner who lives way across the globe and guess what, she and I are both big fans of your work! Anyway, thanks for sharing a more detailed version of this part of your life, I thought I knew all already but apparently I didn't! Somehow it has given me some reflection and insights on mine too. Thank you so much, as always.

Thanks for sharing! Greetings from Patagonia Chile!

Wow coming back to the channel after a while and the set up is looking good!

I own your book that you showed at the beginning of this video. Although I just started it I love that you put q&a's at the end of the storis for better understanding.

Thank you for the cool and fun story. I also moved to France, where I did full immersion of living with a French family and study at a school. After some time, I moved to Canada and then got a French speaking job and a Quebec gf, so I was able to create those opportunities to perfect my French. I also found that meetup groups are also great way to practice speaking.

Thanks for sharing this! It's inspiring

Thank you for sharing this story. It is an inspiration to me.

Ha! Love this. Thanks for your honesty. We definitely get a romanticised view from popular culture of language-learning and living abroad, and I totally relate to the struggle but also the “seeding” that comes from these challenges. It’s a good reminder that really everything is working for us if we’re willing to keep an open heart and mind to whatever we experience in life. 😊

Wow I just bought the book short stories in French a few weeks ago and then I just happened to stumble across your KZfaq channel at random I didn't even realize you were the author of the book until you just showed a copy of it awesome!

it was great video. i'm brazilian and i'm getting more comfortable with the learn languages, thank you.

Great story!! Cheers

One of the challenges of learning French, Spanish or Portuguese is its diversity of regional accents, argots and grammar. This is of course very pronounced in French as even within France there is a cacophony of local dialects. A Parisian for example can hardly understand a Marseillais let alone a Corsican. Some of us are too enamored of the variety from l'île de France to appreciate the other types. Then we go to Quebec, Acadia (New Brunswick), Martinique, Haïti, Louisiana (Cajun) and are bewildered by how their versions of French have acquired unique vocabularies and quirks that reflect their histories and experiences. Simply Parisian French is not the one and only. I recommend that we watch les Carnets de Julie wherein la présentatrice gives us glimpses, cadences and tastes that in sum is France in its entirety. Bonne journée.

Really interesting video. Enjoyed it. Hope you do other videos about your other languages 👍🏽👍🏽

tu dois ajouter le sous-titres, si tu veux que les autres puissent apprendre anglais au moins. Mais selon moi tes videos m'ont aidé beaucoup avec mon desir d'être polyglotte. Du fond du cœur, merci.

incredibly inspiring!

You look so young. LOL now I know you’ll read my comment. I’m doing my “gap year” now at almost 60! Been speaking crappy Spanish since high school. In about 2 weeks I’m off to Spain as a language and cultural assistant at an elementary school. Subscribed as ur so close to that magic #. Thanks for all ur advice. I’ll get ur book and borrow some from my school. Your knowledge is indispensable!

Lovely to hear your experience learning the language. Would love to hear how you learn Cantonese and your experience with it.

Being in a foreign country can be incredibly difficult if you don't make connections with people. After I did an exchange in Spain, my biggest regret was not talking to people. I was so shy; people thought I couldn't speak Spanish. I didn't really make friends. So, my language learning advice is to not be afraid to make a fool of yourself! Speak! Be ridiculous! Make mistakes! It's hard, but people are forgiving. It's amazing the connection you can make with someone just by talking with them. When I did speak with people, it was extremely rewarding.

Thank you for the story You lit a spark into me that I hope it lasts long enough until I I

Wait. I just bought your book "Short Stories in Spanish" a week ago and I didn't know YOU were the author of the book; I never made that connection. Thank you for the material amigo.

What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing. I'm learning French just because I was curious if I could learn it. French, for me, looked like a fancy language that I would never have the opportunity to learn. Even though it's a Romance language, it sounded so different and I was easily intimidated. Many people have said that it is one of the most beautiful languages but it didn't sound like that to me, to be honest, haha. So, I just give it a try to learn it see what the language is really like. It was really hard at first, quite frustrating. My motivation was weak so it was hard for me to keep studying. It took time, but after some time, it was finally making sense. All the puzzle pieces starting to take form (I love this part of language acquisition the most). And after that, it has been a complete joy to learn. What an interesting language. My Spanish knowledge did help to a certain extent, too. Still the beginner level, but I would definitely keep studying to a certain level.

This is one hell of a story. You should make this into a movie😂😂. My respects from South Africa🇿🇦🇿🇦.

Hey if it makes you feel better Ollie, at least you had your early life crisis at 19! I'm 23 and am contemplating quitting the desk job I worked 4 years to get in favor of just sending it to another place and seeing how she goes. Por ahora, voy al tu video sobre tu viaje con español!!

This is great, insight. I fully agree that this has to be something YOU have to make happen, I suppose this applies to many other things as well. One of my frustrations as a native English speaker, is the insistence of others to speak to you in English. This is especially true during work trips. It has to be deliberate, to assert yourself and ensure your progress. Looking forward to starting my French journey soon. Curious what you think have been the most ''useful'' language(s) for you?

Thanks Olly. I’m curious to try your products. I’ve just started to learn Spanish. So, I’ll give the story telling method a go. In hindsight this seems to be what i did with French and German.

Great story! I read your Spanish for beginners! I understood all of them minus a few words here and there! Will definitely be buying more when payday comes around 😅✌🏻

Congrats Olly!

J’adore tes livres! 📚

I'd like to take part in language exchanges here in my city. You're my inspiration Olly.

Your story was quite similar to mine. Back in 2015 when I was native in russian and armenian ( and fluent in eng.) I was wondering if it was even possible for me to achieve the same level in French ? My father even told me " Won't discourage you, but native lvl requires a lot of study and practice" And the first year in France I couldn't imagine myself speaking fr, didn't like it at all, the affection towards the language came later, my first job that I found was vital for my documents so I was desperately trying find a job but obviously was getting refused for any post, and finally got recruited in music store they didn't care much about my French, they helped me out and probably even saved my life.... And now I have native lvl in fr, only few people could make the difference between my French and a native speaker, it really makes me proud, of course having an accent is charming but having native pronunciation is more impressive in my opinion. Your Chanel is amazing, wondering if you got any tips for learning Asian languages ?

thank you so much Oliy

Hace poco que encontré tu canal. Es espectacular. Solo quería contarte una historia graciosa. Mi hijo de dos años está empezando a ver pequeños vídeos para aprender los números y las letras. En uno de los vídeos, para la letra "o" hay una canción que dice: "a la ostra Oli, le encantan los raviolis". Y siempre que oigo la canción me acuerdo de tu canal. 🙃 Bueno, una tontería. Love your chanel and your work!

This story was amazing. I'm a bilingual guy from Finland and currently learning French. I can't wrap my head around the fact that I've learnt english though barely. French on the other hand is a totally different field to me, but I'm so desperate in learning the language. All I have to say is that you just motivated me to fly in Paris with nothing and come back a hero.

Belle histoire!

New subscriber here... I took French in high school many years ago and was lucky to have an excellent teacher, so I was able to retain much of it when I visited France at age 23. Now it's a couple decades later and I decided to try relearning and have been doing Duo Lingo for almost a year but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with it 🙁 I think I'm ready to try a new method! I might just have to jump on that sale! Thank you!

No aspetta un attimo, sei anche pianista?!! grandissimo 🔥

Being able to understand French is like having a superpower for me. It's my second language I learn after English. Salut d'Indonésie :).

That video was super inspirational to me because I am 20 now, I have been learning Spanish for a month and Spanish is my third language, I will keep going. Thanks!

Changed my life, too! So interesting how you began publishing in other languages. Do you find native speakers helping you as copy editors useful?

I'm Judy from Philippines and I'm excited learning French since I'm moving to Quebec Canada probably nextyear .Canadian French will be my 5th language since I'm here in Taiwan Chinese mandarin is my 4th(tagalog, English, Spanish )..French seems so hard to.learn but I'm determined and willing to learn it😊

This hits differently. Just had a huge breakup and I am about the same age as you. Will give your tips a try.

Je regarde tes vidéos par curiosité, je suis Français et j’aime bien voir comment on apprend notre langue. Il y a énormément d’expressions qui sont propres à chaque régions, certaines personnes ne connaissent pas certains mots venant d’une autre région. Nous avons aussi beaucoup de verlan, " tu es fou " / " t’es un ouf " par exemple. Ou les compressions " il y a " / " y’a " Bon courage à tous 😬

Hi Olly, loving the French Uncovered course, on chapter 5 right now. Do you recommend doing chapter after chapter continuously or taking day break every few chapters? And using a podcast to get an hour of immersion on a break day. Many thanks, keep up the great content.

If you tell me that you used your 5 minutes break from your job to revise words in French, I can do nothing but admire your commitment to the language.

great video

Quelle belle histoire !

Salut Olly, if I may, music is not unrelated to language acquirement/learning at all. Just as language, music is processed by our brain and ears much the same way. Music is a wonderful way to expand your brain and language skills. Your jazz studies most likely helped your French accent, comprehension etc, especially with your brain receiving "complex, rich" information from such sophisticated music genre such as jazz. I do speak from experience as I was lucky to grow up in an environment rich in "complex" music(s) such as opera, jazz etc but I am far from alone and have read about this connection for a long time (will try to back my claims up with studies etc hopefully soon). Growing up this way proved to an asset in music skills as well as language skills (even math skills, as mathematics are also enhanced with music and language learning!). I gave me perfect pitch with the ability to play any instrument (as long as I don't get too lazy and actually practice a bit hahaha... quite the gift and the curse there ;)) as well as the ability, the ease of acquiring another language, I can pick up a language very easily (one example is I was invited to attend a Jewish bat mitzah years ago and although I never learned and much heard Hebrew before then, I was able to pick up its sound, accent and all on the spot with lyrics in front of me when the Cantor proceeded to sing and all attendees were singing along and I surprised myself being able to pick it up right away and sing along with them! So much so, some of my friends there asked me/joked about me not being Jewish haha). Anyway... Overall, every parent should play a lot of different styles of music to their children from (even before) birth. That will create new neurones in their brain and overall expand their brains and language skills, as I have tried to explain above. Am a new sub BTW! I'm a French native living in California. Merci.

I had a similar experience with blind confidence at 19. I left for the summer to spain and joined a course. The first week was so painful, but i believe this pain of dumb experience forces you to aquire the language much quicker. Totally agree that you need to have people to talk to! I would go for haircuts i didnt need, walk into stores i had no interest in and ask questions in restaurants that had no relevance, just to practice. Im about to try the same in France after getting my Spanish to about a B2/C1 level and having lived and worked in Mexico. Im hoping for a similar result, just a bit quicker this time!

While teaching us how to learn foreign languages, please, drop your skin care routine, Olly! I signed for french language classes and I'll use your books as well. I'm watching this video to hype up :)

I was rubbish at French (7 years at school) but moved to Spain at age 39. My wife, who was a Polish raised polyglot, forbade me from speaking to English folk in our first year there. It really helped and I soon gained a decent level of conversational Spanish. I found though that younger people who moved to Spain were way more fluent than I. It seems to me that every decade you age, your ability to absorb a language reduces, so it's good to immerse as young as you can.

It would be interesting to know your take on how learning music helps in your ability to learn other languages.

Bon courage à tous ceux qui apprennent le Français ! Même pour les natifs cela peut-être difficile, ne vous découragez pas.

Fun story 🙂

If they ask me " Who is the person you know that doesn't change as he gets older?" I prolly give your name Olly :D

I did French A Level...forgot most of it, esp the grammar. In 2004, I did a one eve a week improvers course at the local college. I picked quite a bit up once more. However, I didn't use it so forgot it all over again !

Olly, I really enjoy your videos. I too love languages and have studied French and German. Unfortunately, I am not fluent in either. I went to Buenos Aires, my first trip to South America, in 2019. After making many trips to Europe over the years, I was expecting to find many people in BA speaking English as you do across Europe. I found the total opposite, and I don’t speak any Spanish. I would love to return to BA and visit other countries in South America; however, it is a struggle not speaking any Spanish. I am curious, what is your favorite language to converse in, and which language do you get the most use of - outside of English.

I will revive my French studies (after 10 years!!!) on Wednesday. Looking forward to read your short stories once I'm done with the LingQ mini stories. BTW what about the short stories for Polish? 👀

I remember many years ago I spent my life reading books but I read just in Spanish. I wanted to experience the literature and poetry world in different languages like my favorite writers because every time I read a biography about one poet I always found "that poet knew Spanish, French, Italian, English, Russian... etc". So I decided to learn another language, and everyone said to me that I had to learn English, that English is mandatory. But I don't like to be obliged, I wanted to learn not for money and nothing socially useful. In the end, I chose French and I read writers such as "Maupassant, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Victor Hugo, Maurice Leblanc, Alexandre Dumas... Etc" Right now, I'm learning English.

I spent 9 months in England for my MA. Lucky me I was already fluent because the interaction I had with "native" speakers was rather limited - actually the most fruitful were a half-drunken digression in the tube one early morning, and a break in a bus following massive strikes... I made the most progress re-translating the subtiles of my favorite show, followed by real-time translating philosophy classes to an exchange student from Canada... While in France.

I'm actually learning French because I'm interested some girl very close to me. We all have our reasons 😅 happy learning.