Want to use those short windows of time when you have a spare 15 minutes to improve your French with quick activities?
I think, you are going to love this video.
I’m giving you a step-by-step roadmap on how to take every single short study session and make it as effective as possible.
We all know how time-consuming it can be to start your study session, get your mind in the right head space, decide what to actually study… and all of a sudden 10 or 20 minutes have passed and you haven’t actually started!
I’m sharing these 15 ideas for those 15 minutes short burst of times you can fit into your days. This makes your efforts more worthwhile and each task will truly help you improve your French. Mini study sessions could be part of your everyday routine.
I’d love to know that after this video you won’t let another week go by where you skip entire days or weeks of study because you couldn’t find a big enough window in your day. These 15-minute activities are short enough in your everyday and incredibly efficient to progress your French.
Idée 1: Écouter un podcast Listen to a short podcast. Pick something appropriate to your level. There are quite a few options out there these days. For new learners, I recommend Coffee Break French. For Beginners, I like Duolingo French. For intermediates, I recommend French voices or News in Slow French. For Advanced learners, I recommend native material so any Francophone produced podcasts.
Idée 2: Un peu d’écriture Complete some writing prompts. The easiest way to do this is to have a bank of writing prompts maybe at the start of each week or month you write yourself a little list. For example: On the first writing prompt, you could write about your family. The next day, write about one person in particular. The next time, you could describe them physically and detail what they’re wearing from a photo you have. The next time, you could describe their personality traits then the next writing prompt could be where you could write about your last encounter with them (where, when, what you did and spoke about…)
Idée 3: Lire et répéter Read the transcript of a podcast. Read it out loud then pick five words to add to your word bank in your notebook.
Idée 4: Écouter de la musique française Listen to a French song. First listen without lyrics then find the lyrics and listen again. Then add five words or phrases to your word bank.
Idée 5: Faire une leçon sur une appli Do a session of your favourite language app. It could be Duolingo or Busuu or Babel or …
Idée 6: Voir un film français Watch a movie in French. While you’re watching, spend the first 15 minutes with a notebook and a pen in hand to add new things to your word bank.
Idée 7: Reviser Review your recent notes. Take a look at the notes you took from a recent lesson or study session, rewrite the key things and delete anything that isn’t essential and can be ignored.
Idée 8: Revoir un exercice de grammaire Complete a grammar exercise, just one (nice quick French activity, right?). What you do with it next is what will help you truly improve your French…Pick a grammar point that you haven’t seen in a while, complete it and correct it. Then extract five phrases and tweak them to make them relevant to you and add them to your notebook.
Idée 9: S’enregistrer Make a voice recording. This may need a little preparation to come up with a few speaking prompts. In advance, make a list of 10 to 15 locations or situations and use these as speaking prompts to work out what you would say. For example, you could have speaking prompts for: at the coffee shop, at the gym, at a restaurant, at the airport duty free shop, in a taxi queue, with a old colleague, with my mother-in-law, with the doctor, with a neighbour’s child.
Idée 10: Raconter une scène Recall a real life scene. Think of the last interaction you had and see if you can write the short dialogue in French to reflect your exchange with that person.
Idée 11: Être comme un perroquet Be a parrot. Find a recording of spoken French, to keep this relevant find one at your level. Play it and make sure to pause after every few words to practice mimicking the French speaker’s accent and intonation. This is one of the most fun quick French activities you could do!
Idée 12: Les cinq sens Use your five senses. This can be a very effective and short exercise you can make it last 15 minutes by writing down your findings. Set a timer and ask yourself: What can I see? What can I hear? What can I smell? What can I taste? What can I touch? Yes I know it’s short and snappy but that’s the idea to keep it quick and still offer an activity you can use to improve your French.
Idée 13: Concours d’orthographe Win at spelling bee. Set your timer for 15 minutes and spell out loud as many words around you as you can in French. You can make it more challenging by looking at each object and thinking of the word used in French before spelling the French word.
Idée 14: Parler de quelqu’un Tell us about them. Let’s be honest, everyone loves talking about other people, be it a family member or a colleague. This activity will be a quick and easy way to improve your French and be able to have these conversations with native Fernch speakers soon. So… think of someone well know, the last person you met or someone who is important to you and write or record yourself saying as much as you can about them. Go into details about how and when you met, what kind of person they are, describe them physically as well as their personality, tell us their life story, explain their likes, dislikes and future projects.
Idée 15: Être curieux Get curious. For this activity set a timer and find your favourite dictionary whether it is a physical book or an online translator such as wordreference or reverso. Take a look at the last notes you made from your last lesson for your last French study session . Pick 5 commonly used words. Even though you know what they mean, type them in the online dictionary to discover what other meanings they potentially have, the further down the list you go the more fun it gets. One word of caution: remember to be a good curator on behalf of your brain! Only make a note of the ones you can see yourself needing in the future to ensure you don’t get overwhelmed.
So now that I’ve shared 15 ideas for quick French activities you can do in under fifteen minutes, I’d love it if YOU could tell me which one you’d love to add more regularly in your learning schedule!