Shadowing Practice: Is It Difficult To Learn French? | Easy French 193 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
148 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Hello friends, welcome to this new episode of Dizzy French.
2
Today we are with a special guest that you may recognize, our friend Gina, who comes from South Korea.
3
Hello friends, it's been a long time since we haven't seen it, and I'm very happy to participate in this new episode of Dizzy French.
4
Enchanté !
5
And today we are going to ask people if the French is a difficult language.
6
Let's go!
7
Do you think it's difficult to learn French for foreigners?
8
Yes, even me I have a problem.
9
Yes, yes.
10
Do you think French is a difficult language for foreigners?
11
As an foreigner who has to learn French, yes!
12
It's hard.
13
There are too many exceptions, too many rules.
14
Especially the pronunciation sounds that are not used to be used in other languages.
15
For example, I speak Spanish in the basic language and it's not the same sounds.
16
However, the other way it's easier to do.
17
Then the conjugation is complicated, the language is complicated.
18
So it's not easy.
19
Do you think it's difficult to learn French?
20
A lot.
21
Why?
22
I'm studying books and history.
23
I have a friend who is Chinese, so Lin Jun, who has two years to learn French.
24
She speaks extremely well.
25
It's super long, like the time.
26
She speaks really well.
27
But there are plenty of subtilities that we understand, for example, in the training of phrases, even in the words, etc., which are totally incomprehensible for foreigners.
28
So even the syntax, etc., it's really difficult to learn French.
29
As a Korean, I have a question.
30
In French, there are two types of words, like masculine and feminine.
31
Do you think you can directly find what is masculine and feminine?
32
Yes, but it depends on the word.
33
There are some weird words.
34
We don't know how much, and even if we stroke an anemone or an anemone, I don't know which one is.
35
But yes, it's to the ear.
36
So it's complicated to learn, I'm sorry.
37
Do you think it's difficult for foreigners to learn French?
38
Yes, I think it's a very difficult language to learn.
39
What is the most difficult for you?
40
I think there are many rules of grammar, with exceptions.
41
The fact that the language is common, like a giraffe, an elephant.
42
There are a lot of things to learn by heart.
43
I think it's really difficult.
44
Do you think French is a difficult language to learn?
45
Why?
46
Because there is all the grammar, the conjugations, the regular verbs.
47
I think it's not intuitive, like certain languages.
48
I studied the language étrangles.
49
Even in French, is it difficult to learn the conjugation, the grammar?
50
Yeah, it's difficult.
51
I think when you're from foreign languages, there are rules.
52
the verb will change in the conjugation.
53
I think it's very difficult to learn and retenir all these rules.
54
I think it's not easy to learn French.
55
I'm Korean and for me it was really difficult to learn French.
56
There are several reasons for that.
57
First, the pronunciation was really...
58
...tonnant.
59
For example, the pronunciation, especially the R, we do not exist in Korean.
60
So it was really difficult to practice this kind of sound.
61
And also the grammar.
62
In French there are many really complicated grammar like subjunctives,
63
subjunctives, conjugation, etc. And as a debutant,
64
it was really not easy to understand the logic.
65
And you come from where, if it's not indiscreet?
66
My Mexican family.
67
I was born in Angleterre, but I lived in Spain, so it's a bit complicated.
68
And how does your French so good?
69
After I'm here for a long time, so it's fine.
70
But my father, who arrived in France without speaking French, he had to learn when he was adult, so it was more complicated.
71
There he still has an accent
72
from the foreign accent and he still has a little bit of a problem with the la, the le, which word is how and how
73
and sometimes if he says I will there are always little things that will rest.
74
The pronunciation is really difficult in French?
75
Yes, really.
76
When you are hispanophone in all of a sudden?
77
In all of a sudden, yes.
78
And since we are a lot in the world, it's complicated.
79
Do you have a advice to give people who learn French?
80
I would not have advice to listen to the language, to listen to the language, to listen to the language, but to have a return,
81
because sometimes we pronounce it all alone, there are applications like Dolingo or something that allow us to learn all the language, but we don't have someone who speaks native language and tells us that it's well said,
82
that it's bad, that you think you're saying that you're saying that you're saying that you're saying that you're saying that.
83
It's really to have a exchange with people who speak native language.
84
What is difficult in learning French is to find people with whom they can practice
85
and who can't be able to do it.
86
Fortunately, there are solutions for this.
87
For example, the sponsor of this video, italki.
88
Italki is a online course platform where you will find a particular course of French
89
for all the budgets and for all levels.
90
On Italki, there are dozens of French professors who give French courses to all the possible hours.
91
You will find the course you need on Italki.
92
Thanks to your teacher, you will perfection your pronunciation,
93
develop your vocabulary, improve your grammar and you will be finally at ease to speak French in every circumstance.
94
It's incredible how we can do the progress that we can do regularly and seriously.
95
So, please go and pass our link go.itoki.com.
96
Easy French.
97
Grâce à notre lien, italki vous offre 10$ de crédit après que vous ayez dépensé 20$ sur la plateforme.
98
Profitez-en !
99
Est-ce que vous pensez que c'est difficile pour les étrangers d'apprendre le français ?
100
Oui.
101
Il y a beaucoup de règles de grammaire qui ne sont pas forcément évidentes.
102
Il y a beaucoup de lettres qui se lisent en double
103
et beaucoup de mêmes lettres qui ont des sonorités différentes quand on apprend.
104
I think it's complicated.
105
Do you know foreigners who learn French or have learned French?
106
I do the FLE, yes, on the weekends.
107
What is the most difficult for your students?
108
What are the things that are a bit complicated, that are a challenge for them?
109
The pronunciation and the terminations of the words when they don't pronounce them.
110
I work a lot with the Hispanophone and it's complicated.
111
And that all letters do not pronounce.
112
Yes, that's it.
113
What was the hardest thing for me to learn French was to count the numbers.
114
As you know, to count the numbers in French is a little more complicated.
115
For example, 80 is 4, 20, and 90 is 90.
116
It's like the math.
117
I'm not in mathematics, so it was really difficult.
118
But with a lot of training, I became a mathematician.
119
I have a lot of Japanese friends and I know that the R is very difficult to say.
120
Even the pronunciation of the R is very difficult.
121
When we learn a language, we learn new sounds, we learn a lot of things.
122
When we come from another world where we have other sounds, for example, I learned Russian and I learned new sounds.
123
We don't have in our French letters and consonants that we don't have in our French.
124
And it's very difficult, I think.
125
In terms of where we come, I think that the difficulties are not the same.
126
In terms of which language we are originate.
127
Would you like to say a advice for those who look at us and learn French?
128
Those who have progressed the most quickly were those who, on Spotify, met songs with the words that are happening or on YouTube videos with the subtitles.
129
So it obliges to learn the best terms and read more quickly.
130
And it works pretty well.
131
A tip for people who learn French, I would say, like all the languages,
132
not to worry about the exact same conjugation, and to practice it to oral, that is to speak.
133
If there are errors, it's not bad.
134
Learn to be careful about the fact that, but like for all languages, the importance is to be understood, and not to be exact.
135
Thank you for watching this episode.
136
And write in the comments if you also have difficulties learning French.
137
And don't forget to like it and subscribe to the channel EasyFriends.
138
See you soon!
139
Thank you Oh And I will teach you some very practical words Ok Thank you Thank you
140
Thank you I don't know Thank you
141
And it's good When you eat When you eat very delicious I don't know how to say
142
I don't know what I was saying.
143
I was saying that.
144
And if it's very delicious, we can say How was it?
145
I will teach you a young word.
146
If someone has done a little bad things,
147
I will say Yes Yes Yes I'm going to learn Korean I'm going to learn Korean
148
I'm really happy I bought books and everything Thank you
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B11
What Are The French Addicted To? | Easy French 243
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
A21
Countryside Vocabulary: How to Talk About Nature in Slow French
KidsTeensDaily Conversation
A22
How to Argue in French (A2 | Conversations for Advanced Beginners)
TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B12
French People Reveal Their Dream Vacation Destinations | Easy French 264
Travel EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
B12
The Secrets of French Happiness | Easy French 236
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
A24
Slow French Conversations About Weather | Super Easy French 207
Travel EnglishDaily Conversation
A22
Everyday Conversation In Slow French | Super Easy French 161
TeensDaily Conversation
B110
Having Breakfast in Slow French | Super Easy French 152
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B14
Paris, What Are You Doing Today? | Easy French 214
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B12
Why Do You Live in Paris? | Easy French 97
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B140 Minutes of Slow French: Conversations About Food (Breakfast, Picnic, Pastries...)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B1Men in France : Have They Changed? | Easy French 237
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2What Does Success Mean To The French — Deep Talk in French
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B1What Do The French Have For Breakfast? | Easy French 218
Travel EnglishDaily Conversation
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B11
87 sentences
Learn French the right way | Listening Practice in France | (FR/EN Subtitles) Vlog France in winter
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
112 sentences
451 日本人は丁寧すぎる？！#日本語ポッドキャスト
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
56 sentences
The Word I Struggle Most to Say in My American Accent? 'Spider-Man.😂
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B235
38 sentences
The Easiest Language?!
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B11
219 sentences
How Long Does it Take to Learn German?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B13
95 sentences
为什么你还不会说中文? Wèishéme nǐ hái bú huì shuō Zhōngwén? Why You Still Can't Speak Chinese |Chinese Podcast
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B13
308 sentences
Yoga Challenge
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
106 sentences
Why Some People Become Fluent — and Others Stay Stuck
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B14
112 sentences
Bài 7 - Học 1 Nghìn Từ Vựng
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
217 sentences
Why English is SO Hard to Learn!
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B21
22 sentences
How to Learn Any Language in 6 Months: My 4-Step Polyglot Formula
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B11
310 sentences
Learn Spanish with the TV Show Friends: Ross and Rachel
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Is It Difficult To Learn French?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: French, learn, difficult, language, complicated. This video has 148 sentences and 1542 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:28. The speaker talks at a steady 134 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| conjugation noun | /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/ | The coming together of things; a union. |
| foreigner noun | /ˈfɔɹ.ɪ.nɚ/ | A person from a foreign country. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| beaucoup | /ˈbuˌku/ | Much, many, a lot of. |
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| anemone noun | /əˈnɛməni/ | Any plant of the genus Anemone, of the Ranunculaceae (or buttercup) family, such as the windflower. |
| subjunctive adjective | /səbˈd͡ʒʌŋktɪv/ | Inflected to indicate that an act or state of being is possible, contingent or hypothetical, and not a fact. |
| masculine adjective | /ˈmæskjələn/ | Of or pertaining to the male gender. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| feminine adjective | /ˈfɛmɪnɪn/ | Of or pertaining to the female gender. |
| accent noun | /ækˈsɛnt/ | A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to… |
| mathematics noun | /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/ | An abstract representational system studying numbers, shapes, structures, quantitative change and relationships between them. |
| consonant noun | /ˈkɑn.sə.nənt/ | A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant… |
| debutant noun | /ˈdɛbjuːtənt/ | A person (especially a male) who débuts, or appears for the first time. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm studying books and history.
- Do you think you can directly find what is masculine and feminine?
- What is the most difficult for you?
- When you are hispanophone in all of a sudden?
- What is the most difficult for your students?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | friend who is · people who learn · someone who speaks |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | it's been · have learned · have progressed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was born · be understood |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most difficult · the hardest · the most quickly |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, mathematician /ˌmæθ.(ə.)məˈtɪʃ.ən/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, conjugation /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/, mathematician /ˌmæθ.(ə.)məˈtɪʃ.ən/, termination /tɚmɪˈneɪʃən/, perfection /pɚˈfɛk.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, conjugation /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/, anemone /əˈnɛməni/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, incomprehensible /ɪnˌkɑmpɹəˈhɛnsɪb(ə)l/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pronunciation, conjugation, foreigner.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.