Why French is Easy by Benny Lewis | A Review

I have teamed up with Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months as an affiliate. If you choose to purchase “Why French is Easy” by clicking on one of the links in this article, I make a small commission which goes towards keeping Eurolinguiste up and running. The opinions in this article are my honest thoughts of the book; I would not encourage you to purchase anything I do not feel is an excellent language learning resource.

When I began learning my first language, my ability to use it was delayed immensely because I was afraid to use it until I had worked out all of the kinks and my speaking was flawless. The trouble with that strategy was I would never speak flawlessly (or even half decent) if I didn’t practice speaking. It really wasn’t until I was thrown into situations where I didn’t have the choice that my speaking ability flourished.

And it’s exactly this approach to speaking another language that author and language learner Benny Lewis endorses. After experiencing it myself firsthand, I can certainly see why. His new series of books, including “Why French is Easy“, gives languages learners the information they need to simplify the languages they’re learning and get started with speaking right away.

A Quick Background on Benny Lewis and Fluent in 3 Months

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Benny, he is the author of the book “Fluent in 3 Months” and the creator of site of the same name, where he helps others get comfortable speaking another language. His story is probably similar to many who have lived abroad, but after meeting a multilingual guest at a party, everything changed. Within six months he was able to carry on a conversation in Spanish, and he went on to use the same method to fluently learn French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Esperanto.

Is French Really Easy?

Much like almost every foreign language, there are a lot of reasons people might say that French isn’t easy. Native speakers speak too quickly. They aren’t friendly to foreigners and it’s hard to find someone to practice with. They just respond to you in English because they want to practice their target language too. Conjugations and tenses are hard. Learning genders is nearly impossible.

But those are all just excuses. Learning French doesn’t have to be difficult, but if you go about it with the mindset that it will be, you’re certainly setting yourself at a disadvantage. If you’re looking for a way to overcome any hesitations you have, however, having something that explains the more complicated aspects of the language from the get-go can be an irreplaceable part of your French language learning experience – and that’s exactly what “Why French is Easy” is.

“Why French is Easy” covers many of the features unique to the French language and how to navigate them: the liaison, the French “u”,  a rough guide to the rules surrounding silent letters, and more. With nearly every chapter, Benny includes links to additional resources for further research or practice.

If you’re looking for a compact and simple guide to help you navigate your way through learning the French language, “Why French is Easy” is definitely a book you should consider adding to your collection of resources.

What This Book is Not

“Why French is Easy” is not an all-inclusive guide to learning French. It is, however, a guide that simplifies some of the more complicated grammatical and verbal aspects of the language.

It is not going to teach you vocabulary. But it will teach you the basic rules of the language in a way that most other resources either avoid or explain in a complicated manner with a sprinkling of vocabulary thrown in.

It is not a difficult read. It’s rather enjoyable and can be completed in an afternoon. It also makes a great supplement to keep on the side while learning the language when you get to certain grammatical aspects or get stuck on the pronunciation of certain words.

It is notjust about French grammar and pronunciation. It also offers a helpful collection of tips for remembering vocabulary, developing your speaking ability and it offers a ton of resources to help you get started.

It is not a shortcut for learning French. There are not shortcuts – you just have to put in the time. But if you’re looking for explanations that help simplify the more difficult features of the language so that you can learn them and understand them more quickly, then this is a great book to add to your collection.

A Sample Language Learning Schedule

The guide comes with two bonuses: a sample online schedule for day-to-day immersion and a guide for setting up digital immersion.

The digital immersion guide contains tips for everything from changing the language of your Facebook account to setting up a French keyboard on your computer and phone. It also includes suggestions for four helpful language apps (three out of the four are apps that I use on a regular basis).

I absolutely love the bonus booklets, particularly because I’ve been an advocate of digital immersion for some time. Although I didn’t know I could change the language of my computer operating system, I’ve gone as far as changing the language of my car to my target language to get in the extra practice.

The second bonus, a day-to-day immersion schedule, gives you suggestions for study before work, during your lunch break and after work, ensuring that you cover all four of the aspects necessary to learn a language – reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It also includes a collection of resources for each of the aforementioned.

My Thoughts

In all honesty, I wish that I had this book a long time ago. It would have helped me immensely as I was learning the language. I feel that I learned some of the topics in a book in a roundabout and unnecessarily difficult way now that I’ve read Benny’s simple explanations of things like past tense and helper verbs. It is absolutely a guide that I plan on recommending to my students and highly suggest it as a resource to those interested in learning French.

A Special Offer on “Why French is Easy”

You can get “Why French is Easy” for $27 (30% off the regular price) until Monday, April 27, 2015. Don’t miss out! Get it here.

Or, if you prefer to get all six of the “Why ____ is Easy” guides – this includes Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and English – you can get them ALL for just  $47 ($234 total value). Get the bundle here.

Benny is also offering access to his Fluent in 3 Months Premium Membership program.  You can find out more about the membership program here.

What about you? What are some of your favorite resources for learning the French language? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!