[00:00] Hello my dear listeners this is English Canada the podcast about learning languages going through immigration and establishing yourself in a new place

[00:17] Hi everyone that's Anastasia Stoyanova today and in today's episode I'm going to be talking about my experience of learning

[00:26] French and not just any kind of experience of learning French but how to learn a language without a teacher without an instructor who guides you

[00:36] So first things first I would like to share about my experience of learning French having a study buddy

[00:45] So first of all what is this concept of study buddy Study buddy is a person who is just like you it's your peer who has the same level of language proficiency who has the same level of language experience and who is learning with you

[01:06] So this kind of person who is on the same level So it's not your teacher and you are not their teacher either

[01:15] You are teaching each other you are learning from each other and you are learning together And what's important here in this context is that it's important to hold each other accountable to have very similar goals regarding the language and to be able to enjoy the language learning together

[01:38] So in my experience I've been learning French for almost three years on and off There were some times where

[01:47] I had some breaks and I couldn't go couldn't continue anymore but I talked about that in my previous episode so if you want to go back and scroll through the podcast or through the

[02:00] YouTube channel please do that Like I don't want to talk about that in detail the whole timeline but right now

[02:08] I would say I do have a very solid intermediate level and I'm moving upwards I want to achieve upper intermediate level and

[02:17] I've been doing that for some time and I have been attending group lessons as well And group learning has been so much fun if you have already this foundation

[02:30] And in my group there was this young lady and she was very nice and one time she told me like oh maybe we could you know grab a drink together or grab coffees and just speak

[02:43] French to each other And I said oh why not We don't even need drinks we can do it even online if you want to

[02:49] And she said wow that's nice like just to meet up and speak French and I said yeah hell yeah because you know

[02:56] I talked a little bit about my background and for me it kind of became a natural thing to do because

[03:01] I'm an English teacher I'm an ESL instructor so I do have very strong communication skills and organization skills

[03:09] So that's what I was kind of suggesting I told her you know I can organize the meeting I can prepare some materials

[03:15] I can choose the book for us to go over together and she said well let's try And then just like throughout this conversation during just talking to each other

[03:29] I figured out that well we have the same goals and we are approximately at the same level maybe she's a little bit more fluent than myself

[03:37] But she's quite nice and like she's really nice I mean And I told her hey like I want to take and pass this

[03:45] DELF B2 exam it's like Opera Intermediate French exam it's standard exam It's not for immigration or anything because like

[03:55] I already immigrated to Canada and she's a Canadian citizen born here I mean she just needs it for her work opportunities just to kind of expand her horizon and career prospects so to speak

[04:08] So for me it's the same way And we said well we have this very similar goal let's try And I set up a meeting and

[04:17] I set up the whole environment for us like the documents and I do a bit of planning But usually the way it goes is that we chose the book we are using

[04:26] Edito B2 by Didier Publishing House And it's a very it's amazing book like I've used it before when I was learning with my tutor from

[04:38] France And yeah so this concept of study buddy has been really great for me like it's been working really well but you got to really find your person right

[04:50] Because you got to find your person you got to organize yourselves because to hold each other accountable that requires this kind of skill of patience but at the same time self discipline

[05:04] So that's crucial A lot of people struggle with that So of course this experience is not for everyone

[05:10] But today I'm just like sharing my thoughts my experience And of course it's unique but you can try that and see if it works or not

[05:19] Now the question is how can you find this person because in my case I was already going to this French school to

[05:26] Alliance Francaise de Toronto So like in my case I was going to this Toronto French school basically

[05:34] French language school And it was kind of easy we were in the same group we were already paired and we knew that we are at the same level approximately

[05:44] But in your case you can try and see of course it's always better to meet offline to meet in person first to have this kind of bond and connection and to see if you click personality wise because it's important to have this like enjoyable vibe during the lesson or during the practice and to have some kind of structure

[06:03] So it's not just like you're speaking right It should be like a lesson So ideally you got to find some person with a background in education

[06:13] That's the perfect scenario the best case scenario And you can look for this study buddy maybe you can write a post in a local

[06:23] Facebook group and just see whoever wants to learn and you can always try you can always change partners

[06:30] It's life right You can change your study buddy partners and I think it's just give it a try and see if it works or not for you

[06:39] What else is important It's important to consider this fact that you already have to have some foundation in the language so you cannot learn the language from scratch or from zero and look for a study buddy

[06:53] In this case you do need a professional French tutor In this case maybe you're learning English as you are listening to this or maybe you're listening just out of curiosity

[07:03] So anyway it doesn't matter what you're learning but if you're building the foundation it's important to use the tips and the guidance of a professional

[07:12] But then later if you are at an intermediate level or you're like in my case I'm trying to achieve B2 level so that's important just to consider this factor that it's not going to work if you're just a beginner

[07:27] It's more when you're intermediate or you're advancing higher than intermediate Then of course for some people it might be not so convenient to do this online right

[07:37] But our world is becoming more and more digitalized and computerized and like everything's online everything's via

[07:45] Zoom So that's what we are doing despite the fact that we live roughly in the same area Maybe you can try and go in person

[07:54] Maybe you can attend Toronto Public Library and see if you can find anyone there who is interested in learning or teaching somehow right

[08:03] Like coaching maybe Because having a study buddy means that you don't have to pay The only thing you're paying metaphorically speaking you're paying your time right

[08:13] And it's more for enjoyment Also I don't think that this format is going to work if you are learning the language intensively

[08:22] Let's say if you have a French exam and you have the very strict stringent deadline for this exam right

[08:29] Or for the English language In this case if you do have like a CELPIP or IELTS exam I would highly recommend hiring a tutor professional

[08:38] But a study buddy if you're just enjoying the language if you do have plenty of time and if you feel like you just want to experiment

[08:47] So that kind of format and that kind of experiment might work wonders for you okay And also you got to be prepared that you're going to need to be vulnerable and share everything also to make this learning experience more beneficial

[09:05] I want to emphasize that there's this concept of lifelong learning Like you learn new things all your life

[09:14] Despite the fact that I am a professional English tutor and ESL instructor I do enjoy learning new languages and

[09:21] I don't think I would be able to ever stop Like right now I'm perfecting my French In the future I'd like to get really serious about my

[09:30] Spanish and I already started learning Spanish also But just it's not even for career prospects but this

[09:39] Spanish is more for fun more for I feel like it's my language you know Like it reflects my personality

[09:46] Though I'm not like a Latino yet but yeah I'm Slavic I have Slavic roots but I do think that Spanish would just reflect my personality a lot a lot better

[10:00] You know what they say They say if you speak a new language you acquire a new personality right Like because every language

[10:09] I feel like I sound different in Russian I sound different in Ukrainian In English I sound completely different right

[10:17] In French it's like I'm this kind of different person and I can wear these different hats and just it's a very cool experience

[10:29] And with a study buddy you got to be open about things But at the same time like I said when we do this session

[10:36] I do plan everything beforehand but we always discuss and I appreciate the input of my study buddy this lady this girl

[10:47] I always ask her what does she want to do for the next time you know Do you want to do this Do you want to do that

[10:53] Yeah and we are using EditoB2 and DelphB2 books so we always consult Dictionary Larousse Dico Larousse and word reference and whenever like

[11:07] I hear her make mistake I fix her and we consult Google Translate Dictionary and AI together She's also fixing my mistakes or helping me say something

[11:20] We're looking up synonyms together synonyms like the words with a similar meaning So it's actually so much fun and

[11:27] I highly recommend this kind of format of having this study partner or study buddy and just finding your person

[11:35] And you don't really have to be friends honestly like we're not close friends or anything It's just that we share this similar interest and this passion to the

[11:45] French language So that's what's interesting That's what counts and ideally your study buddy should be around the same age but it's not a requirement right

[11:56] Like depends what you want to discuss My study buddy is a lot like not a lot younger but still she is younger than myself

[12:05] I don't mind like I feel comfortable as long as you're feeling comfortable around them it's fine So what do you think about this format

[12:14] Have you ever tried this Any thoughts Maybe you have your own experience of having a study buddy If you're watching a video version of this please write your comments on my

[12:24] YouTube channel just below this video If you're listening to this on Spotify or any other platform thank you so much for doing that

[12:34] Please rate my podcast write something nice And I want to continue talking more about both personal things and not so personal like talking about

[12:45] Canada English Next time I want to talk about how AI can really help us can benefit us when it comes to learning a language

[12:54] I will also share my experience of taking and passing IELTS General successfully and how I teach and help people with

[13:01] IELTS General So I hope that you're going to benefit from that and there are many many more cool ideas in store

[13:09] So please stay tuned and I'm going to see you in the next episode Take care Bye bye Salut