WELCOME TO FAST FRENCH, THE BEST FRENCH TUTORING SERVICE IN MELBOURNE. LEARN TO SPEAK, UNDERSTAND, READ AND WRITE THE BEAUTIFUL, FRENCH LANGUAGE. QUICKLY AND EASILY.
ABOUT
Find out why Fast French is your best choice for French tutoring
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BEGINNER
Just starting out in French? Start here! Find out all you need to know
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INTERMEDIATE
Already know some French but want to make progress? See how FF can help you
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ADVANCED
Take your French to a higher level where total fluency and mastery will be yours
TIPS
Unusual yet effective tips for learning French even faster than you imagined
PARIS INFO
Insider advice on where to go and what to see next time you are in Paris
CONTACT
Get in touch with Joseph Brabet to book your first lesson now or for any queries
COST
How much it costs to take advantage of the great Fast French learning techniques
ABOUT
Find out why Fast French is your best choice for French tutoring
Fast French is a professional quality French tutoring service based in Elsternwick, Melbourne.
Fast French offers private tutoring in French by Joseph Brabet, a bilingual expert with over twenty years' experience in teaching and training.
French tutoring is available for anyone of secondary school age or older. Past students range from 15 years to 80 years of age.
Online French tutoring
Don't live anywhere near Elsternwick? Don't even know where Elsternwick is? No problem! You can get French tutoring from Fast French and Joseph Brabet via Skype. As long as you have a computer, smartphone or tablet connected to the internet and running a (free) copy of Skype, your tutoring session can be conducted online. Sessions last the same duration and you get all the same benefits.
Please note: Fast French does not offer tutoring to children of primary school age.
Joseph has successfully tutored one of his secondary school students to the state finals of the Alliance Française poetry recital competition. It is one thing for a tutor to be able to pronounce French perfectly, but it is another thing entirely to be able to teach someone how to perfect their pronunciation.
Joseph has experience in teaching all sorts of different people how to speak French - not only Australians, but also other nationalities, such as Spanish and Japanese people. He can train you to speak French, no matter what your original accent and language are.
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BEGINNER
Just starting out in French? Start here! Find out all you need to know
Are you a beginner when it comes to French? Maybe you're an absolute beginner. Or maybe you have learned a little bit of French from travel, the internet, phrase books or similar.
Learn French the fastest, easiest way possible with Joseph Brabet and his Fast French learning techniques.
After your first tutoring session, you will be eager to learn more. Learning is fun and easy when it is tailored to your individual needs. Escape the rigid class environment - get French tutoring from Fast French and Joseph Brabet now.
After your first tutoring session, you will be eager to learn more. Learning is fun and easy when it is tailored to your individual needs. Escape the rigid class environment - get personalised French tutoring from Fast French and Joseph Brabet now.
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INTERMEDIATE
Already know some French but want to make progress? See how FF can help you
Have you spent years at trying to learn French, but still can't express yourself properly? Perhaps you still find it difficult or impossible to understand French movies or the French TV news, despite having completed several private French courses. Many people find themselves in such situations, despite having invested years of effort and lots of money. Don't you think learning French should be easier?
Fast French will enable you to take your French to the next level so that you can speak fluently and confidently. And if you are occasionally stuck for a word, you will know how to ask for help (in French) and what appropriate sounds to make if you're completely at a loss for words. You will sound like a French speaker who just needs a moment or two to think, instead of an English speaker who is totally clueless.
Could you translate a simple phrase like "I'm supposed to fix the problem" into French?
Hint: The verbs "supposer" or "fixer" would be bad choices. "Supposer" means to imagine. It doesn't relate to the senses of "meant to," "ought to" or "have to" at all. And "fixer" means to attach, like fixing a picture to the wall. It has nothing to do with repairing or solving.
Have a think, then scroll down below to see the answer.
Answer
The answer to the question of how you would translate "I'm supposed to fix the problem" into French is:
Je suis censé régler le problème.
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ADVANCED
Take your French to a higher level where total fluency and mastery will be yours
Advanced French skills should approach the articulacy and literacy levels of a native French speaker. Being able to read French without being able to express yourself verbally is not really advanced. Fast French will teach you the conversation skills to make full use of your existing French knowledge. Language comes alive when you speak it with another person!
Do you know the gender of a French noun even if you have never seen the word before? Perhaps you have been taught that you need to memorise the gender of the few thousand French words you have learned so far. That's a lot of memorisation! Native French speakers instinctively know the gender of a noun even if they have never come across the word before. Fast French teaches you the secret rules behind a French person's instinctive knowledge of noun gender - rules of which even French people are not consciously aware.
To have mastered French at an advanced level means being able to spell the French language properly. Can you spell French correctly and reliably? Are you sure? See if you can spot the mistakes in the following sentences...
"S'il promet de ne plus vous insultez, reviendrez-vous?"
"Des quatres saisons, c'est le printemps que je préfère."
"Une déconnection intempestive a stoppé le téléchargement."
"Merci de prêter attention au dossier de candidature que je vous envois."
Les délegués du personnel demandes le paiement des jours de greve."
See below for the answers!
Advanced Answers
ORIGINAL: S'il promet de ne plus vous insultez, reviendrez-vous?
CORRECTED: S'il promet de ne plus vous INSULTER, reviendrez-vous ?
ORIGINAL: Des quatres saisons, c'est le printemps que je préfére.
CORRECTED: Des QUATRE saisons, c'est le printemps que je PRÉFÈRE.
ORIGINAL: Une déconnection intempestive a stoppé le teléchargement.
CORRECTED: Une DÉCONNEXION intempestive a stoppé le TÉLÉCHARGEMENT.
ORIGINAL: Merci de prèter attention au dossier de candidature que je vous envois.
CORRECTED: Merci de PRÊTER attention au dossier de candidature que je vous ENVOIE.
ORIGINAL: Les délegués du personnel demandes le paiement des jours de greve.
CORRECTED: Les DÉLÉGUÉS du personnel DEMANDENT le paiement des jours de GRÈVE.
CONTACT
Get in touch with Joseph Brabet to book your first lesson now
Questions? Suggestions? Contact Joseph Brabet of Fast French.
Email Joseph: [email protected]
Text or call Joseph: 0405 196 637.
TIPS
Unusual yet effective tips for learning French even faster than you imagined
TIP 1 - Sing along to French songs
This is an incredibly effective method to improving your French. Many people doubt that it could work, or that it is worth the effort, but it does work and it is an amazingly efficient and fun way of using your time to improve your French.
To begin singing along to French songs, first find a French song you really like. To find songs, you can search on Youtube and/or iTunes.
There is a wide range of music available in French. It ranges from pop to chanson to electro to rock to hiphop to jazz to ballads to zouk to opera and to all sorts of other genres.
Next, find the lyrics to the song. For example, if you found a song called "J'en rêve encore," you would google "J'en rêve encore paroles" or "J'en rêve encore lyrics." This would give you search results for sites with the song lyrics you want.
To sum up, find a genre you like then find a song you like. Next find the lyrics and start singing along to the song while it plays. If you find it hard to sing along, practice so that you get better.
TIP 2 - Talk English with a fake French accent
Speaking English with a fake French accent is a very effective method for teaching your ear and your voice to become attuned to the French accent and to French verbal rhythms. People who find it difficult to speak French with a reasonable accent are still usually able to fake a cheesy French accent themselves.
You can practice this technique in the privacy of your own home, completely alone. It doesn't have to be done in front of other people. The more you do it, the better your ear for French will become. It will build your understanding of French linguistic rhythm and tonality faster than any other method. Try it - it works!
It will benefit your French in many ways, but one of them is the most important - you need to learn how to pronounce non-French words with a French accent if you want French people to understand you.
Why? Because that's how everyone communicates. Let's say you're talking to an English-speaking friend about someone else who is Hungarian, or Chinese, or Brazilian. You would usually pronounce the name of the Hungarian, Chinese or Brazilian person with the accent your English-speaking friend is expecting to hear - your usual English accent.
You wouldn't usually pronounce the foreign name with its exact pronunciation, because then your English speaking friend would be confused and would have no clue how the name is spelt. But if you pronounce it with your usual accent, the other person will know roughly how the foreign name or word would be spelled.
If you wanted to say "crab apple" and have a French person understand roughly what you said, you would need to pronounce it "krah bah plur," ("plur" rhymes with "fur"). You have to pronounce it with the accent they are expecting to hear, which is a French accent.
TIP 3 - Listen to French radio or movies 24/7
Listening to the sound of correct, spoken French is another extremely good way of accustoming your ear to the range of frequencies in French. These frequencies differ from those in spoken English, so it is vital that you help your ears to adjust.
You don't need to actively listen to French audio or video while it plays. You don't need to understand what you are listening to in order for this technique to work. You don't even need to hear it loud and clear. It is sufficient for it to be playing in the background. The words should be audible, but they do not need to dominate your hearing.
Simply find a French internet radio site, or download a purely French language only podcast, or put a French movie on repeat play, or download an iPhone app like France Info or France Culture. These have lots of talking, which is what you need. If you want talk interspersed with music, try France Inter or France Musique. A music-only radio station will not provide as many benefits as a talk radio station, so choose carefully.
The more hours per day you use this technique, the more effective it will be. It is an essentially effortless technique, so it doesn't require any hard work on your part.
TIP 4 - Actually put these tips into practice!
Many people find it hard to believe that these tips work. Some of my students, past and present, have nodded politely when I have suggested these tips, but have privately decided there was no way they were going to use such crazy-sounding suggestions.
The ones who did give these tips a go, however, have found these tips to be incredibly effective. The tips are based on a combination of experience and empirical research. Tip 3, for example, is based on years of research by a French audiologist who discovered that one of the biggest problems learning certain languages is actually being able to hear them in the first place, let alone understand them. Hearing them properly was not a question of hearing impairment - it was just a question of listening for a particular range of frequencies that are different from your native language.
So give these tips a go - they work!
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COST
How much it costs to take advantage of the great Fast French learning techniques
Fees
$40 hour for one person at Elsternwick premises
$50 hour for one person in nearby suburbs
More than one person
$40/hour for the first person
$10/hour for each additional person
Eg $50 for two people, $60 for three people.
Solo sessions vs group sessions
You will generally get better value from a solo class. Costs for groups are mentioned here only because some people are used to classroom situations. You will generally benefit more from an individual session than a group one. Group lessons often do work very well for couples, however.
If you're interested in cutting your costs, you might be better off with solo lessons, but less frequent ones. Eg fortnightly lessons instead of weekly ones can be a good way to economise.
