Hi!
The best is to get into the language as much as you possibly can during the day. If you live in France than it is even easier.
You should listen to French whenever it’s possible, and since you want to develop your ability to speak, you should try to talk, even about simple stuff, everytime you have the opportunity to do so.
I understand what you mean about “fun”. I have the same problem with Hungarian that I am learning for 3 years now, and the complexity of the language makes it still very difficult for me to understand when people are speaking at normal speed, and it is frustrating and I have less fun than before learning the language.
The whole thing is just about relaxing and forgetting about it. Everytime you spend time with the language, you progress. Getting nervous about it and forcing your way through isn’t helping as you will create frustration and this will not improve your capacity to learn.
It is also important for you to discover your way of language learning. Courses are generally so that they “teach” you a certain way of learning that is not necessarily the best way for you.
If you read a bit on the forum, you will read many stories of people sucessful with languages’ learning and they sometimes reach their goals in a very different manner.
Some focus on input and do very few grammar and stuff like that, other do a lot of grammar and exercises and then look for input, some do both at the same time… The important is to find what works for you, and it is not because a teacher presents a way of learning that this one is gonna be the best for you. It might be, it might not be, you have to figure out.
Personally, I am mixed type :))
When I learn a new language, I always start with a text book (I loooooove the series “40 leçons pour parler…”) that presents me in a short way the general aspects of the language, teaches me simply all aspects of grammar without going into too much details, and offers a basic vocabulary of 1500 words. Once I did that, I go into systems like Linqg and focus on input. If I struggle with a certain aspect of grammar, i might do some exercises but to be fair, it’s quite rare and I generally do input only. I do not like to do input only right from the start. It’s just that it is that way that my mind works. I like to “understand”, so I enjoy learning some grammar. Massive input comes later for me.
It is not a good or a bad way of learning, it is just mine! This is what I discovered while learning languages in the past, that this was the way i felt the most comfortable with and this is all that matters. I would not “learn” the way a teacher tells me to do so, and I would not just do blindly what I read on Linqg. I just take some of the stuff around and incorporate it into my way of learning and this is fine.
My advice is to try to be attentive at the way you’re learning. To discover what works well for you and what you dislike, what it is not efficient. Soon you will find the best way for you to learn the language and it will give you more confidence. You might find that your method is totally that different than what you’re doing at school, or you might find it’s quite similar… You will see.
About frustration, the only advice I can give is to relax and forget about deadlines and all that stuff. As Lafontaine said, “Rien ne sert de courir ; il faut partir à point”. You might learn slower or faster than other people, it doesn’t matter. the only thing is that you’re progressing. Languages’ learning is not something you can put into schemes and deadlines, no one can say when you’ll reach a certian level of fluency.
You can be fast (for example, me with Italian and leanring it in 6 months) or you can be slow (for example, still me with Hungarian and unable to understand conversations after 3 years)… it doesn’t matter! The only thing is not to give up, never. if you give up, you’ll be sure you’re not gonna do it. If you keep on getting into the language, you’ll make it, soon or later. Just keep confidence in yourself 