My French Journey: The Hard That Made Me Better

Published: October 4, 2025 • 11 min read

A constant fight against who I am to become the person I want to be: a C2-level French speaker

I have always considered myself to be a disciplined person, but this journey has redefined what discipline actually means. Now, disclaimer: I've always wanted to learn French. When I meet people who can speak multiple languages, I consider them cool and interesting even without knowing anything else about them. Naturally, I wanted to be like them, and French was the only other global language I had real access to.

The False Start: When You Think You Know Something

From Grade 1 to Grade 9, I always took some type of French class. I always did my best and, for the most part, had good grades. Then came Grades 11-12, where I took IGCSE French classes, and that was the first time I was exposed to the fact that I did not KNOW French.

Sure, I knew some rules. I knew some vocabulary. But it wasn't enough. While I tried to make a good effort for the French IGCSE exam, I only got a C. That grade was a wake-up call, but not enough of one to change my approach—yet.

The Cycle of Starting and Stopping

Fast forward to 2023, two years into living in Canada. I had just learned that there was an entire Francophone part of Canada, and something clicked. This was my second year of university, so I joined Duolingo again.

For maybe a month.

Then every other life stressor forced me to abandon this journey. Sound familiar?

A year later, in May 2024, I decided to try again. But this time, I wanted to give myself a strong WHY for learning French. I looked up videos on YouTube and found Olly Richards' video on 11 reasons to learn French. This was a good wake-up call—I got to understand the cultural, career, and neural benefits of learning French.

The other revelation? Language learning through storytelling. This made so much sense to me. I bought Olly Richards' audiobook on Audible short stories in French and tried listening.

I didn't understand much so naturally, I set that aside.

Finding Alice Ayel: When French Finally Made Sense

After browsing through Reddit, I came across a recommendation for Alice Ayel, a teacher who teaches French through storytelling. This website is an absolute gem that made French learning a beautiful experience again.

I went through her baby stage and infant stage, as well as all the stories she had under these stages—about 200+ short stories in total.

With Alice Ayel, I was genuinely happy to watch her videos. I found it fascinating that she said almost nothing in English, but I could understand most of it. Maybe not every single word, but enough to laugh at the funny stories, be sad at the sad stories, and be shocked at the shocking stories.

French was finally evoking emotions in me without any English.

This was one of the most pivotal parts of my French journey because I got confident in my ability to learn this language. I actually understood what she was saying (while reading captions as she spoke, of course).

When the Spark Starts to Die

I moved on to the Teen stage, and that's when things started to drag. At this stage, I was encouraged to write with her, but I couldn't bring myself to write anything new. I basically copied what she wrote in a book.

Around this time, I also changed my phone settings to French. Now, you may be thinking my level was really high if I was able to do that, but no—it wasn't. I just came to terms with the fact that I use my phone so much that even without understanding the words, I could still navigate it pretty well. I did take the time to Google words related to all my financial applications since that's a delicate area.

I listened to some Teen stage stories, but it was definitely getting harder. My spark was dying.

I eventually moved on to the Adult stage around the beginning of 2025, even without finishing all the Teen stage stories.

The Transition Curve: Understanding Where You Are in the Journey

Have you ever heard of the transition curve? It's a psychological model that maps the emotional journey people go through when making significant changes. The curve looks like this:

Uninformed Optimism - "This is going to be easy! I'm excited!"
Informed Pessimism - "Wait, this is way harder than I thought..."
Valley of Despair - "I can't do this. Maybe I should quit."
Informed Optimism - "This is hard, but I know I can do it."
Success and Fulfillment - "I did it!"

At this point in my journey, I had crashed into Informed Pessimism. The painful realization that this shit was hard.

At this time, things definitely slowed down in my learning. I had paused my subscription with Alice Ayel after the first 5 videos of the Adult stage, but I took comfort in the fact that my phone settings were in French, so surely I was still being exposed to the language daily. I would also go to YouTube and watch short stories in A2-level French occasionally.

I did this for the first four months of 2025. From here on, every decision I took was an attempt to get me to the Informed Optimism level without crashing and burning.

May 2025: The Decision That Changed Everything

I decided I needed to get serious again. I joined Preply (you can use my referral link for 70% off). My first tutor was great—together we went through all the foundational grammar rules, especially conjugation. Honestly, my brain started to piece things together that I had seen in stories.

But even though I was taking lessons, deep down, I still wasn't taking this as seriously as I wanted to. My tutor encouraged me to speak in French so he could correct me, but I wasn't doing it. Maybe I was too embarrassed? Too scared? I'm not sure what it was, but what I did know was that I needed a greater sense of urgency.

On June 23rd, I paid and booked the TCF test to be written on September 12th, 2025. I had 80 days to prepare for my exam.

By this time, here's where my level was at across all areas:

Reading: A2+ (I was very good at guessing words based on context)
Speaking: A1- (I was really bad at this)
Listening: A1 (I could only understand most things when I slowed them down drastically and turned on captions)
Writing: A1+ (I knew a lot of words and some grammar rules, but putting them together to form sentences was still a challenge)

My goal for the exam? Get to B2 across all levels.

Ambitious? Absolutely. But that's what I needed.

The Hard Decisions That Followed

Making the commitment to take the test forced me to make other hard decisions. First, I seriously evaluated my French tutor at the time. He was good, no doubt, but I needed something else—particularly someone to PUSH me to speak. Emphasis on PUSH.

So I tried out four other tutors on Preply and had classes with some of them for a while (most of them were good, honestly) until I found an absolute gem: Youssef Sanheji.

He was exactly what I needed in this journey, and I wish I had explored other tutors sooner. He had this enthusiasm from the first class that was so contagious it spread to me despite being at the Informed Pessimism level. He encouraged me to speak. He also had this sense of urgency about wanting me to learn as much as possible every hour of class I took with him.

The 80-Day Sprint: Fighting Against Who I Was

As the days went by, I got more and more scared. But instead of letting fear paralyze me, I used it as fuel. Here's what I did:

I Changed My Digital Environment

Reset my Instagram feed and actively searched for French videos, following and liking them to make sure my social media time supported my goal
Left all my Reddit communities and joined French communities
Changed my laptop settings to French and even bought a French keyboard
Downloaded and installed Reverso

I Built New Daily Habits

Every morning for an hour on my walking pad, I practiced French conjugations using Listening Practice or Conjuguemos for over 50 of the 80 days
Rewatched Barbie movies in French without subtitles on Films de Princesse, focusing on what I understood
Rewatched my two favorite K-dramas with French subtitles
Forced myself to click "Translate to French" for every Reddit post in English
Read two short children's storybooks in French that I picked up from the Public library

I Intensified My Learning

From the beginning of August until the day before my exam, I was taking 8-10 hours of classes on Preply each week
Kept practicing speaking and writing with Youssef
Used Claude (similar to ChatGPT) for writing practice
Listened to random YouTube French videos, even passively, not caring if I understood everything
Practiced with TCF practice questions at B1 level on YouTube

The Internal Battle

This was very clearly an intense period for me. I was constantly fighting against the person I was (a non-French speaker) to give birth to the person I wanted to be (a French speaker).

Every time I opened a Reddit post and was tempted to click "Translate to English," I had to remind myself: "Prisca, you know French. You will understand this."

Sometimes I believed it. Sometimes I didn't. But I clicked anyway.

Test Day and Results

I eventually took the test, and it was scary. Really scary.

The results?

My TCF Results - September 12, 2025

Comprehension Tests (Épreuves QCM):

Oral Comprehension (Compréhension orale): 393/699 → B1 Level
Written Comprehension (Compréhension écrite): 412/699 → B2 Level

Expression Tests (Épreuves d'expression):

Oral Expression (Expression orale): 10/20 → B2 Level
Written Expression (Expression écrite): 8/20 → B1 Level

I did well. I didn't reach my goal of B2 across all levels, but look at what I accomplished:

Oral Comprehension: Went from A1 to B1
Written Comprehension: From A2+ to B2 (I reached my goal here!)
Oral Expression: From A1- to B2 (This was my weakest area, and I jumped two full levels!)
Written Expression: From A1+ to B1

In 80 days, I made significant improvements from where I started. More importantly, I proved to myself that intense, focused effort can produce real results in a short time. The fact that I achieved B2 in oral expression—my most challenging area—showed me that pushing through discomfort actually works.

Where I Am Now: Informed Optimism

I am happy to report that I have successfully reached the stage of Informed Optimism. I know how hard this journey is going to be, but I am going to do it regardless.

What am I doing now?

Taking 2-3 hours of classes per week on Preply
Listening to a minimum of 1 hour of comprehensible French audio every day (I just finished listening to Rich Dad, Poor Dad in French last week and am now listening to that Olly Richards audiobook I bought but had to set aside initially)
Chatting with Claude every day, asking it to rate my text and correct me
Spending the last 30 minutes to 1 hour of my day reading a French book or doing more listening if I can't bring myself to read
Still pushing myself to engage with French posts across all my social media

Coming Full Circle: Alice Ayel Redux

Remember those Adult stage videos that felt impossibly hard at the beginning of the year? The ones that made me pause my subscription and question if I could really do this?

I resubscribed to the Alice Ayel website, and I am now actively working my way through the Adult stage and Senior stage.

Here's the beautiful part: I'm breezing through it now.

The videos that used to overwhelm me? I'm learning about the history of France without having to slow down or repeat the videos. I'm understanding nuanced discussions about French culture, politics, and society. I actually know this language now, even though I still have a relatively long way to go to attain the level I want.

This realization hit me hard: the material didn't change. I did. The Adult stage content is exactly as difficult as it always was, but I'm no longer the same person who struggled with it eight months ago.

The Long Game: From B1 to C2

My goal is to ultimately get to a C2 level, or close enough to native proficiency.

When I took the English IELTS test recently, I obtained a Band 8 with only 8 hours of studying—reviewing expectations, reminding myself how to structure different types of essays, etc. This is clearly because I already know English deeply.

Someday, I hope to get to this level in French, no matter how long it takes me.

What This Journey Has Taught Me

This experience has taught me that discipline isn't about never struggling—it's about showing up even when the struggle is real.

It's taught me that transformation requires making yourself uncomfortable, again and again and again.

It's taught me that the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't crossed by wishing or planning—it's crossed by doing the hard things you don't feel like doing, over and over, until they become part of who you are.

Most importantly, it's taught me that I am capable of more than I thought. If I can go from A1 to B1+ in 80 days of focused effort, what else am I capable of when I truly commit?

The journey continues. C2, here I come—no matter how long it takes.

This post is part of my "Personal Stories" series, where I share the challenges, setbacks, and victories that have shaped who I'm becoming. Sometimes the most important journeys are the ones where you're fighting to become a better version of yourself.