Julia Simonelli was born in Montreal and moved to Toronto at the age of 10. While living in Toronto, she wished to remain bilingual and keep in touch with her Quebec roots. She attended a French first language elementary school and an English high school, where she took Core French until Grade 12.

She is now entering her fourth year at York University where she is completing a Major in French Studies and a Minor in History. She will subsequently continue her program of studies in Education, as she wishes to become a teacher in French Immersion schools. Throughout her studies, she has tried to find employment in settings where she could use her knowledge of French on a daily basis.

She currently works at Queen’s Park as a bilingual information officer. Additionally, she works part time as a French tutor for a number of students from Grade 2 to Grade 12.


Our dreams and how to achieve them

The goal of getting a degree in French studies is to ensure a complete mastery of the written and spoken language.  However, this does not always correspond to the reality.  For an Anglophone student who studies French as a second language, it is very difficult to master the spoken language when living in an overwhelmingly English environment.  A typical Anglophone student speaks French solely in his or her classes while the other aspects of life happen in English.  So when it is time to socialise in French, it is hard to have a spontaneous and non-academic conversation without saying “ummm” or adding English words here and there.  In other cases, when speaking to a Francophone who speaks very quickly, we sometimes think we are speaking a totally different language.

I would like to recommend some strategies that I find useful and can help improve and enrich spoken French all the while making it more natural and spontaneous.  

Talk to your peers
First of all, it is important to speak French with your classmates.  We all want to improve our skills, so why not practice with those in the same program as you?

Make French media your friend
We can also make an effort to immerse ourselves in the Francophone media.  We all watch TV and we listen to the radio. So why not do it in French?  The Radio-Canada website is excellent because it contains a bit of everything.  There is plenty of information on Francophone culture and by listening to shows in a Canadian French, our French will improve while we are having fun—it’s almost learning through osmosis!  We can also watch movies in French with English subtitles that will fill in what we don’t understand.  The most important thing is to hear French spoken in its natural context!

Use technology in French
We are always connected to our phones and our computers, so why not chance the language of our cell phones and browsers to French?  That way, we can learn and get used to the terminology in French.  

Take advantage of existing programs
Also, let’s not forget the existence of various governmental programs whose goal is to send students like to Francophone places to learn the language.  For example, Explore is 5-week a subsidized course in a Francophone institution in Quebec. 

I think that kind of experience is one every language-learner should participate.  These types of experiences are indispensable to the learning of French since the context requires French and we are constantly surrounded by the language, which we absorb without even noticing it.


After having benefitted from initiatives and strategies mentioned above, we emerge from our programme of study with more confidence in our skills.