[Rendello]

I'm also an anglophone from Ontario who learned French impulsively. I think if I'd studied things like grammar, vocabulary, and conjugation, I would've advanced from the B2 plateau easily, but when I was motivated to learn French, I wasn't sure sure how to study those things.

[graypegg]

I guess the opposite side of that hypothetical would be "would I have been as excited about learning french long enough to reach my current level of comprehension if I was going to traditional classes."

Personally, I don't think I would've been. I mess up on some conjugate forms, and I have a bad tendency of skipping words that leave me in an unfinishable sentence ("J'en ai un" => "J'ai un... euh de... ça") but the past year, I don't think anyone has visibly struggled to understand me. Friends are a great help in figuring this stuff out.

It's not that I don't think a traditional language education is good, it would just spend my excitement budget way too quickly. If you CAN find motivation to be in a classroom, that is BY FAR the fastest way to be a clear and fluent speaker in any language.

[Rendello]

I agree on the class thing. The only classes I attended to learn French (besides all the grade 1-11 classes which were a joke) were during French immersion program, and I can't pin down any specific thing I learned in class itself. The 5-week immersion program helped immensely in general, though.

I was motivated to learn because I was dating a bilingual person, and so for once in life I had very strong, continued motivation for a good amount of time. I learned on my own and from texting.

I suppose what I meant was that I wish I had tried something like Anki for conjugation and potentially even vocabulary. I find when I read in French or follow conversations, I can understand pretty well and the details of the grammar or words used don't stick in my head, and so I've been at a B2 for years. Granted, I stopped using the language for a long time, but even when I lived in Montréal, I was fluent, but never actively improving through just living in the language.

(Sinon, si tu as assisté à des meetups tech à Montréal l'année dernière, il y a de bonnes chances qu'on se soit déjà parlé en personne.)