Why We Set Out to Create the Best Online French Course

Four years ago, my co-founder, Ernest, and I would have never thought of starting a language-learning business. And even if it came to our minds, we’d never have thought that French would be that language. I have a background in healthcare and public health. Ernest, on the other hand, studied agricultural economics. So, you can understand why it wouldn’t be obvious for us to undertake such a turn in our careers. But the idea of Get French Classes really consolidated our plans when most of our friends we met while we were traveling the world picked up an interest in learning French, just because they were amazed at our ability to speak English and French with high proficiency.

In the beginning, we were simply referring them to a few online French classes, but after a few months, as we checked on them to see how their French proficiency evolved, we realized that they weren’t actually learning.

Worse, we were hearing the same complaints from all of them:

• The tutor charges $80/hour; I can’t keep up with that.

• Group classes don’t just work for me. I think I'm more advanced than some French learners in my pod (or the other way around). 

• Although I recognize the tutor’s ability to speak French, I just don’t think she’s good at teaching. 

• I don’t have the motivation or time to do my take-home assignments.

• Repeating pre-recorded French audio and podcasts gets boring at some point. Though it’d help if the teacher could give more context around those phrases.

• I wanted to learn conversational French, and then upgrade to French applied to epidemiology, but it’s hard to find a dedicated French teacher for every use case. 

As native French speakers ourselves, we really felt bad that we couldn’t help our friends. And most importantly, prevent them from wasting money online. 

So, we learned from the mistakes these online French courses made, combined with our friends' feedback, and created what is the “second” best way to learn French. “2nd” because the best way to learn a language is simply to immerse yourself in the environment of that language. But, unfortunately, most people can’t afford to go to France to learn French. So, our online French classes come in handy. In this piece, we want to discuss the main reasons why our online French courses are a great choice if you’re looking for a French language school . But first, let’s talk about why most online French classes aren’t for you.

Why most online French courses aren’t suited for everyone and aren’t effective

From lack of consistency to subpar course content to ineffective learning methods, there are many reasons why most people fail to learn French in months. 

Here are a few reasons we identified that hinder most people’s ability to learn French quickly.

Gap 1: Most language learning mobile apps are just gaming apps and can’t cut it for you (not on their own)

Learning French through mobile apps alone isn’t enough. Even more so if your goal is to talk easily and blend in with French natives. 

First, language apps don’t typically include video courses and live lessons. It’s just the app; you pay a monthly subscription fee and use its practice exercises and vocabulary drills. 

But most importantly, French and most language learning apps only use games, flashcards, memorization drills, spaced repetition systems, and vocabulary and translation exercises to teach the language. 

The systems are typically designed in such a way that you can easily check boxes, get badges as you cross levels, or collect streaks as you speed through learning materials, and end with a completion certificate — attesting that you took French lessons, not that you can speak it. 

Because of this, many French learners find themselves stuck in a cycle of collecting streaks and badges from apps — spending hours upon hours engaging with the materials on these apps but still unable to have any conversation in real situations or understand native speakers.

The issue with these apps is that they oversimplify the French learning experience, make it into simplistic, often childish learning materials, and make you think you can master the language with just a few minutes of daily practice. 

Sometimes, because the same apps offers a thousand languages at the same time, there is no real focus on the specific language you’re interested in. You’ll often come across content that makes little to no sense within the apps. 

For example, Jane Hu from Slate complained as she encountered bizarre sentences like the following learning with Duolingo:

• “The bride is a woman, and the groom is a hedgehog.”

• “The man eats ice cream with mustard.”

• “I am eating bread and crying on the floor.”

• “Today I will gaze into the distance and cry as well.”

We do understand that easy learning materials and gamification elements like points, streaks, and badges are good ways to increase your motivation and engagement. However, they prioritize artificial rewards over truly understanding the language. 

And all these shortcomings bring about a lot of problems for you the learner. Lots of popular research in the language teaching community have proven this:

1. People end up caring more about getting rewards than actually learning. Learners become obsessed with earning points and keeping streaks going. They don't focus on fully understanding and remembering what they’re learning ( Isaacson, 2022 ).

2. The reward structure encourages rushing through lessons quickly to "level up" and claim rewards. It doesn't encourage pacing for comprehensive understanding before advancing ( Munday, 2016 ).

3. Students experience "app fatigue." They prioritize point scoring over deeper understanding once the novelty wears off ( Isaacson, 2022, University of Tohoku Fukushi ).

Gap 2: Most language services are not comprehensive

So, if the apps can’t cut it, the logical alternative choice falls on online language service companies and schools. You know, the likes of Alliance Française, Italki, FrenchPod101, Learn French with Alexa, etc. 

These services typically include learning materials you find on the apps and also include live tutoring and group classes. You’ll also have a lot of practice exercises. So, what’s the problem? 

Well, we note four major issues with these services: 

Issue #1: They focus too much on teaching abstract concepts and not enough practical skills 

Instead of practicing conversations you’d have in real life, you spend most of your time memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary words — that natives rarely use. You also do a lot of fill-in-the-blank worksheets. 

While knowing some grammar and vocabulary is important, it’s not enough on its own. Just because someone has memorized verb charts doesn't mean they’ll be able to follow a real conversation or respond naturally when talking to a native speaker. 

To truly learn a language, you need plenty of practice with real-world situations. Without this, you won’t develop important skills like understanding native speakers, replying smoothly, or using the right words instinctively.

Issue #2: Lack of immersive practice

Many language learning services like Loescen only provide learning materials without guidance or structure. You pay, and they give you access to video lessons and extra learning materials (like PDFs, etc.) for practice (and maybe throw in an app) but lack tutoring or a clear study plan. 

As a result, you have to figure things out on your own, jumping from lesson to lesson without a real sense of direction or progress.

But an even bigger problem is that most of these self-study options don’t include opportunities for conversation practice. 

Like we mentioned earlier, they teach you new vocabulary and grammar, but they don’t let you actually use what you’ve learned in natural, interactive dialogues.

Even more alarming, practice exercises are mostly written assignments. And when you get into live courses with tutors and even group classes, they only come in to lecture instead of having interactive conversations with you or creating a stress-free environment where you can talk and practice.  

This is a critical missing piece because, without chances to practice real-life conversations, it’s very difficult to transfer your new language knowledge to real-world situations. You end up passively absorbing information instead of actively applying your skills.

You need immersive practice environments that mimic real conversations. Realistic dialogues let you try out your thoughts, make mistakes, and figure out how to express yourself naturally. 

This trial-and-error process builds the confidence and practical experience you need to navigate real discussions. Unfortunately, most language services don’t include this. And memorized vocabulary and grammar rules can only take you so far.

Issue #3: Lack of personalized, goal-oriented courses, tutoring, and learning materials

Language learning services’ websites often offer cookie-cutter courses that are overly broad and basic — directed to everyone and nobody specifically at the same time. 

The lessons often only cover the bare minimum — like simple grammar and vocabulary —  and don’t take into account the diverse goals, backgrounds, and interests of language learners.

Well, we’ve learned that different people study languages for different reasons. Some want to learn it to travel, while others need it for their careers in fields like medicine, engineering, or business. 

If you’re into learning French for a specific purpose or business industry, generic courses can’t keep you engaged or show you how to apply your new language in practical ways. And even when you need to learn the basics:

• How long is that approach going to take? And do you have that much time to wait?

• What happens if you don’t get past the beginner level in order to upgrade to the specialization course?

• Are the tutors people with backgrounds in your field? Are they equipped with the knowledge to take you to French proficiency in that field?

As a professional learning a new language, personalization is key for motivation and real-world usefulness. When learners can’t see how the material relates to their lives and goals, it’s much harder to stay dedicated and make meaningful progress.

Even supposedly interactive options like video lessons and podcasts fall short by not including chances to actually practice using the language in your target contexts with your tutor. And we all know that just passively watching or listening won’t develop speaking abilities.

Issue #4: Inconsistent quality and lack of comprehensive support on private tutoring platforms

On language tutoring marketplaces like Perply or Italki, the quality of your learning experience depends entirely on the individual tutor you choose. 

It’s a real gamble — you might get lucky and find an excellent tutor, or you could end up with someone who doesn’t meet your needs at all.

Another major downside of these platforms is that they typically don’t offer any supplementary learning materials like video lessons or structured courses. Everything is limited to your tutor and their live tutoring, which on their own aren’t enough to achieve fluency. 

Relying solely on private tutoring can also get very expensive over time. Without the option to learn independently using lessons and other content types, you’ll be paying for every minute of language practice. And those hourly rates really add up to huge amounts.

It’s also important to remember that on most tutoring marketplaces, you’re hiring an individual contractor, not signing up with a full-service language learning provider. That means the platform itself usually takes no responsibility for your progress or satisfaction. 

Consequently, if you run into issues with your tutor or need a refund, you’ll have to try to resolve it with them directly. The marketplace won’t be much help.

Gap 3: Most online French classes rely on the student’s goodwill to learn — so the course completion rate is low

As a rule of thumb, courses where the learners aren’t motivated and incentivized to learn have very low completion rates (less than 10% in most cases). 

On the other hand, courses that incentivize learners and are cohort-based get a completion rate above 95 percent. 

And most French online courses fall within the former category. Think about it, aside from the push notifications you get from Duolingo, are you really incentivized or coerced to build habits or even take your course seriously?

And when you’re working with an online French tutor, aside from the online coaching hours, do you even actively learn?

From our experience talking to academics, accredited teachers, and teaching a lot of French lovers, the best way to learn the French language is to immerse yourself in the environment or, at last, learn intensively while practicing a lot outside of coaching sessions. 

Either self-motivation or external pressure from the language learning organization can drive the practice component of the learning process. Most of these language learning institutes fail to do that, and you’re left on your own. 

Gap 4: Most online French courses aren’t tailored to most learning styles

No two learners are the same. Some people have visual memories, some easily learn when it’s written, and others excel when they repeat a pre-recorded audio lesson. 

But how many times has a tutor or a language learning institute asked you about your preferred learning method? 

We believe that, besides intensive learning, the single most influential factor when you’re learning a new language is learning in a way that makes you feel comfortable and confident.

Not what the tutor thinks is your preferred learning style. 

So, instead of overwhelming you with tons of long PDFs or monologue-style lessons, they should adapt the teaching style to whatever works best for you. 

Gap 5: Most online French classes charge per hour, making it hard for students to learn in the long term and for any transformation to happen at all

This is probably one of the biggest problems, if not the biggest problem, in the language learning industry. 

When you are learning a new language, how many hours you put in plays a huge role in how fast you become fluent . 

But what happens when your French teacher charges per hour and a minimum of $30 per hour? 

So, if you want to learn French for 20 hours per month, you’d have to pay $600 per month. And $7200 per year to become proficient. At this cost, you better go for a language immersion program in France for a semester or the summer. 

At Get French Classes, we believe how long you spend learning something shouldn’t be the core metric that’s tracked to bill you. And time shouldn’t be the key deliverable of a language learning program. 

Instead, you should be charged based on the outcome of the training: are you going to go from A1 to B1? Are you going to go from total noob to proficient? What’s the transformation?

How do we make learning French so easy that our learners are able to speak within months, not years?

Learning a new language is not about memorizing sentences. It’s mainly about having the right method and being able to practice with consistency. 

After talking to dozens of French lovers, we learned about what they’re looking for in a French language course, and we built our methodology around these elements.

We’ve carefully crafted a comprehensive, all-in-one learning experience that addresses the common pitfalls and frustrations faced by language learners.

Solution 1: We designed a 360-degree French learning solution to make learners confident, articulate French speakers

Here is a rough description of what our French course looks like. You’ll see how it differs from what’s already being served on the market and why it’s the best for you if you care about becoming a fluent French speaker. 

You start with an onboarding call — for our team to understand who you are, where you’re from, and why you’re learning French 

From the moment you join our program, you’ll work closely with a dedicated Learning Advisor who will take the time to understand your unique goals, interests, and your current French level. 

They’ll collect key information about you like your background, the languages you already speak, and why you are learning French (e.i. if you’re learning for business purposes or in a specific business industry for example). 

Together, you’ll create a personalized study plan that fits your specific needs, choose the right fitting tutor for you, and set you up for success.

You get a specialized French teaching expert who has experience in your field, if necessary

Again, no two language learners are the same. 

You’re probably a physicist who wants to learn French for professional purposes, or maybe a comedian with a great interest in all things French. 

We know that to truly master French, you need to learn from experts who understand your context. That’s why we carefully select tutors with industry-specific backgrounds and experiences to match your professional needs. 

Whether you’re learning French for business, diplomacy, healthcare, or any other field, you'll be paired with an instructor who speaks your language — both literally and figuratively. 

If you’re a music producer, we’ll make sure to get you a tutor who has a passion for music. If you’re learning French for academic purposes, we’ll make sure your French learning program is geared toward the subjects you’re studying.

They'll guide you through the specialized vocabulary and communication skills that matter most in your domain. From our experience, that’s the best way to not only learn how to speak French but also to make the most of it professionally, in your personal life, and more. 

You get real-life scenarios and context-bound bite videos curriculum 

Our primary goal at Get French Classes is to set our learners up for real-life situations. So, we make your speaking ability our top priority. 

We don’t want our learners to go, “What?” when they’re speaking to French native speakers. Instead, we want native speakers to ask them, “Êtes vous Français ?” (Are you French?).

And that’s why all of our lessons are about real-life expressions, phrases French people use on a daily basis. And when you sign up for a specific field, that’s what you get. 

Our extensive library of video lessons drops you into authentic, everyday conversations across various settings. From casual café chats to high-stakes boardroom negotiations, you'll engage with the language as it’s actually spoken by native speakers. 

Even when the lesson is about a very complex subject, for instance, things like grammar, and conjugation, we do make sure to include examples of how French people use that grammar rule in a formal or informal setting.

Also, every lesson has a specific goal and you can be sure to learn one specific after watching the lesson.

You get in-lesson and take-home assignments, milestones, and badges to keep your momentum

From our experience, the best way other than taking an immersion trip to France is through intensive learning. Now, how do you recreate an intensive language immersion program online?

Well, our curriculum team figured that learners do learn fast when lessons are interactive, and especially when assignments are both written and spoken. So, we made sure our courses are full of interactive bits that keep your motivation and drive up as well as make you learn fast.

Each of our French lessons comes with in-lessons and takes home written and spoken assignments. Here is an example of a written assignment: 

And here is an example of a spoken assignment:

The in-lesson assignments serve as spaced repetition while take-home assignments help learners connect the dots between previous lessons and the most recent French lessons.

And the only way for you to go from one lesson to another and have your private tutoring session is to showcase you’ve not only mastered the most recent lesson but also that you can connect the dots between previous lessons. Until you’ve proven that mastery, we will keep you to the last completed lesson and work with you until you master that one lesson. 

So, to give you an example, if your private French classes are scheduled for Tuesday and Friday, you need to take your lessons and submit your assignment on Monday or Sunday, so your private French teacher can review them and then confirm the class for Tuesday.

We want to see you succeed and speak French like a native, but for this to happen, everyone—the Get French Classes team, your private tutor, and yourself included—should pitch in and do their part. 

Your part is to take the lessons, practice, finish and submit the assignment, and be consistent. Our part is to help you towards your goals, even if that means helping you build daily French learning habits.

You get to practice as much as you want with your private French tutor

When you sign up with us, we assign you a personal French tutor. 

On top of the video French courses, our French language coaches meet with you twice a week to discuss progress, revise lessons you didn’t understand, and consolidate what you’ve already mastered.

The idea is to make these live sessions a safe place where you can make mistakes without being judged, ask questions without being called stupid, and practice as much as you want. And to ensure things work out the best, we educate our tutors accordingly (more on that later).

During these live sessions, you get to learn new things and do more exercises. 

You’ll especially learn nuances and much more complex things about previous lessons that we didn’t include in the pre-recorded video lessons. And best of all, you don’t have to pay per hour or per lesson. Your course package comes with the learning materials and the private French lessons. 

You improve your fluency together with other French learners via group classes

If you can’t tell by now, we will say it for you. At Get French Classes, people learn French by practicing. We will get you to practice — A LOT. But not just you and your tutor in a face-to-face virtual meeting, you’ll also have group classes.  

So, you’ll also have 2 group sessions per week. That means you take two private sessions with your tutor and then 2 other group sessions including other learners on the same level as you.

Each group is made up of 4 to 6 people that we then divide into two groups of 2 or 3 people. ​​We get you to discuss current events, debate topics, role-play workplace situations, and more. 

As someone is speaking, the other learners are called to take note of mistakes and mispronunciations their peer makes and vice versa.

Your tutor guides the class to ensure you learn new vocabulary and apply it constructively. It provides excellent practice in an immersive but relaxed environment. 

After the debate, both your peers and tutor will share mistakes you have made and you’ll improve on those, and in return, you’ll also help others improve by telling them areas they made mistakes.

Also, you’ll get access to our social clubs for more immersive cultural learning. Once a week, you virtually tour famous Parisian neighborhoods with native hosts. You’ll watch a French film together with peers and discuss it in the end with your tutor. 

You’ll join a book club to read and discuss French literature and poetry. Our social clubs help you absorb rich cultural traditions while naturally improving your comprehension skills.

You get an accountability buddy to ensure you hit your learning goals 

Solo learning and lack of accountability are the reason course completion rates are very low. Private classes are great but their effectiveness gets hindered by the lack of accountability.

That is why we pair every learner with another French student. The pairs keep each other accountable for their progress.

Each week, the pairs debate against one another. Once a month, pairs form groups and debate against other groups.

This creates a spirit of challenge where learners push each other to improve.

Solution 2: We create learning materials that adapt to your style

Our courses are not set in stone. Are you a visual learner, or a reading nerd, or do you prefer listening to speeches and shadowing them?

Whatever your learning style, at Get French Classes, we make sure our French learning courses are tailored to your preferences.

• Fancy videos? 

• Fancy PDF with visuals? 

• Fancy live learning? 

Check, check, and check.

How do we ensure every learner's preference is met?

Well, when you purchase one of our courses, even before you start taking your lesson, we make you fill out a form to learn more about your goals, learning style, and private tutoring schedule. 

This gives us some perspective on what you’re trying to achieve and helps us better tailor the course content to your goals. On top of that, knowing more about you helps us find the best French language teacher for you.

Solution 3: We work with pedagogists who went to teaching school and they regularly train our tutors

The best thing about our company is that we recruit each of our French tutors following a rigorous vetting process. 

Part of our process is making sure the people we hire know how to naturally explain the most complex things in an easy-to-understand way. On top of that, we also hire pedagogists and government-accredited institutions to make sure that every tutor we hire is trained and accustomed to our way of teaching the French language. In plain English, that means:

1. We don’t hire our French coaches because they’re great French and English speakers. We hire them because they can explain complex things in an easy-to-understand way and are passionate about helping others out. 

2. We don’t assume that because they are great at explaining things, they’d make excellent French tutors. So we make sure they undergo a full 30-day training program before they join our pool. 

3. Besides our internal training, we also require our language professionals to seek out some international language teaching accreditations that will improve their teaching skills.

This is our guardrail to prevent anyone from becoming a tutor with us because “it’s another way to make money online,” but most importantly, to deliver the best possible outcome to our French learners.

Solution 4: Our north star is your ability to speak French after our French learning program — regardless of how many hours our tutors spend coaching you

As much as we desired to charge our learners per hour because of how lucrative this model is, it just didn’t align with our value — and it doesn’t make sense for the learners either. 

In fact, there is no better way to drain someone's motivation for language learning than using the per-hour model.

Take Alliance Française, where the French course is $90 per hour, for example. You’re easily at $1000 for a 10-hour program with them. But for how many of these 10-hour programs do you need to speak French? 10? 20?

So, we thought we’d create a value-packed French learning program that helps people speak fluently and then price based on that value instead of how many hours we put in.

That means regardless of whether your private tutor puts in 10, 20, or 40 hours a month, the price stays the same. 

The only North Star we track is your ability to speak fluently by month 4. We have four different courses for beginners, and each of these courses can be completed in 4 weeks.

Solution 5: We help you build daily habits that help you learn faster than in any 

From our experience, the best way to learn a new language is to do it either intensively with daily habits that foster consistency. Unfortunately, most online French courses aren’t built this way.

They almost always rely on your (the French learner) ability to build up your vocabulary and find ways to practice.

The issue? Most people lack the motivation to self-learn, and even if they do, motivation paces up and down. That’s why course completion rates are down across many e-learning platforms.

So, we found a solution for this. We built our French language programs around assignments, real-life practices, and habits.

We talked about the assignments and practice in the previous section, so we’ll just focus on habits here. 

Habits are sets of daily activities that we encourage you to learn consistently but also practice almost as if you were immersed in a French-speaking environment. 

Daily habits vary from one French learner to another. That’s because each of our learners is learning French for different purposes, and so we tailor the habits and assignments to your goals and background.

For example, if you’re learning French for professional purposes, your habit-building activities are going to differ from those of a high school student learning French with us.

Another cool feature that’s worth mentioning is that you and your private French tutor can track your habits and see if you’re on track to hit your goals. You can also compare your habits to those of your accountability buddy in a way that keeps you both accountable. 

Solution 6: We have adapted our pricing to suit everyone’s budget, making it flexible even for students to learn 

Most of our learners, before they come to us, have already spent a lot of money and time with other online French learning programs or online French learning apps. 

After working a few days with us, they all agreed that Get French Classes has the best money-to-value ratio of all the online French courses they took.

It’s almost impossible to spend 4 months training with us and not be able to speak French by the end of our program. 

At least if you’ve done all of the assignments, attended all your online private French classes, built your daily habits, and showed up for every pod vs. pod debate. It’s almost impossible. 

What would a program like this cost if we were to charge per hour? Maybe $8000, if not more.

But instead, we made it accessible to anyone for a single flat fee of $307. 

Think about it. What are the things you can benefit from if you speak French? A promotion at work? The opportunity to lead your company’s French subsidiary? A chance to study in France? An opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the French culture? The possibility of expanding your business to French-speaking countries?

Some other benefits of our online French courses worth mentioning

Our French language courses are probably the only programs out there close to being as effective as a 6-month language immersion course in France. 

Why? Simply because of the way we built and structured our programs.

1. Chat, interact, and practice from one single web platform Unlike most programs, where you’re juggling dozens of tools, our program is built on a single platform. From your dashboard, you can interact with your private French tutor, your accountability partner, and other learners in your coach's cohort.  

You can also practice and submit your homework from the same platform, all while making sure your private online classes are scheduled and that you have the agenda in advance.

1. We only give certificates to learners who mastered French, not those who merely completed our course We do not believe in certificates being issued for the sake of completing a course. So, if you’re looking for a certificate of completion, the Get French Classes courses aren’t for you.

Our certificates are delivered after you’ve passed the exams and taken all of your assessments. 

These assessments are in the form of written tasks, gamified vocabulary games, videos, and audio of you speaking and practicing. And our tutors and learner advisors assess them. 

So, if you get a language certificate from us, you know for sure that you’ve earned it.

Go from a total noob to a fluent French speaker in 16 weeks with the best online French course in the market

If you’re serious about learning French, but:

• Don’t have $40 to $90 to pay per hour to a private tutor

• Lack the motivation to self-learn using a language-learning app

• Lack the time to dedicate to practice every day

• Wish you had an accountability partner and a community of driven people to motivate you

• Want a transformative program where the coach and everyone care 

Then, the Get French Classes program is for you. For just $307, you can go from being a total beginner (A1 level) to being an intermediate (B3 or C1) in just 4 months. Learn more about our program here.