Is it possible to learn French in just three weeks?

The British have a reputation for being bad at learning other languages. But, says French-born Mirfield resident Jean-Pierre Courouble, perhaps we’re just not being taught the right way. Hilarie Stelfox, who remembers struggling with O-level French, asked him where we’ve been going wrong

JEAN-PIERRE Courouble is looking for volunteers who would like to get to grips with the French language in just three weeks.

He believes that at the end of a modest 20 hours of study they will enjoy “a very good grasp of the language – a level of understanding that they would take a very long time to acquire at night school or school.’’

So how does he plan to achieve this? “I will be concentrating on the structure of language rather than vocabulary or formal grammar. It’s no good trying to speak a language by using a dictionary, you’ve got to understand how it’s put together,’’ he explained.

Using short phrases and then building on them with additional words and phrases he says it is possible for beginners to quickly assimilate a working knowledge of a language.

“We will be looking for similarities with English and using basic vocabulary. I have been listening to French television to see how much of what is said is structure and how much is vocabulary. I found that the same basic vocab’ is used time and time again; the same expressions,’’ added Jean-Pierre, 62.

French by birth, Jean-Pierre first came to England as a 16-year-old on an exchange programme run by the city of Leeds, which was twinned with his home-town Lille in the Nord de la France.

It was a visit that changed the direction of his life.

He said: “As soon as I arrived here I just loved it. I loved everything about England. As a teenager in France there was nothing to do but here there was so much.”

It wasn’t just the country that he fell in love with. He also met his wife-to-be, Pauline, whose brother was Jean-Pierre’s exchange partner. This year they celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary.

Jean-Pierre made repeated visits to England while he studied to become a chartered accountant back in France, conducting a long-distance relationship by correspondence with Pauline, who was training as a primary teacher in Northumberland.

They got married in Lille in May 1969 and in October of the same year moved to London.

Pauline found a teaching post and Jean-Pierre landed a job as bilingual accountant with Nestlé. It was to be the first of many jobs in industry and finance, during which time the couple moved to Yorkshire, finally settling in Mirfield.

For the last nine years Jean-Pierre has worked for the Lloyds Banking group and because he was planning to retire at 60 he began a degree course in Applied Psychology at Leeds University.

“Then the law changed and I could stay at work so I’ve been studying part-time,’’ he explained.

But in September he will become a full-time student for his final year – during which he will be conducting a major project studying how language is learned.

Which is why he needs to recruit participants with little or no knowledge of French to take his fast-track course.

The 20 ‘students’ will be divided into two groups and taught in the same way, but one group will be given hand-outs and allowed to take notes, while the other will be asked to focus on the spoken word.

“I will be studying the cognitive aspect of language instead of spoon-feeding the students. This method has had some amazing results with children who were failing at languages at school,’’ said Jean-Pierre.

As a native French-speaker, Jean-Pierre became bilingual through study and daily usage. His wife Pauline is also bilingual and says they decided to raise their son, John Dominic, with French as his mother tongue.

“When he started school he didn’t want to speak French at home any more, so we spoke to him in French and he replied in English,’’ said Pauline, “but we were happy because he was still hearing both.’’

Jean-Pierre is also fluent in German – he worked in Germany for a year – Northern French patois “and a little bit of Yorkshire patois.’’ He also spent a year leaning British Sign Language.

He became interested in studying linguistics after picking up a book on the psychology of language. “I found it fascinating,’’ he said.

He is now recruiting for the fast-track French course, which is entirely free of charge. It will require participants to attend 10 two-hour sessions a week over a three-week period. The venue will be in central Huddersfield.

To apply to participate in the study visit the webpage www.psyc.leeds.ac.uk/q/French

For further details contact Jean-Pierre on 01924 494781.