Obviously I have to mention my own blog. I truly believe it is one of the best sources for the cozy girlies. Your support means the world to me, and I am grateful for every single one of you angels <3

My favourite book for beginners to start with:

• The little prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• any Ernest et Celestine books you can get your hands on

Some of my favourite cartoons/movies

• Ernest et Celestine
• The Aristocats
• I also love Legally Blonde 1
• Disney movies like Frozen or Rapunzel or any of your favourites
• Any of your comfort movies or series in your target language - but most importantly re-watch them. The second time you are much more likely to pick up some new vocab that you missed during the first watch

Another tip

I suggest you buy yourself a grammar textbook or even borrow it from your library. I do believe you need a little bit of structure and to understand the grammar, but the context-based tips I mentioned are also super important!

Also. there'ss this wonderful app I discovered last year - NouvelObs is how it's spelled like, I believe and it has every single verb conjugation for like a ton of languages. A life-saver!

My personal favourite study techniques

• study with me videos
• reading books. Obvious, I know. But you won't be simply reading books. Nope. First you choose a book according to your level. this can even be a children's book.take a notebook and a pen. any unfamiliarword you encounter - write it down. Now you don't stop yet. Once you've reached about 20 words you look up the translations and read some example sentences using those new words. then you put down your phone and try your best to write 3 example sentences using those new words
• watch movies. even if it's a children's cartoon. put it on in the backround. you will start noticing familiar words. also youtube videos are really good as well
• listen to songs in your target language. search up the lyrics, sing it out loud and just vibe. learning a language is supposed to be fun!
• sentence building exercices also help a lot
• journal. even if it is basic sentences like "today was a good day". with time, your vocabulary will expand
• research vocab on a random topic you're interested in and write a couple of sentences. it might seem tiny, but if you keep consistent it will tke you a long way
• and finally. learn grammar basics, grammar is important. but the mistake is making grammar the most important part of language learning. you should enjoy learning a language, not dread it!

How to create your own study routine?

I believe anyone can learn a language by themselves, without a teacher.

I have this belief because I've had some unfortunate experiances with not-so-good teachers who I felt were just wasting my time. And I know that if I used those hours instead, to create my own study routine, I would've been much further along.

With that said. Here is how I structure my language learning routine as an ADHD girly (who really struggles with routine and developed this one over years of trial and error):

1. choose one language. Not 3. I have made the mistake of learning french and spanish simultaneously and then I started mixing the languages, and it took me about 2 months to unlearn it. It's just not worth it. Even if it's tempting (which for me it certainly is).
2. decide upon your resources. Even though I listed lots of options, choose 2-4 main ones. For this example I'll go with books, cartoons, journaling and a grammar book. Now, you don't have to own a grammar book. You could just use free online resources. But for me personally, it was way too scattered and chaotic and I wasted so much time trying to find actually helpful resources. So a grammar textbook would be your guide along this language learning journey.
3. look at your schedule and see what pockets of time you have available for language learning.
4. now. Here's my ultimate tip that saved my life during summer break. I use an Iphone. And there's an app called "reminders". You can scedule reminders into your calendar and it will send you notifications! And when you're done and check off the task it doesn't disappear. so I have this reward at the end of the day, seeing how many tasks I have checked off. even if they are tiny ones.
5. so let's say I have 1 hour scheduled for french on tuesday 6pm. I sit down at my table, light a candle, have a cup of tea, put on a study with me video (I love the 50/10 pomodoro ones), take out my book (Or a short story, or even a chapter of my cozy story *wink *). And i can start reading. That way I have structure and direction to my learning journey.

Important note, especially for my ADHD girlies!

Create 2 routines. A high energy day and a low energy day. It looks different for everyone, but a low energy day could just be watching a 20 minute vlog or a cartoon episode in french. a high energy day could be a book, a textbook, grammar exercices, expanding your vocabulary on a topic, journaling, etc.

That's my way of creating a routine that sticks.

Some links to my favourite resources (for french)

• I love the little prince. And something I found really helpful was either reading the little prince aloud, or reading it while listening to an audiobook. and i have found a lovely one on youtube. here's the link to that video: https://youtu.be/OiWpe2cSw4s?si=gKcs2iN6dN4R_vnj