No no, not the one you think! We're not talking about the lack of soap and overuse of perfume in medieval Paris. No.
Instead, let's try to discuss your French hygiene!
hummm, sorry, my what?
Hygiene is defined as a set of practices performed to preserve good health. It comes from the Greeks and stands for Art of Health.
We know hygiene as traditionally sanitary, keeping viruses and bacteria under control.
But as the world is getting more and more insane hygiene is reaching other realms: having a strong hygiene for your social media supports your mental health, developing a set of active routines is good for your sports' hygiene, supporting your overall health.
What about starting seeing French as an area you need good hygiene for?
Performative French is not good for you
You might need to pass a French test for external reasons (job requirement, immigration...) and it might be hard to not make it performative to learn French.
Performative here means that you do it only for the end goal of proving a point to someone else. Pure societal pressure.
Depending on your personality, this can go from very well (you like to satisfy societal standards) to very wrong (you hate it and want to reject all societal expectations).
No matter where you land on this spectrum, making your French journey solely about passing a test might only bring resentment, sub-par motivation and leave you feeling unable to take any effective action. You will feel you have no agency.
Moreover, it will absolutely not entice you to keep practicing French once your test is passed: all the knowledge you've acquired will become dormant, and you will feel quite bad about it when time comes to renew your levels or use French for real. There has to be another way!
Instead, let's try to rise up to the wisdom required:
1. accept the situation: this external situation requires you to learn French with not enough time, poor ressources. No matter how frustration and low spirits you put into it, this won't change the fact you'll need to pass a French test.
2. walk the walk: put efforts, consistency, ask questions, be curious, make it yours, accept to be humbled, confront yourself to what you don't like, notice your progress and celebrate them!
3. enjoy the scenery: absolutely reward yourself! Embrace the new things you're learning, embrace what can be beautiful, weird, joyful, smart about French, notice your pride when you reach some level-appropriate goals.
Don't forget to look behind and feel proud of the the path behind you!
[psssst! You might need that: extra motivation to learn French]
Develop a healthy relationship with learning
Learning French doesn't have to be this stubborn quest for reaching a certain level fuelled by all-or-nothing performative wins.
It doesn't have to be this nagging pressure on your neck reemerging every 5 years (I see you Canadian Public Servants).
It can be about creating a balanced and reactive system where you understand how to thrive, when to rest, how to maintain, when to come back, how to make it fit in your life. It needs you to become kind and understanding towards your own French journey.
This is what will make it sustainable.
[you might want to read this article: Easy to use SERUM Points System to keep up with your French]
Your French journey can be based on a raisonnable understanding of your own agency: it can be supported by an assortment of self-respecting yet explorative practices set to preserve the good health of your French.
See? French hygiene!
Flexibility for the long-term win!
If you have understood that, to keep a well functioning body in the long term, you need to go to the gym two to three times a week, do some cardio, stretch, rest and eat well, it's good!
But, to keep a healthy relationship with your body, you also need to factor your mental health and social life, allowing yourself to not always be perfect and treating yourself with kindness when life happens just a bit too strongly for you. It is so much more sustainable!
Caring for the relationship you have with your body is much more important than keeping the score of your weekly stats.
That's what building a good health hygiene is all about.
Same goes for French:
Implementing French routines, setting French goals is good ... But building a healthy relationship with learning French is much more crucial!
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