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Recommended Reading
Most teaching revolves around the idea that students need to learn in a way that is appropriate for them. This generally covers the idea of learning styles, but often seems to miss out on the notion that topics and the way they are addressed are important as well.
Most textbooks are linear, covering broad and uninspiring topics which allow you to pick up a certain range of transferable vocabulary, but ultimately fail to engage or provide communication tools for real life situations. It seems that when you meet real people you would actually quite like to talk to, discussing drug use or unemployment doesn't quite feel like the topic of choice... But even when the topics addressed in schools could be of direct relevance to students (hobbies, family, etc), the focus is on assessment rather than communication. Writing 200 words about your love of football might be good for giving you an idea of the type of vocabulary connected to that topic, but this type of exercise is still quite dreary and artificial.
So how can learning French become interesting? Don't immediately throw away your textbooks or refuse to go to class, but instead supplement it all by incorporating real French into your daily life. If you're really into football that could be buying French football magazines or reading articles on French websites (such as France Football or Sports.fr), joining a football fan discussion forum (you don't have to start supporting a French team, most big Premiership teams have an international following) or putting your FIFA game menu in French. Use something that you're going to want to understand and learn more about, something which is going to encourage you to pick up the dictionary and learn new words, something which is going to inspire you to write something back (in French of course). This can be sports, films (reading on premiere.fr or allocine.fr, writing your own reviews), music (listening to music and translating lyrics is one of the best ways of learning vocabulary and sentence structure without realising), fashion, crafts, games, setting up your own blog, or writing your diary or Facebook statuses in French...
So don't give up on French quite yet. Push the grammar and surreal textbooks aside for a moment and start reaching out to real people you wouldn't have been able to talk to without your new skills. Simply live a small part of your day in French.
