Frantastique sends you personalized French lessons based on stories. Each lesson revolves around a story presented in the video, and even at the lowest levels, the content is 100% in French for full immersion.
I decided to give Frantastique a try to see just how effective it is. In my experience, it’s excellent for intermediate learners (and maybe upper beginners), but not quite suitable for someone who’s just starting to learn. Here’s my full experience with the program.
Frantastique offers online French lessons for individual learners, businesses and educators. The entire program is delivered in French, so it’s an immersive learning experience right from the start.
Upon signing up, Frantastique sent me an email right away. In fact, paying subscribers get a new lesson sent to their email inbox each day. These emails are short machine-generated messages that let you know that your daily lesson is ready, complete with a short teaser of the lesson.
By clicking on the “Start Your Lesson” button in the email, I was brought to my new lesson, which included a short video and exercises that are then corrected with feedback (more detail on this process later). This feedback is also sent by email so learners don’t lose track of their work or the notes they’ve been given.
After completion of at least six months of the Frantastique course, participants receive a certificate of completion. If you sign up for Frantastique Pro, you can even receive a certified diploma—a professional training diploma that’s officially recognized in France.
What I found interesting was Frantastique’s claim that it uses an algorithm that learns more about you as you complete lessons. The program then caters future lessons to your needs and goals. According to Frantastique, it takes as little as a week of lessons to do this, so personalization happens pretty quickly.
Aside from its online availability, you can also get Frantastique as an app for iOS and Android.
How Do the Frantastique Lessons Work?
Step 1: Watch the Story Video
After signing up, you’re immediately sent your first lesson. Each lesson starts with a short video that features the characters in different fun, silly or dramatic situations.
In the first video lesson I completed, aliens found cryogenically frozen French historical figures such as Édith Piaf, Napoléon and Victor Hugo. After some discussion, the alien characters decide to bring Victor Hugo back to life.
I found that this story (although absurd) was great for learning French in context. I got exposure to useful French vocabulary through actual sentences. It’s easier for the brain to make connections this way, and new vocabulary is apt to stick, especially in a story that’s as memorable as the one presented in my first lesson!
A great addition to the videos is that they have the option to include French subtitles alongside the French audio. Underneath the video, there’s also a French transcript. There aren’t any English subtitles, but you can choose to see the transcript in English.
Next, the lesson lets you click on vocabulary in the transcript that you don’t understand. At the end of the lesson, Frantastique sends you an explanation of these words and phrases when you get your emailed feedback.
These words become a part of Frantastique’s personalized revision schedule of memory tests. After you click on a word, the Frantastique system banks this word and includes it in future lessons and practice activities. This allows the word to stay fresh and active in your memory, making it easier to recall and use it in the real world.
Step 2: Answer the Comprehension Questions
After watching the video and reading the transcript, I was asked a few comprehension questions. They asked me to find information from the video or the French transcript, whereas the grammar questions asked for fill-in-the-blank answers regarding verb conjugations, noun gender, adjectival agreement and more.
There were also some speaking exercises. For example, the first question asked me to watch a clip of the video and repeat the words bonjour and au revoir out loud. Then, it asked me to rank how difficult it was for me to pronounce them.
Next, I was asked if I knew what three different phrases meant. And the third question was a fill-in-the-blank exercise where I had to choose the correct personal pronoun according to the sentence and picture. The last question was a listening exercise where I had to listen to a clip then drag and drop the words in the order that they were said.
After the questions, I was taken to “Today’s dessert.” Which was a snippet of a classic French song. Every lesson ends with “dessert,” which is a clip of a well-known French film, TV show, song or piece of literature. As usual, you can select which French words you’d like to explore further, really helping you get to the root of the French language—and its cultural significance.
Step 3: Review Your Feedback
Once you’ve finished the lesson, you click on “See My Score.” This sends you to a page that shows your overall quiz grade and the translations of the vocabulary you selected.
Then you’re taken to the next lesson.
All in all, the entire first lesson took me about half an hour to complete, from watching the video, carefully combing through the transcript and completing the eight comprehension and grammar exercises. According to Frantastique’s website, the program is based on microlearning, and they tout that each lesson can be done in 10 minutes. I suppose it’s possible, but I wanted to get the most out of my lessons, so I took my time.
After completing the lesson and its exercises, I simply clicked the “Send” button for a complete correction of my work.
Almost immediately, Frantastique emailed me a detailed correction of each comprehension question. While these corrections were obviously computer-generated and not made by an actual teacher, I was surprised at how well done they were.
The corrections not only included the correct answers to my work but also an explanation of why some answers were correct and others were incorrect. This type of feedback is invaluable for French learners.
For grammar questions, the corrections are just as in-depth. Each includes grammar notes and tips. While the corrections and explanations are given in French, there’s also a button available for the corrections and notes to be read in English.
Pros of Frantastique
In-depth Lesson Material
First of all, the detail included in the lessons is amazing. Often, the trouble with learning French online is that explanations related to vocabulary or grammar are limited by the “bite-sized” platform.
By contrast, Frantastique’s email format allows it to deliver thorough explanations. This is true for both the lesson content itself and the corrections—which especially means that much of the guesswork of grammar is taken out.
Immersive Learning with English Support
While having access to a program that’s completely in French is beneficial for an immersive experience, the ability to toggle between French and English when receiving instructions and explanations is also a great feature.
This ensures that you’re primarily learning French in French—which is faster and more effective than trying to learn everything by translating from English—but minimizes confusion and prevents you from hitting a wall.
Cultural Information
Frantastique is unique in that it mixes the language with French culture, using French music and historical figures to guide the topics of instruction. This gives context to the language and allows it to come alive.
Special Levels for Targeted Learning
Not quite ready for the French-only lessons? You can use the translation tools to give you the English versions of transcripts and other text in the lessons. The beginner level also uses slightly more English than the intermediate and advanced levels, so you’re still being immersed but they don’t throw you completely into the deep end.
Frantastique also offers something for advanced French learners. There’s a version available for native French speakers that could be used if you already have a high level of French and you want to brush up on the language.
Real-time Data in the User Space
The User Space is like your dashboard. First you see an overview of your progress. It displays your participation rate, training time—how much time you’ve spent studying on the website—and the number of lessons completed.
Then, you have your next lesson below and an option to refer Frantastique to friends and earn free lessons.
And that’s it—it’s definitely the most clean-looking, simple dashboard I’ve ever seen in a language learning program.
Completely Mobile French Learning
Frantastique now has mobile apps. The apps do the same as the daily email—notify you of your new daily lesson, give you a quick but information-packed French lesson and adapt to your skills and needs as you progress.
The best part is that the entire Frantastique course can now be completed in the app itself. It’s completely mobile-compatible, meaning that you can truly bring French learning anywhere you go, whether during your train commute, at the doctor’s office waiting room or in line at the grocery store.
While Frantastique’s French lessons are fun and catchy, they won’t give you an opportunity to learn everyday French that you’d hear on the streets in Paris. I mean, how many aliens are you supposed to meet on a one-week trip to France?
At first, that might not seem like a big deal. How would you learn from native-level French before you can really understand it?
To combat this, Frantastique has added more authentic French usage as in their “Dessert” feature. And there’s the opportunity for learners to choose informal French or a specific French accent as an area of interest.
Despite this, the level of French used in the program is quite academic and “standard,” which may lead to some blunders in authentic French-speaking situations.
Writing and Speaking Skills Are Missing in Action
The emphasis is on reading and listening. That means there aren’t many opportunities to write more than a couple of words in fill-in-the-blank exercises, and there’s no speaking practice.
A French language exchange would be a smart way to build on your Frantastique learning. You’ll have the opportunity to apply your new skills during your speaking practice—and you can get some writing practice, too, by emailing or texting with your language exchange partner.
The Beginner Level Isn’t Very Beginner
While Frantastique appears to teach beginner French—and learners with low levels of French could benefit from its immersive methods—it’s obvious that you do need a basis in the French language before using Frantastique.
Since the program is delivered entirely in French with limited English, it might be a trying and inconvenient experience for those who have no knowledge of French at all. This means that it’s not necessarily the ideal option for absolute beginners.
If you find the program a bit too difficult for you, you may have to first improve your level with other programs.
You Can Only Study 5 Lessons per Week
For me, the biggest drawback of Frantastique is that you can only receive five lessons a week, once a day, with no opportunity to set your own pace or work ahead—even at the highest pricing plan. It also doesn’t seem like there’s a learning path or a curriculum you can choose from. That’s all left up to Frantastique itself.
This could be a deterrent for learners who want to dedicate more time to French or who want more control over what they’re learning. While trusting an algorithm removes a lot of the stress from learning French, it also removes autonomy. What if I want to study something that the algorithm isn’t offering me yet?
In fact, it appears that you can only complete the lesson sent to you by email, and you can’t move ahead until you do. That means that lessons must be done in order and you can’t choose which lessons you’d like to complete.
How Much Does Frantastique Cost?
Frantastique offers three pricing plans: Basic, Premium for 12 months and Premium for 24 months.
The Basic plan includes up to three episodes (lessons) per week, the level assessment and cultural excerpts and costs $16 per month for 12 months.
The Premium plan includes all basic features plus speaking practice, five episodes per week, episodes tailored to your interest and the ability to choose vocabulary to review. There are two pricing options: $22 a month for the 12-month plan or $17 a month for the 24-month plan.
There is a free trial, which lets you access the program for seven days.
LingQ is similar to Frantastique in that it uses content to teach you French, but it takes immersion and authenticity further.
With LingQ, you can read authentic French content like news articles and online stories. While reading, you click on words you don’t know to add them to your “LingQs.” This shows you the word’s meaning and you can add it to your collection to study it within the app or website. If there are various translations, you can choose which one to add.
Any time the words appear in other articles, they’ll be highlighted.
One thing I love about LingQ is that you can import content you enjoy from other parts of the internet and LingQ lets you go through and collect words the same way you can in the program itself.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the French language and culture over time. You’ll learn French as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews and web series, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive subtitles.
You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used.
For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:
Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with FluentU's adaptive quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning and play the mini-games found in the dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."
As you study, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a 100% personalized experience.
It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.
In addition to Gymglish’s Frantastique course, you can also take a course that focuses exclusively on French orthographe (spelling). This course is offered completely in French, so you should have at least a base in the language.
Each lesson comes with exercises aimed at mastering French spelling, and the course offers immediate feedback, giving you corrections and helpful notes for future spelling tasks. In true Gymlish fashion, there’s a healthy dose of French culture, and the story is so captivating that it’s easy to forget you’re mastering French spelling.
French Grammar Lessons
While the Frantastique course itself tackles a lot of French grammar that’s crucial to know, there are also French grammar lessons available on the Gymlish website.
These grammar lessons are pretty short, but they pack a lot of information. Each gives an explanation of the French grammar point in English, plenty of example sentences and links to related grammatical concepts.
Topics include basic ones such as definite articles and subject pronouns but also more advanced subjects such as irregular adjective agreement rules and the relative pronouns qui (that) and que (that).
Additional French Courses
Gymlish also has courses for more advanced topics in French. For example, you can take a course on entrepreneurship, finance and even a course on increasing your brainpower. In fact, that last course is a special partnership between Gymlish and Le Monde, a world-class newspaper and media company.
Keep in mind that these courses are offered completely in French, and they cover pretty advanced topics. It’s a good idea to have a high level of French before enrolling.
Other Language Courses
Interested in learning a language in addition to French? Gymglish also offers courses in Spanish, Italian and German, as well as beginner and advanced courses for English learners.
All the language courses follow the same basic idea as Frantastique, using a fun story to teach the language.
Plans for the Future
While Gymlish already offers so many great things for language learners, it’s clear that their plans for the future include growth and—surprisingly—sustainability!
In 2005, Gymlish made Greenlish a cornerstone of its business model, aiming to become a carbon-neutral company as well as investing its profits into green initiatives in Europe and around the world.
I recommend Frantastique if you have an intermediate level of French.
It’s not the best for beginners—even though there’s a beginner course, it jumps straight into almost 100% French content without any previous guidance on pronunciation or basics.
But the stories are engaging, you learn a lot about French culture and the immersion is great if you have an upper beginner to intermediate level.
