About Frantastique

Frantastique is an awesome French learning online platform that provides personalized lessons adapted to individual levels. Followed by more than 200,000 people worldwide, their 10-minute daily lessons include:

• Funny videos that follow the adventures of Victor Hugo as he explores the Francophone universe
• Grammar, Vocabulary and Comprehension tests
• Personalized corrections with detailed explanations
• Information on the French culture

The course is humorous, practical and includes a wide variety of accents. Lessons are adapted for post-beginners (from 15 years old).

How does Frantastique work?

Every day, Frantastique students receive an email with a link to a selection of exercises, texts, dialogues, and mini-lessons in French. These include original stories and historical notes that match their levels and objectives.

Once they have sent their answers, they receive a correction with their daily score, as well as personalized explanations and information.

The course adapts to students’ needs and learning speed. An artificial intelligence (AI) engine builds each lesson to focus on the points they struggle with, as well as the topics that they have requested.

The French Possum Review

I tested the 7-day free level assessment that Frantastique offers. This included 7 lessons with personalized corrections and a portfolio at the end (a personalized pedagogical report).

I am a big fan of the short videos in the lessons. The first video is about aliens that bring Victor Hugo back to life. How quirky is that? Videos also have subtitles and transcripts, and it’s possible to select the vocabulary you don’t know to get a translation later. The pronunciation is very clear as well.

 

My favorite part of the lesson is called “Dessert” (of course ^^)! This section is about Francophone cinema, music, and literature related to the story (video) of the day.

I love that the content of the French learning courses is continuously adapted to students’ levels, needs, and preferences. I tested the system by answering wrong a lot of questions in lesson 1. Lesson 2 was then easy. In Lesson 3, I gave 100% right answers. Well, Lesson 4 was slightly more difficult than the previous ones. So the AI definitely does a great job!

For those whose French is a bit rusty (CECR level A1), it’s possible to activate a special mode that ensures you start with the fundamentals of French. Also, the course offers a “non-spicy” mode (censored), as Frantastique occasionally features content that might be considered ‘Adult Only’: slang, familiar or vulgar terms (always labelled as such), or adult situations, all of which are common in French-speaking culture.

Students also have access to a “Cahier de cours” (personal workbook) that includes:

• Their latest lessons and corrections
• Statistics on the student’s level, progress and participation rate
• Vocabulary and grammar pointers from all lessons
• All previous episodes in readable formats

I love that all instructions are available in French and English and that it’s possible to use a virtual keyboard for accents and special characters when necessary.

Personalized corrections are great! They are easy to read, and they all include:

• Translations of any vocabulary selected in the last lesson.
• The scripts of the audio or video scenes
• Short, personalized explanations of all answers. Errors are covered in more detail in future lessons.
• Finally, the Café Gourmand section provides cultural notes related to the lesson.

It’s also possible to schedule holidays and reception days (any five days per week). This way, participation rates are not affected by any absence during the students’ holidays and they can customize when they receive the lessons each and every week.

Why I chose to partner with Frantastique

While I focus on sharing information about the French culture on the French Possum blog, I’m actually not that good at explaining grammar and other “technical” aspects of the French language (blame the writer in me who gets tired of proofreading French texts all the time!) The fact that Frantastique fills in this gap, along with the fact that I am amazed by the quality of the personalized online lessons they provide, are the two reasons why I agreed to partner with them.

Thanks to this partnership, you can now access the Frantastique free 7-day trial from the French Possum blog and test your level of French. You’ll get 7 free lessons and then an assessment of your level at the end (portfolio). If you decide to continue your French journey, several subscriptions are available. They start at AU$ 31 per month depending on the duration of your course. As a Frantastique partner, I receive a commission every time a course is booked (and these commissions help the French Possum blog going by helping with website fees and other unfortunate costs ^^)

For those wishing to continue their learning, Frantastique also provides a certificate of completion (Frantastique Certificate) at the end of the training, which includes detailed statistics on progress and participation rate.

 

 

What do you think? Have you tried Frantastique before?