From the very beginner level, maximize your “output” in learning French
Whether you learn French for professional purposes or personal pleasure, or whether you are total beginner, intermediate, or advanced student, your primary purpose for learning French will probably be to gain the ability to communicate orally in real situations: talk with people, listen and comprehend what they say, watch TV and films, listen to the radio, understand and sing songs, etc.
Some students, obviously, need to reinforce written communication skills in addition to this primary need of ORAL communication, especially if they will be interacting with French speakers via written communication for work or other reasons.
Thus, our very first piece of advice for learners of the French language who want to rapidly gain an excellent ability to communicate orally is quite logical: choose lessons and methods that focus on SPEAKING practice and find or create for yourself an environment in which you can practice SPEAKING French. If you learn French alone at home or online, you should always pay special attention to SPEAKING and listening practice, for example, not just focus on learning grammar.
Similarity between learning a foreigne language and learning a sport
Mastering a foreign language can be compared to learning a sport. If you want to play tennis well, you can’t do that by only listening to instructions from a coach. You need to hit tons of balls and move around the court while remembering all of the advice given to you by your coach. Language learning is similar. Once you understand the basics of any language and you have some vocabulary under your belt, you should use what you know and produce phrases!