In my never-ending quest to bring you high-quality sites that can help you learn French, I wanted to profile a fantastic online French community, Francophilia. Pamela, who runs Francophilia, was kind enough to answer some questions I had – read on to see how you can use her site to further your French!

•    Why did you start Francophilia?

In the late 90s, when I couldn’t find a Bastille Day celebration in San Diego, I decided Francophiles like me needed a website where they could go for information about anything related to French culture in North America: events, businesses, organizations, classes, etc. But it wasn’t until late 2007, when open source social network platforms were widely available and I moved to Paris, that I launched Francophilia. My vision is to harness the collective intelligence of Francophiles worldwide to provide one-stop-shopping for info about French culture all over the world.

•    Who is the typical user of your site?

About half of the members are American, but there are members on every continent and from over 60 countries, including a number of native French speakers from various francophone countries. They range in age from 18 to over 80, and many are professionals, students, and artists. The thing I’ve discovered about Francophilia in my travels is that anyone can catch it, even if they’ve never been to France or taken a single French class!

As for our members’ French-speaking abilities, I think most of them have had some French-language training, and probably about half of them have indicated that they want to improve their French!

•    How do you see the internet changing how people learn and practice French?

Having been a student and teacher of French myself, I know it’s difficult to study alone with written material and really make progress. Fortunately, thanks to the social Web and the proliferation of multimedia tools online, people now have options for oral and aural practice as well as interaction with instructors and other students. However, I don’t know of anyone who offers a comprehensive online program that includes all of these crucial elements, although maybe you do! My impression is that users have to get creative and motivated and cobble together solutions that will provide a well-rounded learning experience. Your site is a great resource for people who want to put together a program for themselves!

•    How can French speakers of different levels use your site to improve their French?

Laura Lawless, the French Language Guide on About.com is a member of Francophilia, and she created the Learn & Practice French group on Francophilia. A few members have joined, but the group is not very active. As I said, learning a language requires motivation! It’s also time consuming, and people do have very busy lives.

Francophilia also has a built in IM system, so members can chat one-on-one with each other live when they’re both online. There is also a Chat room, where any number of members can get together to chat in French or to have discussions about French language issues (or anything else, for that matter). It’s just a question of a few motivated members organizing things like this. And they should definitely not forget to contact the native speakers for practice too!

•    Any tips on getting the most from your site?

The best way to get the full benefit of the site is to contribute, participate and interact. Our nearly 1,000 members have a shared passion and a wealth of knowledge and, chances are, if members take the initiative to propose group chats in French, create special-interest groups, or arrange real-world Francophilia meetups for French conversation in their areas, they’ll discover other members who will be glad to participate. In fact, the first Francophilia meetup in Paris will be happening in a few months!