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To be French or not to be French

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Pre requisites

Study Material

Study Method

Test

There are 2 ways to obtain the French nationality

  • Declaration if your spouse or parent is French

  • Naturalisation if you've stayed in France for 5 years

Let's say you want to get the nationality by yourself- you're confined to option 2

If you've never read about these conditions before, you should read it from the French Public Services. When you've gone through the simulator mentioned in the link, you'll already have your customised list of documents to apply for the naturalisation

Collecting the documents should take you a few months at the least. I would strongly recommend you to start studying for the interview in parallel, ooooooh yes, there IS an interview and it can be difficult if you haven't prepared for it

PRE REQUISITES

The classics:

  • The official guide is called the “Livret du Citoyen” If the link doesn't work, you can just google the phrase and download the latest version

  • Already have read "La charte des droits et devoirs du citoyen français”. You'll need to sign it in the interview and may not have the time to read it

  • Initial French Check : Introduce yourself in French. This can sound straightforward, but it's not! You can see it in my video with Rita- when you're stressed, you tend to ramble and/or make mistakes. Write down a quick intro about yourself and practice it

Balata Plus:

  • Create your own Anki deck to calm your nerves before the exam. I prefer to organise all the facts and descriptives from the documents above in a handy deck to make sure that I can revise the whole body of the syllabus in one hour before the exam

  • Plug in your earphones and listen to Quid Droit. This guy's content gave me a lot of confidence during my preparation. I would watch his video, pause before the answer is revealed and attempt to answer it myself

  • Write if you want to! Lately my study sessions have been completely on my computer and my phone, but to calm my nerves and superstitious side, I do write a bit before the interview to make sure I'm nothing to think/worry about. It's my irrational side, but you do you!

  • Record yourself. You have No idea what you sound like when you're stressed. I did this with Rita (Full version here) and had no idea why I made so many grammar mistakes and sounded so robotic. Hearing back how I spoke gives me cues on what I can practice to improve my answers

STUDY MATERIAL

DISCLAIMER: This is what worked for me.

  1. I started off by reading the documents to get a feel of the volume of facts

  2. Realised that it's a lot to memorise for a few light reading sessions

  3. I used Anki to record all the facts I'm sure I won't remember

  4. I practiced with the App for the majority of the time, and checking if my facts matched with the ones I had recorded in the app

  5. After a few days of doing this, I asked my friends to quiz me

STUDY METHOD

Asking friends for help is the most effective way for you to gauge your level and improve. I reached out to my buddy Rita who was willing to interview me and she gave me her valuable feedback.

While this may see obvious (most feedback seems that way), you don't find them online, as it's personalised to my responses, and you don't think of it when you're stressed in the interview

Remember that feeling when you're in an exam or an interview “I should've paid more attention to this fuzzy part"? Well, recording yourself with a friend can help you practice that

FULL INTERVIEW