[JackBlack]

I'm French and slowly learning (oral) Japanese through watching subtitled animes.

Japanese is a tough nut to crack for us Occidentals, but I heard that French ain't too easy for the English either. So based on my experience with Japanese, I would guess that watching French TV isn't gonna be enough.

Music will be especially worse. I'm fluent in English and I still can't get words every now and then because you pronounce things differently when you sing.
Heck, I don't even get what French songs say, sometimes !

You are lucky enough to have French natives around you. The fastest way to learn is to ask them to speak ONLY in French with you from now on. If you see them often you will learn extra fast, provided you also work on your own in a more scholar way.

If you don't see your French friends/family often enough, TV will help to improve your accent and recognize individual words. It's more important than it sounds because even when you know a word, it's not guaranteed that you can spot it when it's spoken out loud in a conversation.


Finally if you're willing to come to France, living there for 6+ months will of course be the best way to learn both culture and language.


Edit: I don't know anything about sign languages, but maybe you should volunteer to help in a place where you can find deaf people ? You'd learn from nurses or semi-deaf people I guess...