How to Maintain my French?

French, as well as many other skills, all follow the one well-known colloquial expression: if you don't use it, you lose it (or in French, ne s'use que si l'on ne s'en sert pas)! This article is meant to address how to maintain your French over time and how to avoid losing all of that hard work. You don't understand how often this question comes up, especially on French Reddit, essentially outlined as such:

"I haven't used my French since high school (or college)! How can I keep my French up to par?"
"How can I maintain my French during the summer?"
"What are some good ways to practice French outside of the classroom (on my free time)?"

How to Maintain French Listening Comprehension and Speaking:
Listening comprehension (the ability to distinguish and understand what people are saying) is easy to maintain if you have a viable internet connection. BFMTV en directe is my preferred way to do this because it is the most popular French news channel which streams their feed live, worldwide, 24/7. This is the same stuff you get in France so it is not really for beginners, but you can enjoy debates, weather updates, and current events throughout their webpage.

Other great ways to listen to French include watching French movies (or English movies with French Audio if available), listening to French music, or watching French videos on youtube. There is a big following for French comedians such as Cyprien or  Natoo. Also Canal+ has some decent shows like Les Guignols de l'info and Le Meilleur d'Hier.

Speaking and pronunciation is a bit harder to target. Ideally you should travel to a francophone area and dive right into the speaking! However, good alternatives include finding a French person or somebody who knows French to talk to, even if it means setting up conversations on Skype. Another option could be to find a local Alliance Française, or do an activity similar to the pronunciation exercises found on the popular language programs of Rosetta Stone or Fluenz (which costs hundreds). My last suggestion would be to try out the pimsleur approach or other audio CD sets, and repeat after the speaker to work on pronunciation.

How to Maintain French Grammar and Reading:
I'd like to believe that reading and grammar are not completely dead. If you like to read for leisure then you not only have a good way to entertain yourself... you subconsciously learn French grammar as well! It's not a coincidence that good readers have a better command of the language when it comes to reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary.

Tu & Vous: French Subjects

Tu & Vous in French

What is the difference between tu and vous in French? Both these French subject pronouns mean "you" however they are used in rather different situations which will be explained below. English speakers can have a hard time with tu and vous because our modern language does not make this distinction in the same manner. This power hieracrchy can be found in other European languages, such as the Italian tu/Lei or the German du/Sei. Violating this hieracrchy can be relative to walking through an imaginary social minefield. Hopefully, this article can resolve some confusion surrounding the two pronouns.

Just as a quick note, I think the biggest way to get adjusted to having two "you" subjects is to practice with French natives... correct context becomes a lot clearer when you interact with others or simply listen to French natives speaking.

Vous
Formal and safe, vous is your by default form of the word "you" unless it is one of the exceptions discussed later.

Vous is what you use when:
1. You do not really know a person well (strangers, acquaintances, coworkers which aren't your friends)
2. You wish to show respect to someone (boss/superiors, teachers, customers, etc..)
3. You are referring to more than one person at once (audiences, crowds, two or more people, etc...)
4. The person is a lot older than you
5. You're not sure whether or not to use vous (always be safe and then switch or ask to switch later)