Why I Built Mimique: French Speaking & Pronunciation App

After several years of living in France, I still struggle with real conversation.

Every app and every French lesson I tried taught me the same things. Vocab lists. Grammar drills. Conjugation tables. Phrases and scenarios I never actually used. None of them let me choose the words and phrases I actually needed for my own life. None of them taught me how to pronounce those words properly, so people could actually understand the French I'd learned. None of them taught real spoken French, it was always textbook French, the version nobody on the street actually speaks.

The Problem With Every App and Course I Tried

The French language was never really the problem, even though it's hard!  I put the effort in and I generally knew the words and the grammar rules. My French teachers told me my French was good, I got the certificate to prove it! French teachers have always understood me but the average french person in the street does not! The problem is opening my mouth in front of a real French person and being understood, without freezing, without the fear of getting it wrong and being judged for it.

In all the French classes I've taken, only one ever focused on pronunciation. Grammar, endlessly. Vocabulary, endlessly. But almost nobody sat down with me and worked on how to actually say the words, which, it turns out, is the part that decides whether anyone understands you at all, the most important part!

Most apps are built around a curriculum someone else designed. Fixed lessons, fixed vocabulary, fixed order. None of it really adapts to what you need in your life. For me, I struggled to communicate in CrossFit & gym classes, and chatting to someone else walking their dog, I never had the vocabulary for any of that and so that's why I froze in most situations I was in.

The Listen, Repeat Loop I Actually Needed

So I built the tool I actually needed, going back to basics of listen & repeat. Pick your own phrases. Listen to how they should sound. Record yourself saying them. Compare the two. A private space to practise being imperfect until you improve, with nobody listening and judging!

That loop, listen, mimic, record, compare, is Mimique's whole foundation, and it's where the name comes from. No fixed curriculum. No lessons to fall behind on. Just the phrases you actually need, practised until they're ready to come out of your mouth under pressure.

Why the Loop Works

Each step does something specific:

• - Listen: you hear the phrase said correctly, by a native French voice, at a pace that suits you and your level.
• - Mimic: you say it back immediately, repeating the words while the sound is still fresh.
• - Record: your attempt is captured, not just performed and forgotten.
• - Compare: you can hear the gap between your version and the target, which is where real improvement happens.

This is close to what's known as the shadowing method, and research consistently backs short, active daily practice like this over long, irregular study sessions.

AI for Pronunciation Analysis

Later, once AI models got good enough to analyse and give useful feedback on pronunciation, I added that on top. So instead of guessing whether you sounded right, or why your version sounds off, the app can actually tell you, breaking your attempt down and showing you specifically where it differs from the target and what you need to work on.

Then I Opened It Up to Real French Language Learners to Test

I did something most tech teams don't do. I opened Mimique up to real users learning French before it was anywhere near finished, and asked them for feedback to help me finish it and ensure it's what users actually need. Testers influenced what shipped in the following months, helping me fix iOS bugs and all.  Their feedback went into the app and shaped what it is today and I hope will continue influencing how the app evolves.  Having real users at the heart of this and listening to what they want is what Mimique is all about.