Learning to speak French

Learning to speak French

I have travelled a little before but my eyes where defiantly shut when I left for Europe. I had the standard Kiwi – ‘it will be fine attitude’. That meant can’t speak the language . . . no problem. Don’t know anyone there . . . no problem. Don’t have a job . . . no problem. I was actually ignorant enough to believe that Luxembourg would be exactly the same as New Zealand. Before leaving New Zealand we had been told that everything in Luxembourg was in English. English was the business operating language and that we would have no problem communicating. It didn’t even bother me that I had NEVER heard someone speaking French before.

I left New Zealand looking for an adventure, I wanted to challenge myself and push the limits, and French has defiantly done this for me. It has been the thing I have hated the most and loved at the same time, its incredibly difficult not understanding the language around you and incredibly rewarding when you begin to make it work and understand.

When we arrived in Luxembourg and where picked up by a gentleman who spoke 3 languages, however none where English. This is when our dreams became to crumble to reality, work was in English . . . but because English is a second language for everyone they speak French for EVERYTHING else, therefore you miss out on all types of general conversations and gossip. Even going to the supermarket became a nightmare – everything is in French, you don’t know if the meat you’re buying comes from a sheep cow or even horse!

Now being a contentious and respectful Kiwi I had decided that if I was living here I should learn to speak French, however I had seriously failed to understand the dynamics of that decision and how much harder it would be than I realised.

I am now Six months in, my accent is TERRIBLE, but I can build a basic sentence, ask questions and understand the answers – I still have a lot of work to do however life is a lot more comfortable even with this basic understanding.

In the past six months I have found a few tips and techniques that may help others to learn French.

To learn French you need to hear the pronunciation, while many of the words are the same as English the pronunciation defiantly isn’t. Before I left New Zealand I listened to a CD in the car and memorised a few key sayings; however what I forgot was that if I ask a question in French you get an answer in French – you must have a reasonable grasp on the vocabulary to understand the answer.
When ever you watch a movie in English put the subtitles are on – it’s a great way to learn basic French words and sentence structure.
I catch the bus to work, everyday I pick up a French newspaper and read about what I am interested in. I bought a dictionary and translate the words I don’t know. The effects of this are twofold – you learn the words on paper, you can take your time and read slowly thus making sure that you understand. Also it enables you to grow your vocabulary.
Read advertising – all advertising everywhere.
Hope that your colleagues are kind and patient, first of all listen to them talking, then practice, practice and practice. It’s really hard to start speaking another language and you will feel really stupid when you begin, you will make a lot of mistakes. However this is something you simply must work through if you actually want to learn to speak French.
Do all of the above together at the same time, emersion is defiantly the best way to learn another language. Every day I read the paper I hear people talking and using the words from the paper; this reinforces them and ensures my understanding grows word by word.
Practice, practice, practice unless you have a photographic memory you will need to continually reinforce the words until they become second nature.

Finally, if possible enrol in French lessons or courses, they are expensive however these French courses have defiantly helped me to learn French and are probably the best investment I have made.

Please understand while my French is still terrible, it has improved dramatically. These tips are not fail safe solutions to learning French, however they are tips and techniques that have helped me grow from NEVER having heard French in my life to making basic communication. It’s a base that you can continue to grow and improve from.