Parlez-vous français ? Oui, I still can!

It was good to speak French in real life again. This is how it went.

With 100 days to go before my trip, I prepared a menu of activities and by the 50 day-mark, I’d settled into a good routine.

When I got to Paris, I was thrilled that communication still flowed easily.

Conversations with friends went smoothly as did interactions in shops and restaurants.

I could still understand those transport announcements about delays and platform changes – although I did cheat by choosing English when using ticket machines, just in case …

As always, there were new words and expressions to learn from conversations and menus.

But I could communicate just fine … although I stumbled over more complicated tenses.

All in all, I was satisfied with my listening and speaking.

Now it’s time to make a new plan to make sure I maintain my level until my next visit.

An easy framework is the traffic-light system: stop, keep going and start.

Stop

I can stop reading news magazines as I don’t need to keep up with all the ins and outs of what’s happening in France.

I can stop reading for fun only in French and go back to alternating between novels in French, English and German.

Keep going

I’m going to keep going with active copying which reinforces grammar and helps me get a feel for how to use the language naturally.

I’m going to keep going with 5-minute writing where I can practise expressing my ideas under time pressure.

And I can’t do without my daily dose of solo Scrabble in French.

Start

I need to focus on tenses by doing some exercises to revise those verb forms learnt long ago.

Understanding the news, interviews and podcasts is fine. So is understanding people in conversations with two or three people.

Yet I still struggle in larger groups when everyone’s talking at once, interrupting each other and going off on tangents.

Which means I need to up the ante and switch off the subtitles on French TV shows. I’ll be using “back 10 seconds” a lot and watching won’t be so relaxing.

But I know it’s going to be worth the effort in a few months.

What are you doing to keep your language project going?

Learning on your own doesn’t mean learning alone.

I can help you set up and stick to your DIY language project.

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