Issue No. 15

Listen, Too
When you are first learning French and
someone speaks to you, the words can
kind of run together. You need to “tune
your ear” so you can distinguish individual
words. The way to do this is by listening to
a lot of it.
Happily, there are French-language
podcasts on just about any subject. You
like cooking, history, sports? There is a
podcast for you.
Listen to these podcasts as you walk the
dog or work in the garden. At first it will be
a blur, but slowly your brain will adapt and
you’ll be able to hear the different words.
That’s a big step to learning French.
You Don’t Have to be Perfect
No one likes to make mistakes, so there is
a natural tendency to avoid talking until
you are really good. But that creates a kind
of Catch-22 because you need to talk in
order to get really good. Stop worrying and
learn to laugh at yourself.
People appreciate it when you make an
effort to speak their language. I have found
that French people smile and encourage
me when I try to speak French. It shows
respect for their culture. Who doesn’t
appreciate that?
Sometimes when you make a
mistake, you get a funny story out of
it.
French and English share a lot of words,
like nation and pause. If I don’t know a
word in French I sometimes fake it by
using the English word with a French
accent. It usually works, but not always.
I once served some French friends a
cheese with edible ash on it. I announced
it in French as a cheese with ash. My
friends, shocked, explained that this meant
hashish. Oops.
Anticipate a Few Ups and Downs
Language learning is a funny thing – it
happens in spurts. You seem to make no
progress at all, sometimes for weeks, and
suddenly you take a big leap forward. So
don’t be discouraged when you feel like
you are working hard and not getting
anywhere. And enjoy the leaps when they
happen.
Have Fun!
This is going to take a while and you need
to have fun to stick with it. So find ways to
enjoy the language as you are learning.
Take a trip to France to try out your new
skills. Watch French movies. Go to a
French restaurant and chat with the
waiters.
I subscribe to a US newspaper and a
French one. I look for stories that both
papers have covered and read them in
English and then in French (I read English
first because that helps me understand
what the story is about.) It can be
fascinating to see two perspectives on the
same subject.
After following this approach, I can now
hold meaningful conversations in my
second language. I have friends in France
and even read French books. It still
surprises me because I was terrible with
languages as a kid.
Parlez-vous français? You can do it!
Keith Van-Sickle is the author of One Sip at
a Time: Learning to live in Provence, a
charming book about starting a new life in
France...
Available from Amazon