3 ms·
I’ve been learning for a couple years, and recently thought I’d practice on a French speaker I met at a conference. He listened politely for a couple sentences,
by chillacy 8y ago
I’ve been learning for a couple years, and recently thought I’d practice on a French speaker I met at a conference. He listened politely for a couple sentences, remarked that I was “killing the French language”, and continued in English. So I do see the authors point on that.
- r00fus 8y agoIt helps if you're trying to flirt - everyone in France is generally cool with flirting even with those that botch the language. Just use a bit of flattery and don't be afraid to use a bit of body language (I jokingly call it "speaking Italian "). Even more fun when you're talking to someone way out of your league.
- justanother 8y agoChances are, he was just remarking on your pronunciation, which is all anyone cares about with French. I studied it for 5 years (IB/college many years ago) and still managed to get the brusque English-menu treatment in Quebec. For the past year I've listened to almost exclusively French music and my pronunciation has improved dramatically. Now even when I whip out a couple lines of simple A1-level stuff, natives compliment my French. The only thing that has changed is that I talk more like the songs I've learned.
- jobigoud 8y agoAs another data point, I am French and I hate speaking French when I'm abroad, especially in the US or any English speaking country. I find it much easier cognitively to stick with one language, the context switching is too costly. When I force myself to switch back to French I will initially trip on sentences and find my own accent weird.
- wallflower 8y agoIf it is your accent, check out the Mimic Method. https://mimicmethod.com https://mimicmethod.com