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Something I find useful is to explicitly separate thoughts into small sentences. "Bonjour. Parlez-vous anglais?" "Yes, a little bit." "Hello. I need a passpo
by wjholden 5y ago
Something I find useful is to explicitly separate thoughts into small sentences.
"Bonjour. Parlez-vous anglais?"
"Yes, a little bit."
"Hello. I need a passport photo. The photo is for a USA passport. The USA passport photo is a different size from the European size. The size for the USA passport photo is 2 inches by 2 inches."
I live in a Francophone region and speak like this to the locals all the time. Taking short pauses between sentences also helps.
- throwaway2037 5y agoThis is a good example. I never saw it written about so directly: Short, simple sentences, with small pauses between. It is a very good idea. When I get stuck speaking with non-natives in my own language or another, I repeat the sentence but use synonyms where possible. That also helps sometimes. Depending upon the local culture, it may be acceptable to "gently" mix languages. Example: Maybe you can say part of what you need in French, and part in English. When I say something in English, then try to repeat another language (or vice versa), the non-native listener is much more likely to understand me.