Speaking French in France is awesome, but it also comes with its own set of struggles.
Which, we agree, are nothing compared to the struggles of NOT speaking French in France.
After all, if you DO speak French, even a little of it, you are automatically going to run into less problems (or none at all).
But, just to be on a safe side, here’s the type of struggles you might come across if you speak French in France, and how to go around them.
1. Dealing with the different French accents
Even between us it’s sometimes complicated
That’s the number one struggle, and it’s a big one for learners as well.
French is not one single, uniform language. (No language is)
But if you plan to travel AROUND France, and not to stay just in Paris, you might have a hard time understanding people from the South at first.
Strong accents are not the norm. And it’s unlikely you will have to deal with an impenetrable one ever.
But just to be clear, here’s how you can resolve this:
- Getting used to the accent of the region you are going in. (YouTube is your best friend for that)
- Giving it a bit of time (French way). Even bilinguals sometimes have a hard time with accent. You probably have a hard time with one accent in your native language, right? Well, give it a rest. Get your ears used to it.
- Keep listening. Dont give up. It comes with a bit of time. Who knows, maybe your French accent will change depending on where you spend your holidays. (My English accent changes depending on which country I’m in).
2. Getting people to speak to you in French
French people tend to suddenly disappear when they need to speak English
You remember when I said that we expect you to start the conversation in French? Well yes, that’s true.
But what’s also true is that, if you find someone who speaks English, you might have a hard time speaking French to them.
This might be because they like to speak English, or because they think you’ll be more comfortable speaking English than French
Don’t take it the wrong way. This is not an assessment of your level, but more of your accent, which is essential when speaking French abroad.
So how do you go around it? How do you get French people that speak English to speak to you in French?
You have several options:
- Telling them you want to speak French with them. Honesty the best policy.
- Keep answering in French. Be stubborn.
- Find someone else to talk to. Someone that don’t speak English. Can’t cheat that way 😉
3. Remembering colloquial expressions
There’s the accent and then there’s regional expressions and words.
Don’t feel so depressed, it’s not that big of a deal.
French people are good at adapting their level of French to their speaker.
You can thank our very define formal VS informal, written VS spoken, language. And the way it was drilled into us at school.
But sometimes, we don’t realise that we are using expressions or colloquial words.
Btw, those are the expressions and words you want to learn. Not the ones we don’t use.
How to go around that?
- Learn some expressions we are actually using.
- Ask your conversation partner to repeat. Honestly the best policy.. you get the drill 😛
- Smile and nod hoping you didn’t miss anything important (NAH, I’m kidding, this is a joke)
4. Trying to chitchat in French
French people are not the champions of chit chat. That’s the least we can say.
That was one of the most surprising thing I discovered when I first moved abroad.
In fact, chitchat is probably going to annoy us. It’s not in our nature to talk about the weather, unless you’re an old bored to death old lady, and use it as a conversation opener to get gossip.
So, sparking up a conversation with a local can be a sport.
In fact, it’s one of the main module of my course French for Travellers.
There’s topic to avoid, rules to follow, and things to say. But here’s a good start:
- Remember that you and I have different culture, so there’s topics you might feel comfortable with that we don’t (like money)
- Don’t push. If the conversation doesn’t start, just find someone else. And remember that it’s not because of you.
- It’s easier to converse with someone you’ve met a few times already. So your B&B host is perfect for your first try.
5. Using the correct forms
It’s a fear of most beginner French learners, being wrong.
Actually, it’s a fear of most beginners, of any language, of any skill
And yes, in some case, it can be a problem. But it’s never MAJOR, and there’s always a way to correct.
I’ll go further and say than to go from beginner to intermediate you NEED to make mistakes and own it.
But here’s a few ways to avoid using the wrong form, verb or whatever it is you are afraid of:
- Train. And I don’t mean by doing exercices. I mean, train with fake situation mirrored on real life ones. You can get a tutor to help you with that.
- Don’t panic and start over. If there was a problem of misunderstanding somewhere, you’ll know. In which case, you can simply start again. Make the person repeat, or re-explain.
- Ask for confirmation. If you are really unsure (for example you have to meet at a specific place in town with your guide), you can ask for confirmation on a map…
One learning technique I recommend if you are afraid of this is to use sentence mining.
