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Thursday, March 18, 2010

How to Improve French Language Skills?

Hi Everyone

I believe life in a foreign country is much easier if you know how to speak the local language. So as part of getting ready for our overseas relocation to Brussels I decided to learn French.

A private teacher comes to my house once a week. I know it is not enough, but my schedule is full, and I have no room for additional lessons.

I love the sound of the French language, but I feel so frustrated. I speak 3 languages - English, Hebrew and Spanish. I took 4 years of French in school, and I still don't understand French and certainly can't speak it.

Each time I try to say something in French, I hear myself speaking Spanish. My French teacher knows Spanish so she understands what I am saying, but I don't believe it will work in Brussels and I don't want it to work there.

French is hard not only because of the grammer. It is difficult because when French people speak they tend to combine 2-3 words, and reading French is absolutely impossible, as many letters are not pronounced.

We get French T.V on our cables so I should start to watch some shows, and to listen to French radio stations exactly like Susanna Zareaysky suggested in her book Language is Music

I might also try to use Transparent Language software

If you have any suggestions how to improve my French language skills please share them in here

Sharon
Posted by at 4:50 AM
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5 comments:

  1. Try the free award winning podcast. Coffee Break French. Google to to find it. I used Coffee Break Spanish before moving to Honduras, and I was amazed at how it transformed my college Spanish into language that I could use and speak.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Laurie

    Thanks :)

    I will look it up

    Sharon
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  3. Hi Sharon!

    Well, I don't really have any advice on learning French, specifically, but I wanted to encourage you to be bold when you get to Brussels, and just try your best. Just being there will help your French language acquisition so much, but it'll take some thick skin and a sense of humor to get passed all the mistakes and miscommunication that may arise.

    I just moved to Beijing and it's the same thing with the Beijing accent/slang- where the locals slur words together. It felt like I was swimming upstream, but my friends encouraged me to just speak boldly, and use hand signs and body language if needed (I have many stories of me playing charades with locals here, haha).

    Hopefully you'll be able to just laugh off the miscommunication that will arise; it's all part of the transition process!
    ReplyDelete
  4. Good luck with your move, my dear! It sounds like things are going well so far.

    I've had good luck with the Rosetta Stone, but truly, nothing beats having an in-the-flesh teacher. But you'll pick it up fast, especially since you've had four years of lessons in school. :-)
    ReplyDelete
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