Bonjour, mes amis!

Alors, je suis arrivée in the most romantic city in the world, Paris, even if it is only for a few days of business! You can’t imagine how good it feels to land on foreign soil and actually understand the best part of what is being said – I’m even enjoying looking at all the advertising hoardings and figuring out the messages on them.

I remember our school trip to Paris when I was 13; I was more interested in finding the nearest MacDonald’s and buying lots of tacky souvenirs than I was in learning anything about the people and the culture. Somehow the Eiffel Tower holds a special symbolic significance for me now.

My French in Action

In the taxi to my hotel, I struck up a conversation with the driver. At first he was more interested in trying out his English, but once I explained to him that I’d put so much effort into learning French, he duly obliged and pointed out the landmarks, explaining some of the history connected with them.

My studies really paid off, and I remembered a tip I’d read on a couple of the online French sites about how to talk about future plans. As with English, you phrase future activities by saying that you’re “going to…” do something using the verb “aller”. Once I’d reeled off a list of things I wanted to do whilst in Paris, the taxi driver laughed and asked if I was staying for 4 days or 4 years!

My French at Work

The working part of my stay has been surprisingly stress-free, thanks to the post-it note reminders for key cosmetic French vocabulary which I’ve placed strategically in my hotel room! It’s nice to be able to chat a bit before getting down to business, and I’ve found that I’m more confident when describing our products now as the overall marketing strategy is built around the French product names.

I haven’t even been put off by the grey skies – tomorrow my French counterparts have arranged a visit to the Louvres (love the glass pyramid effect!) and dinner on a bateau-mouche sailing down the Seine. Obviously, I’ve still got lots to learn when it comes to keeping up with fast-talking Parisians, but I’ve learned not to panic, and to follow the gist of the conversation.

Learning French Pays Off!

Best of all, I got a call from my boss this afternoon to say that Head Office have approved funding for me to undertake an intensive one week French course on my next trip to Paris, and are looking at investing heavily in French learning tools and activities for all employees. Je suis très heureuse!

Bonne chance if you’re trying to learn French yourself – I thoroughly recommend it!

Au revoir,
Nic

Salut!

Hey, for those of you who’ve been following my progress in learning French for the past few weeks, you may be interested to know that I reckon I’ve nearly cracked it! With one week to go before take-off to Paris, I feel as though I can just about hold my own in a variety of situations which should see me through my 4 day French business trip. Of course, I’m hoping that once my company sees how well I get on in France, these visits will become a very pleasant permanent feature of my work.

I’ve found that I learn French quickest when I’m really interested in the particular subject that I’m listening to or talking about. This week, there was a report on a French news channel about how people are cutting back on the little luxuries of life due to the current financial situation. I almost forgot about the less familiar words which I couldn’t understand as there were enough bits which made sense, and the images helped me to grasp what was going on too. The next day, I was discussing it with my colleagues and didn’t realise that my boss had overheard me – she was so impressed, and said she’d happily invest in more French learning software if this was the result. I’m so proud of myself.

The evening French class is now quite competitive, in the nicest possible way, and I’m going to sign up for the Intermediate classes once they start. I don’t want to let things slip, and although the online learning resources are ideal for learning at your own rate, it’s good to be pushed sometimes by participating in a “live” situation.

The big test comes next Wednesday quand je vais a Paris, but I’m feeling pretty confident. I’ve made some little flashcards based on what I’ve found on Fluenz French and Rocket French just as a quick refresher for the memory before I go into different situations such as meetings and restaurants over there, and I’m talking to myself in the car – the CD’s which I found pointless at first are now making a lot more sense. Not long now, I can’t wait!

A bientot,
Nic

Salut!

Thought I’d come clean and share one of the downsides to my French learning experiences with you, just so you’re not under the illusion that it’s all plain sailing. I suffered a bit of a setback in the fourth evening class which made me realize that I need to be a bit more realistic when setting my learning targets!

The tutor asked for volunteers to do a role-play; she would be the shop assistant, we would play the customers. Don’t ask me why, but I thought I could handle it no problem. We played a scenario where I went into a charcuterie to buy various meat products. I was doing fine with the basic pleasantries, but when it came to thinking up three different products to ask for, I dried up after asking for saucissons, and started gesticulating wildly whilst trying to change things into a French version of English!

My instinct was to run out of the door and never return, but I knew that wasn’t going to solve anything. I was grateful to the rest of the class for helping me to laugh it off, and to be fair, they all said my accent was very realistic. The tutor made some recommendations for resources which might be helpful for putting conversations together. Apparently, there are a couple of online resources which I haven’t tried yet which are well respected in the business. I’d heard a lot about the ‘Rosetta Stone’ system, but it’s pricey – I’m going to ask at work if they’ll invest in it for me. The other one, ‘Rocket French’, is more affordable, so I’ll treat myself to that. They both have some free trial materials on the web which will keep me busy.

I’m trying to keep the positives in mind – after all, I’m only just halfway through my learn French fast experience, and still have over 3 weeks left before jetting off to Paris. Onwards and upwards!

Ciao!

Nic

Salut!

So, the evening classes have finally begun, and I’ve realized the whole point of my efforts to learn French – in other words, to communicate with other people! I was so nervous before I entered the room for the first time because I could hear a couple of people chatting away in fluent French – I thought we were all supposed to be beginners here! It turned out to be our tutor talking to a young French student who’s doing some work experience at the college, and who’d offered to come and lend a hand with the class!

For me, half the battle of learning French is getting away from the idea that I have to understand all those boring grammatical rules which did my head in at school! The tutor assured us that we were going to concentrate on vocabulary and phrases which we could use in everyday conversations in France, and that she’d “slip in” the grammar along the way without it dominating the conversational emphasis. Phew!

Quite a few of my fellow students were there either because they wanted to be able to use French for business purposes, or simply because they were fed up of going on holiday and not being able to put across even the most basic ideas. It was great to know that I’m not the only one who feels a mild wave of panic sweep over me if I’m faced with having to order a taxi or decipher a menu in France, and I found that it was useful to be able to ask our tutor specific questions related to the vocabulary I’ll need for my business trips.

The only downside that I found with the evening class was having to wait for some people in the class to catch up to the rest of us. It turns out that, perhaps thanks to the revision of my dim and distant knowledge of French from my school days, I know a bit more than I think! I found this a bit frustrating, but on the other hand, I enjoyed the lively bits of conversation I managed to engage in. The coffee and croissants were especially welcome!

A bientôt!

Nic

Salut!

Well, this is it – I’m finally taking the plunge and putting aside my fear of foreign languages to have a go at French. Why? It’s not really something that’s been top of the agenda before, but for my new Sales job with a major cosmetics company, I need to be able to use a bit of the lingo. To be fair, I will get some nice all expenses paid trips to Paris in return for all my studying – it’s more of an incentive than I ever had at school!

Question is how to go about this mammoth task? A friend of mine swears that her father learnt from some of those language tapes; he just used to switch one on every night before he fell asleep, and snore his way through the whole thing! Bet the sleep talking was quite entertaining.

I’ve checked out a few online French learning materials, and I’m feeling a lot happier now that I’ve played a few vocabulary games. It’s pretty surprising how much I remembered from my time in the classroom. The flashcards and word searches helped to jog my memory on the French words for members of the family, everyday items around the home, and colours – especially handy for the lipsticks and eye shadows I’ll be selling!

I reckon I’m going to do some more visual stuff before moving on to listening and – horror of horrors – speaking! Thing is, I’ve only got 8 weeks to learn enough French to get me by on my first business trip to Paris, so I’m going to have to start learning quickly. I might enrol in an evening class to get accustomed to the sound of French again and give me a bit of a lift with the oral activities. I’ve also seen a couple of online courses which would be good because I can fit them in around my work…I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

A bientôt!

Nic