Isn’t it strange how we pick up our mother tongue without any hassle at a ridiculously early age, yet we seem to struggle hopelessly just a few years later to master even the basics of a foreign language?

Ever wondered why that is?

The easy answer is to accept defeat and simply go along with the idea that it’s normal to be embarrassingly bad at trying to communicate in French or any other foreign language. However, this would be doing our capacity as French learners a great disservice.

If you really are determined to learn French (and determination is required!) consider going back to basics and looking at how kids acquire languages. Fair enough – maybe an adult’s mind doesn’t have the same sponge like qualities as a child’s – but we can certainly learn a thing or two from little ones

Watch TV

Just observe a two year old interacting with the ‘Teletubbies’ and you’ll have a good model of language in action! They’re babbling away in what to the untrained ear is complete gobbledygook, but which will soon be transformed into perfect English.

Likewise, adults can help themselves to a bit of the old vin rouge (don’t try this with your 2 year old!) and put on a French learning video and babble away in the privacy of their own home! Online courses like Rocket French offer a truly interactive viewing experience, and you can learn French whilst playing games! Don’t worry if most of the language passes you by at first – just let it wash over you and join in when you can. Once you get the hang of it, try closing your eyes so that you can’t guess what’s being said just by looking.

Vocab Vortex

Kids just adore having cute little stickers and labels everywhere, so try turning your home into a wonderful web of French words! Find yourself a good French / English dictionary, label everyday objects with post it notes, and on your next trip to the frigo for une bierre, smile to yourself smugly as you say the French words out loud!

Hide the post-it notes as you learn things and treat yourself once you’ve reached a certain target. One note of caution: don’t label clothing which you’re planning to wear unless you want to look rather silly!

Get a Little Silly

There’s no Naughty Corner chez vous, so delight in your dippy errors and laugh at your languished initial efforts to speak French. Talk to inanimate objects if this helps, as they won’t make you feel foolish in the slightest, then progress to real people as your linguistic skills flourish.

Salut!

Wow! I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve made great progress in just a few days of starting on my quest to learn French fast. After getting a bit bored of just looking at the French words and matching them to pictures in online quizzes, I discovered a site called ‘About.com’ which has a whole load of free French language resources.

First on my learning list was a few of their “French Essentials”; I listened to the alphabet first of all, then checked out some of the most common phrases. I found the bit on “Survival French” pretty useful – I can imagine I’ll be saying “Plus lentement” (“More slowly”) quite often in Paris! It’s amazing what you can discover once you start learning a language. Did you know that “Si” is actually the French way of saying “Yes” in response to a negative question? As in, “You don’t speak French, do you?” “Si, actuellement , je parle bien le français!” I always thought “Si” was just a Spanish thing.

I’ve also tried listening to a couple of French learning CD’s in the car, and I’m finding they really help. Mind you, I don’t like all the stop / start “beep” noises and annoying musical interludes! But the opportunity to speak French in the privacy of my car is great! I plan go back to these in a couple of weeks once I’ve had a chance to fine-tune my listening skills elsewhere.

The French evening classes start tomorrow at the local college, hope I don’t make a faux pas on my first outing! It’s one thing to be speaking French to the computer or in the car, but something altogether different to be conversing with real people!

Ciao for now!
Nic