So that’s really the worst thing to do. Do n't do this if you want to improve in French. You shouldn't do that, and I myself made this mistake for a long time.
I have a lot of work, it's serious. Okay, come on, we'll do what we can. Hello everyone !
My name is Nelly, and I am a French teacher on social networks, but also in real life. Today, we are going to answer a question that I am always asked: “how to speak French naturally ? ”, “how to progress faster in French?
” and “how not to be blocked”? That 's three questions, but I get asked them every day. So today I will answer it.
“I would like to speak more naturally. ” I would like to speak like the natives. How can you do that?
I'm going to give you three pieces of advice, three pieces of advice from my experience as a French teacher, but also from my experience as a learner, because I too, one day, learned foreign languages, and I'm still learning, from elsewhere. And it wasn't easy. So, if you follow the three steps that I'm going to talk to you about today, your French will already be more natural, closer to that of native speakers.
The first thing to do, and I repeat this every day, but I think we don't take it into account enough, is to increase your contacts with the language you are learning, therefore with French. How do you want to progress if you are not exposed to the language as much as possible? I'm not even talking about speaking the language, I'll come back to that a little later.
But the first step is to create a French-speaking environment. So, 50 years ago, it was complicated. But today, we agree, with the Internet, nothing is simpler.
On your phone, in one click, you can access content in French: films, series, books, everything is at your fingertips in one click. You really have to make this effort to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. If you multiply the contacts with the language, you multiply the inputs.
I don't know how to translate this word "input", but I think you get the idea. Your ear will get used to the rhythm, the connections, the accent, the vocabulary. Your brain will record all this information unconsciously, and even grammatical structures and conjugations.
So, the more you listen to French spoken, the more you will be imbued with it. And when you want to express yourself, you will have reflexes acquired naturally through all this immersion work that you have done. I have already made several videos on my YouTube channel about this.
You will easily find by searching a little my selection of books for all levels, films, series, YouTube channels. You can find an even more complete selection, sorted for each level, in my ebook “French naturally”, which was released last week. I give you all the resources to immerse yourself, that you can put into your daily life.
So that's the first step. The second step is to practice, to communicate as much as possible. It's stupid to say, but it's true.
And for this point too, there is no excuse. Because today we can communicate easily in chat sessions with online teachers, even with artificial intelligences. Today you can talk with ChatGPT without any problem.
He will answer you if you ask a question. You can even practice making dialogues with him. There are lots of ways to communicate.
So, to no longer be stuck, first of all, we practice, we communicate, we talk, we try. And secondly, we don't fear mistakes. We cannot avoid mistakes.
You really have to accept the idea of being wrong. That's not always easy. Me too, when I was learning languages, I was very, very afraid of making mistakes, and that paralyzed me.
I was afraid of being ridiculous, because I was a good student and I didn't want to make a mistake. Except that to learn languages, we are forced to make mistakes and go through this stage of making mistakes. And today, I still do it in English, in Spanish, and you probably still do it in French.
But it's not big deal. I tell you in the ebook how I went from being very shy to becoming a French teacher on social networks, with more than 100,000 people watching me. Something that also works very well is learning a few reflex phrases that will allow you to unblock a somewhat blocked communication situation.
For example, you are in France, in Paris, and you want to ask the waiter something, but you are a little stuck. Well, with reflex phrases learned by heart, there is a way to perhaps feel more at ease and resolve a situation. For example, “Let me think for a second”, “I don’t quite agree”, or “How are you?
”, “What’s up? ” Well, that's not for the server, is it? This is for your friends.
There you have it, little reflex sentences like that which can be useful to bounce back, restart a conversation or unblock you. You should also know that in French, there are three language registers: the formal, standard register, the one I use now; and informal, used with friends or sometimes in certain films. It might be interesting to understand it too, a little.
“Don’t you have a cigarette, please? ” That’s informal. “ Could you give me a cigarette?
” And we could ask it very formally, “Would you have a cigarette, please? ” Vouvoiement, conditional, inversion to ask a question. It can also be interesting to understand.
In the ebook, I have also written a short colloquial language survival guide. That way, if you're faced with a situation in real life or in a movie, you can at least understand, not necessarily use the slang words, but understand them. Speaking French also means knowing how to adapt and understand different registers of languages.
And finally, the last step is to manage to vary and nuance your vocabulary to be comfortable in all situations. What's more frustrating when you want to express an idea, but you're missing the word, the word you're looking for. Impossible to remember.
To progress in French, it's very simple: you have to increase your vocabulary level. Personally, I don't really believe in vocabulary lists that we learn by heart. Maybe it works for you, and if it works, great.
But I've never been able to memorize like that. I advise you to favor natural learning, that is to say, through films, series, books. Especially books to increase vocabulary, there is nothing better.
Read articles, read books, poems, whatever, but read. If you read 10 minutes a day, in a week, you will already increase your vocabulary level. To express yourself in a more natural way, you can also learn some idiomatic expressions.
You know, it's these little expressions that we find a little weird, because they can't necessarily be translated from one language to another. “It doesn't break three legs of a duck”, or even, “I give my tongue to the cat”, “It's not the sea to drink”. I often talk to you about these little expressions, because it's true that they are used by native speakers regularly, daily, and it can also be interesting and fun to try to understand them, to use them in the right context.
. I also talk about all this and detail how memory works in my ebook. And I also give you some additional tips for memorizing and not forgetting words, but also for varying your vocabulary.
A very simple piece of advice: avoid using “pas”, you see, when you have the more adjective “pas”. "Not nice: Nelly, she's not nice. Instead of saying "not nice", use the correct word: "Nelly, she's mean".
I don't know if it's a very good example, I'm not being mean, but it's to show you that when there is the "not" and the adjective, often, there is an adjective that is more appropriate. Same with “very”, “very beautiful”, “magnificent”. Well, these are just a few small examples of things you can do to vary your vocabulary and express yourself at a more advanced level.
So, in summary, if you do these three things, that is to say, expose yourself to the language as much as possible by creating a French-speaking environment with resources such as films and books , you will absorb it. Second, express yourself as much as possible, whatever the means, but you have to put it all into practice. And finally, thirdly, vary your vocabulary, learn new words, avoid always using the same sentence structures, also learn adjectives.
This will allow you not to be stuck in a conversation and to be able to talk about very diverse subjects in any communication situation. If you are interested in learning more about all these points and want vocabulary sheets, practical advice, my experience as a teacher, exercises also with answers, you can find my ebook at a special introductory price for 2 more days. I'll put all the information in the description bar if you're interested.
And I'll see you soon in a next video. Take good care of yourself. Hi !
