Ditch chatrooms and start speaking REAL French!

Why should you ditch the chatrooms and start speaking REAL French? 

Did you know that with over a third of people with smartphones sending over 100 messages a day, chat rooms and online areas are becoming increasingly popular for learning French?

Now these are great for getting started and making passive friends, but they are likely to be killing your ability to speak French. 

It’s so easy to hide behind technology and make sure our spelling and sentences are correct before we press ‘send’ - but this can leave us feeling uncomfortable when having simple, sustained and REAL ‘face to face’ conversations.  You’re just not getting used to being spontaneous.  You’re actually avoiding it!

In this mini-lesson, you'll learn 

• To master the art of French conversation you need to be speaking it out loud
• That French is messy and there is no spelling or grammar check in a conversation (but that is what helps you learn faster!)
• How speaking out loud helps you remember more French!

 Why chat rooms, apps and online groups kill your ability to speak. 

You might even be trying to learn French through chat rooms, apps, and online groups. Now chat rooms can help get you started… but in the long term, they are likely to be killing your ability to speak French!

It’s so easy to hide behind technology and make sure our spelling and sentences are correct before we press ‘send’ - but this can leave us feeling uncomfortable when having simple, sustained and REAL ‘face to face’ conversations.  

And that’s just in our first language!

What is conversational competence?  

Conversational competence is something that is nurtured. It has to be LIVE, out loud, and frequent. It is no different when learning to speak French!

Why does it have to be live? Because when you talk, you don't write your sentences before talking. You are not looking for perfection. After all, the goal is to communicate and create a bond.

Why should you speak aloud? Because if you don't, you are not dealing with another element of speaking which is the pronunciation mingled with the intonation...

Why should you talk as often as you can? Because if you don't, you will not recall the new words, you will lose fluency, confidence, and much more.

Therefore, whenever the opportunity arises, speak French even if it's messy and with mistakes!

Master the art of French conversation: real conversations with real people.

I challenge my students to quit chat groups so they can learn to SPEAK French out loud with REAL people.

I know that just like them, you too want to master the art of French conversation. REAL LIVE conversation. The kind where you are actually looking at the person you are talking to, and creating a deeper connection, rather than sending emojis and hoping they mean the same thing in French as they do in English.

Mistakes are part of your learning: embrace them!

The truth is, in a REAL conversation you hesitate, you make mistakes, you ask for help with a new word, you try it again. You learn to pronounce, to APPLY, to bring words alive and most importantly - you learn to think and speak spontaneously in REAL time. It is messy but it is REAL.  

Real conversations give context to the new words.

An added bonus of speaking out loud in a dynamic situation is that when you APPLY new words in REAL conversations, your mind can then associate it with sound and a situational experience - this can help you to memorise and LEARN those words far faster than just typing them into a chat box.

Stop texting and dive into REAL conversations

So I challenge you to ditch the chat rooms, stop hiding behind technology and a faceless screen and get USED to talking REAL French to REAL people in REAL time. 

If you struggle with your conversation competence and are looking to have more fluid conversations with like-minded people at your level of French, then check out how having a teacher support in small groups could make a massive difference to your spontaneous listening skills.

Here’s how joining Conversation Café can help you understand spontaneous spoken French more easily.

Click here to check out our Conversation Café sample.

In the meantime, I have these other mini-lessons that will help you with your speaking: 

How to improve speaking French

Learning to listen to spoken French more easily

How DO you speak French every day even though you’re not in France?

Don't forget: the most important thing you can do to boost your French is to...speak!