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

You want to avoid embarrassing mistakes, sound realistic and have engaging conversations but you’re alone and certainly NOT in France (yet) and wonder how you are going to practise your French every day! I’m going to give you four easy and realistic techniques that will help you speak French every single day of your life! 

1. Repeat the word you want to learn with the action

…. every single time you do that action. For example let’s use MANGER which means to eat. 

When you have food in front of you repeat the word MANGER. Do this out loud. It’s been proven to work better than saying it internally when you are adding a physical dimension to your practice.  Do this with any verbs you want. This makes the French word a habit and a routine that makes speaking in French more comfortable. 

Prepare a basic list of what you want to practise. Make sure you have at least one verb.

Beside each one, list the places you do these actions in your home or at your workplace.

When you are ready to move on, prepare the verb in the past, the present, and the future.  Add your opinion when you’re ready. Do too much and you’ll fall off the French wagon, so to speak!

Here are additional ways to step it up:

Before you eat say – je vais manger

Then as you eat say – je mange

And after, j’ai mangé

Want to step it up again? 

Change the details each time you want to progress and think about answering these questions by saying:

Where                         Je vais manger à table

When                          En cinq minutes

Why                            parce que je suis invité

How                            Je vais manger lentement

What                          Je vais manger une quiche Lorraine

Describe it                C’est avec des oeufs, du fromage et des champignons

Opinion                    C‘est vraiment délicieux

Ask                            Qu’est-ce tu vas manger?

You don’t need to do everything at once. It is just an example of the VARIETY of detail you can add to help you be REAL with your learning. Start SMALL, add a bit at a time and build it up DAILY. Make it adaptable and change the details frequently. 

Repeat adapt repeat adapt repeat adapt repeat adapt repeat

Note the addition of a question – get used to including others and not always having to be asked first. Take the reins of the conversation even when it’s with yourself. In this way you’ll be ready to speak with others.

To reiterate, say your sentences OUT LOUD because articulating words uses a far more active part of your brain than just reading.

Whatever you want to practise, build it up in creative ways! It’s the adapting and creating, along with the constant visiting of the vocabulary that helps you learn.

2. Write a diary and read it out loud to yourself

Make it a DAILY HABIT A language comes more easily when it’s a habit. You feel more comfortable! Start with single sentences. Don’t worry about the quantity. You’ll look back one day and see how much you have moved on!

MANGER is the easiest to start with. You can learn the foods too by writing what you eat and then saying them out loud. 

SPEAK. Articulate the words and the sounds associated with those words. Focus not on memorising but on the pronunciation - the WAY you say the sentence. 

Make a video of yourself reading from your diary and look at how you’re saying something. Listen to your intonation. Identify areas you feel you can work on and then you can get specific help.  Asking someone to help with pronunciation in general is a real challenge but asking for help with the way you pronounce the ‘ou’ combination is going to get much better results!

Look at other people online and watch how they shape their mouth when they’re speaking French. Train your ears to ‘tune in’ to the sound they make.

Copy some sentences and get at ease with them. This is the one that causes a lot of laughter.  But to make the sound that we didn’t learn as a child, we have to retrain our brain AND our mouth!

Once you’ve mastered one sound – move on to the next!  Impress your friends by just how French you sound! Even if it’s only one sound at a time!

MAKE speaking a HABIT and you won’t feel so clumsy when you say what you’re used to saying.  I repeat this because it has to be a constant habit! What you do regularly ceases to become ‘strange’ or  ‘uncomfortable’. Make it your NORMAL way of being.

Repeating each day will TRANSFORM your speaking; will allow you to avoid embarrassing feelings and you will impress yourself with how comfortable you can feel.

3. Speak to others regularly in French, even if it’s in short sentences.

SPEAK. Record a voice message on your own number so you can listen to it at your convenience. Articulate sentences and questions. For example: ‘Qu’est-ce que tu fais aujourd’hui?’ And answer with “moi je . . . “  Answer as mentioned before: very simply at first, then build up and up.  Do the same question until you feel impressed with your answers.

Ready to step this one up?

Change the question, the answers you give AND the tenses you use.

4. Speak WITH others face to face live.

Speaking spontaneously gets you out of reading mode.  It makes you react on the spot. It seems a bit scary at first but it’s pushing boundaries that allows you to have proper conversations. 

If you’re practising on your own at first you are going to feel that what you say is normal and you’ll be far less likely to have that brain freeze panic feeling. 

Engage in face-to-face conversations with someone who can give you feedback. There are three - someone of your own level will give you practice; someone above you will help you learn more; a teacher will give you learning feedback to progress further. 

If you can’t get to France then bring France to you! Join a video conference conversation and relax in the comfort of your own home.

Make it regular. Make it a habit.

Bring questions to the video call to ask other people. Ask for feedback.

Practise the sounds you want to feel more comfortable with – again and again and again.

Remember it’s a learning conversation!

Bring your daily diary to the live conversation session and ask people to listen to you. Make what you say really small – one or two sentences is enough to help you work out what you need to focus on next.

Neat hint, right? Lose any worries about imperfection. Errors are your brain’s way of sifting out what you need to focus on next. If we could do it in one attempt then none of would be here right now! 

Recap:

Repeat the word you want to learn with the action every single time you do that action. Step it up in complexity as you become more comfortable.

Write in a diary in French and read out loud to yourself daily. Articulate carefully and focus on each sound you make.

Speak to others regularly in French, even if it’s in small sentences on a recorded message. Speak about what you’ve been practising.

Speak WITH others face to face, live. 

Time now to DO IT! Try it now and then comment on how it worked for you or anything you added when you did it.

I hope you learned something in this post. Be sure to like it and share the link to this post.

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