u/ripcurlgirl

▲ 13 r/learningfrench+1 crossposts

Have you been learning in your head instead of speaking out loud?

TLDR but it might just help.

So, speaking French in your head? Well, I did that on and off for some 20-30 years. Let me explain. My situation was that my family of 4 lived in a 2 bedroom flat in Cronulla Beach, Sydney, Australia. My husband and I owned our flat (opposite the ocean) but could not afford a house so, when the eldest of our 2 boys reached high school, we gave him our bedroom to facilitate his studies and learning and we slept in the living room on a mattress on the floor. (BTW, this was a worthwhile sacrifice as he has since obtained a PhD in Photovoltaic Engineering and is currently a research fellow at UNSW).

However, wind back to the 1990s and early 2000s when this happened. My only workspace was in a corner of the living room and my youngest with ADHD found great amusement in making fun of me trying to speak French. So what happened? I knew he would not tire of his mimicry "game" so all practice was internalised. Even after both children left home I could not bring myself to practise French orally so I stopped.

In the meantime, a close friend who is fluent in French, moved with her partner to Perpignan, France to live permanently. I decided to visit so I booked a return fare SYD-CDG-SYD. Several times, between booking and departing, I tried to practise French but gave up as pointless. I arrived in Paris and could speak a little but understand next to nothing as the majority of my self-study was written and grammar-based, not, as it should have been, aural and oral.

That was fine for Paris as most Parisians speak English but not so in the south-east of France in the Pyrénées-Orientales so I spent 4 weeks speaking with my friends in English but with their friends sometimes in English but mainly in Franglais - if they knew a bit of English then that could mash with my bit of French and we would chop back and forth.

So, to cut a long story short, I came back home intending to return next year and be able to understand French to a certain degree and be able to communicate better in it. I have started using French in Action which I have owned since 1990s but never had the time or drive to put to use. I supplement with Duolingo mainly for just speaking and listening, Natulang for speaking and thinking on my feet and Dreaming French for purely listening. It's only been a few weeks and the difference is quite astounding. My mouth has freed up and I am tripping over my tongue less and I am beginning to aurally comprehend as well.

Pour conclure, je dirais : n'abandonnez pas.

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u/ripcurlgirl — 4 days ago