5 Innovative Ways to Work French Conversation Practice into Your Day:
Conversation works wonders.
Not only is chit chat a fun way to relax and get to know someone, it’s also one of the best ways there is to learn a language.
If you’re not surrounded by native speakers, though, opportunities to converse in French can seem few and far between.
But believe it or not, there are lots of ways for anyone to speak in French on a daily basis.
With the great ol’ technology we all know as the internet, you can practice French conversation without ever leaving your house!
Don’t have the time? No problem! Sharpen your skills on the go.
In fact, you can practice your French conversation virtually anytime and anywhere, with or without a language partner.
It’s a good thing there are so many options, because talking in French is absolutely essential if you want to become fluent.
Like it or not, textbooks and podcasts won’t do all the work.
If you really want to get better at French, you have to get chatting!
But why is learning through conversation such a great way to improve your French?
5 Innovative Ways to Work French Conversation Practice into Your Day
1. Engage in focused activities with a conversation partner
Finding a native speaker with whom to practice your conversation is actually incredibly easy, thanks to the internet. Sites like Conversation Exchange and My Language Exchange make it simple to find someone who wants to practice their language skills and get in touch! You don’t even have to live in the same city. Skype (and writing exchanges besides) are highly recommended.
Once you’ve found your partner, it’s good to have a talking point in mind. So if there’s something you want to practice or find out more about, suggest it at the start of your conversation.
Having an idea of how you want to practice will enable you to talk with much more focus and highlight any weaknesses or learning points.
Don’t forget to ask lots of questions, too! Your partner will undoubtedly have a huge range of knowledge just waiting to be shared.
Talking about specific topics with your conversation partner is also really great for improving your vocabulary in a focused way. You could talk about something that happened in the news, a cultural event or your favorite movies. Picking a specific topic will enable you to stay focused in your conversation and learn new things along the way, too!
We all have situations in which we dread to find ourselves abroad. What would we do in these situations? How would we get our point across and be understood?
Role play is a great way to prepare for events that make us nervous and get to grips with our conversation at the same time.
Try practicing what you would do if you found yourself in a restaurant or supermarket where everyone was speaking French. The simplest activities are often those in which we lose our heads in real life, so use your partner while you can!
2. Find Meetup groups to practice with other learners
If you’re not quite ready to meet with a native speaker, or if it’s just not practical for whatever reason, Meetup isn’t just a great resource for meeting new people, but also a way to practice your foreign conversation. For learners in French-speaking countries, it can be handy for finding local groups of interest. If you’re not in that situation, though, you can still use it to find other learners like yourself as well as local French conversation groups.
Learning with friends who are at similar stages is a great way to boost your conversation and learning skills.
Setting a specific time at which to meet every week is useful when trying to improve in a language. Try setting a conversation topic at the start of the week with your learning group and do as much listening and reading as you can before you meet. Once you come together at the end of the week, you’ll have each learned something unique about the topic and will be able to share vocabulary and grammar tips. Spread your conversation learning around and improve faster!
Great conversation topics to improve your language skills could be anything from the plot of a movie to how you spent your last weekend.
Here are some possible topics:
- What you did on your last birthday
- Your daily routine
- Where you’re going on vacation this year
- Your favorite foods and meals
- French culture and France
- Your family life
- What you studied at school
- Your home town and local culture
- The next film you’d like to watch
If you have a specific topic or hobby that interests you, this might be a useful time to introduce it! If it’s something you do often, chances are you’ll be asked to talk about it in more detail in the future.
3. Narrate your day in French
Sometimes, however, we don’t have someone else with whom we can chat so easily. We have jobs and errands to run. Making plans with a learning group or even taking half an hour out to talk on Skype can seem impossible. Luckily, you can easily take French along with you as you go about your day. Narrating your routine is a simple way to practice on the go!
During your commute, for example, you can try to describe your day so far (in French). Tell yourself what you have to do throughout the day. Or simply describe events when they happen. The sky’s the limit (but you can even talk about that)! Practicing speaking in some way will get you used to French pronunciation and sentence structure. Get your brain thinking like a native’s and conversation will come much more easily later on!
Of course, unless you’re brave enough to talk out loud on the bus or train, you can just practice narration in your head as you go. If you want to use a notepad and jot down any ideas or sentences you want to remember, this could make for a useful learning challenge. Think about how you would describe your activities in French and then, when you get home, retell yourself what you did that day, out loud!
4. Use YouTube videos to gain confidence
Of course, sometimes it’s a little hard to just start talking spontaneously. So if you feel like your confidence is lacking somewhat, it might be worth considering interactive conversational tools as a way in. There are hundreds of great language learning channels out there, many of which use question and answer communicating to get you to think through your use of spoken language.
The YouTube channels Français avec Pierre, Comme une Française and You Learn French are all tailored with language and conversation in mind and are a great way to learn pronunciation and sentence structures from natives.
Often, videos are produced with a specific theme in mind, so it might be worth watching the video first and practicing a narration exercise afterwards. Take the theme of the specific video and talk about it out loud. Practice your pronunciation and improve your comprehension!
If you’re looking for a great YouTube video to get started with some basic French phrases, such as using “you’re welcome” in French, check out the video below!
5. Use movies as a conversation starter
Another way to practice alone is to try using videos and movies as a way to get the conversation started. Find a part of a film that has a long sequence of dialogue and get stuck in it!
Films by Michel Ocelot or Claude Berri are particularly good for beginners in French conversation. Both filmmakers use conversational, everyday dialogue spoken at a relatively easy pace. Or, you could try watching one of your favorite films dubbed in French! Many DVDs come with foreign language options and this can be a great way into a story you already know.
French movies are often conversational and contain many chances for you to get talking. Here are some simple steps to follow for easy conversation practice:
- Find a scene in which two people are having a conversation and select “your” side.
- Pause as soon as the other person has finished speaking on screen.
- Answer back to them in French while the film is paused.
- Play the film to see how the character you’re speaking for answered the conversation.
- Note down any differences and potential learning points and continue.
If your answers are different, don’t worry! This is just a way to practice answering someone and coming up with French sentences when put on the spot.
No matter what your situation, you have options to practice your language skills and get started with French conversation.
The only question remaining is, which do you try first?
