bordeaux_boy

How would you classify your level of French at present?

My level is intermediate, did GCSE and A-levels in it.

dennerlymum

I would class mine as upper intermediate now, after 3 years, but I was not on arrival, despite having A level french

Ka Ora!

Welcome to the Forum, If you get any issues give me or one of the other Forum Leaders a shout.

Martin Parker

Bl***y awful!!
Still trying hard just to pick out words in conversations.

beigey

A lot worse than I would have expected having lived here almost 2 years.

I did GCSE French but that helped me with ordering a kilo of bananas .... Oh and bread and croissants which is fab for a coeliac!

I can understand pretty much everything but struggle to speak at times - I can get by in most situations and on the phone but I still find it really, really hard and fear I will never be able to have a conversation that flows freely with a French person. EVER.

I do work on it, perhaps I could try harder but I do my best with French conversation classes every week and going out and doing things without my French DH's help.

I wrongly assumed I would be fluent by now ...

cjm

I'm with Martin P., two years on and improving, but nowhere good enough. Dropped French after one term in school, so now starting from scratch. French friends want to test their English, so that doesn't help. Classes help, CDs also, but you have to get stuck in and make a hash of it. Picking out words helps a lot to get a sense of conversation.

le plumber

You'll get there - If I can anybody can.

Today I honestly feel that its easier speaking French than it is English but then I've been here a while now. It took me about 2 years to be fluent - you really have to immerse yourself and stop translating from english to french. Think french french french

wetwang

A bit embarrassing really. been here 6 years and expert only in restaurant French.
My B&B business is 99% English speaking so never really exposed to intense French conversations.
My guests complain that the french speak too quickly but the problem is as Le Plumber said that trying to listen to each word rather than phrases slows your listening down.
I think slow learning is also a function of age. I recall much more easily words I learned at school than I do new specialised words like windscreen wiper. I had to order a new one a couple of months ago and now cannot remember the word yet I could say to the garage that I am 15 and that my homework is on the desk next to my Aunties pen.

Funnily enough the egg-man in the market always asks me to say 'My tailor is rich' to which he always responds 'my name is nobody' I think they are some kind of stock expressions that little Frenchies must learn at school?

cmread

My French as not as good as I would like it to be, but it isn't bad. I can hold conversations to a certain extent. I can certainly understand people on the phone, which I couldn't do at first. I can even understand people, with some difficulty, in a crowded and noisy jujitsu class.

I have a long way to go, though. I forget things sometimes. Certain words just don't stick easily, that sort of thing.

Reading manga translated into French has helped quite a bit, as has playing video games in French; the repetition helps to cement the vocabulary and trying to win the game motivates me to read French better. In particular, it has helped to play the MMORPG, Guild Wars, in the French region because I can just stand there in town and look at the chat which is done in a very colloquial manner. This helps me to pick up things I would have missed if I had heard the conversation.

Ade100

The other day a French girl told me I speak French like a peasant from Normandy.

The problem is I work in an English speaking company, speak English at home and now have just set up a satellite to get UK TV.

However, I have just hired a personal French teacher so who knows, in a few months time I may be speaking Franch like peasant from the Loire Valley.

dmu

Hi, I've lived and worked in France for 40 years now and can say, without false modesty, that I'm bilingual!
BUT, I've never been able to lose my English accent completely, unless I imitate the Midi accent.

Roger O

About the same here! Il faut manger du bong peng!! Someone asked me the other day if I were Belge!! Even though spent 24 years in Switzerland and 16 years working and retired from the PACA to the Languedoc... so where did the Belgian accent come from??
Probably confused with suisse romande where my erstwhile boss came from!
"y a pas du feu au lac!!"

MacLover

I'd say I am pretty bad, started off learning well but I know as much as a 3 year old lol.

Seriously consdering personal tutoring especially as I should be in Paris next year for Uni

Herman

Same here, English speaking company, I work on strategy stuff for the UK entity of my company so correspond with English people all day long, then go home and talk English to my wife and watch English TV on satellite. My company has paid for me to have a 1.5 hour French lesson every week for the last 2 years and its helped a lot with giving directions to taxi drivers and ordering food. However, if a French person told me I sound like a French peasant from anywhere it would be an extreme complement. I sound like an Englishman who can't be arsed.

Fleurette

I love speaking French!! I only lived there for 2.5 years but I was lucky enough only to work in French companies with French people so I had to learn fast! Now I'm getting ready for the DELF exam, which ain't so easy, but will definitely be an achievement.