Distance learning can be challenging and sometimes you need to speak to a real person, face to face or at least on the phone. As part of my preparation for studying L120 I am gathering a group of people who can help me when I start to feel completely defeated by something like French grammar or the pronunciation of certain words. I know the internet is full of useful resources for studying languages, but there are times when I want to be able to repeat my questions until I understand the answer. Luckily I have a group of native French speaking friends I can call on. A colleague at work, several French friends who live in England. I don’t intend to harass them on a daily basis with queries but it gives me more confidence knowing I can call on them, if I need to.
And this leads me on to thoughts of practicing my conversation. Will talking French with other learners just teach me new errors to add to the ones I already have? I want to find a French conversation group, so I can talk with other people and see if they understand what I am saying. And do I know what they mean?
Any conversation beyond a simple order in a restaurant becomes difficult. In your native language, you hear, understand and respond. In a foreign language, you have to hold the words in your mind as you translate them, or at least extract the meaning. Then you need to compose an answer and translate it into the foreign language.
Practice, practice, practice, the only way to move from conscious and painstakingly slow diction to an unconscious delivery of speech and conversations that move at a natural pace. Simple in theory, let’s see how I can put this into practice.