Ralentissez! Slow Down!

Consider this: You are listening to a pre-recorded French conversation on your ipod. You have the transcript open in front of you. You follow every word of what is being said. But the moment you turn off the ipod and close the transcript, the whole conversation sort of disappears from your brain. You are not able to even recollect one full sentence. And this is happening even after listening to the recording many times.
Familiar!

Time to slow down! Time to fall back upon age old method of learning. Writing. Write down the conversation on a piece of paper, paying attention to each word written down. Once you have done that, read it aloud, slow….ly. Now see the difference.

I find this very effective. Hopefully you will find it too.

J'ai fait des progrès

When do you know you are making progress in learning a new language? ...
When you suddenly find you are not making progress. When you find that you have hit a wall and to proceed to the next level you need to push harder. And when you start questioning yourself if it was a good idea in the first place.

You see, picking up the first few words like bonjour, comment allez vous, il est, ils sont, is easy. The first few words come almost effortlessly. If that were not the case, you wouldn’t even pursue it far. But as you dig deeper you find things getting tougher. That’s when the real test begins. That’s when you start questioning your wisdom. And paradoxically, that shows that you have made progress.

So, what are the options?

The first and the easiest option is, of course, to lower your goals. You wanted to speak fluently. Now suddenly you just want to ‘manage’ your way through. (“after all I am not going to live in France”).

Other options:
a) Step back, give it a small break (not too much though), build up your enthusiasm and give it another go.

b) Avoid the tendency to restart all over – the tendency to perfect what you have already learnt is actually an escape mechanism to stay in the comfort zone.

c) Mix it up. Start looking for new sources of learning French. Internet is full of them.

d) Try some online quizzes. Here try BBC Quiz in French.

e) Try showing off your skills. Showing off puts pressure on you to sustain the image.

Still Struggling with French Phrases

You know you are still struggling when you encounter a phrase heard before in a new context and still do not get it.
An example:
I came across this expression in Rocket French: “Ça a l’air genial“ (It sounds great). This was some time ago. And I promised to myself that I would never forget this and use it every time I get a chance.
And today I came across this expression in Coffee Break French: Ça a l’air délicieux (It sounds delicious) in a restaurant context. And it just washed past me.
Ah well! One step at a time.