Let’s Talk: Avoir des conversations en français

If you’ve known me for a long time, you would know that although I’ve always loved French, I didn’t begin to take the language so extremely seriously until returning from Paris during the COVID quarantine in early 2020. At that point, I began spending my days watching French shows, listening to French music, podcasts and more (France’s version of The Circle and Angèle on repeat). While all of these methods have been great in improving vocabulary and comprehension, one thing I have definitely learned this past year is the importance of conversations in the language you are trying to learn. 

Conversations allow you to practice the vocabulary you are learning, but also to work on your pronunciation in the language. If you’re like me, you probably have an absolutely terrible American accent when speaking French or another language. While it may seem like it will never go away, with practice, it will likely improve. 

Now, you might think conversations sound great, but you have no idea where to find someone to talk to. Personally, as I’ve mentioned in a past blog post, I used the app HelloTalk to meet French people back in September 2020. If you go on the app today, there are way more creepy people and it’s hard to really find someone serious about learning, but I’ve heard great things about other apps and websites including Tandem, conversationexchange.com, meetup.com, Facebook groups and more. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to have an hour-long French conversation with YouTuber Cecily Castro. She is offering French conversational practice for $35 per hour. Joining the call, I was a little nervous it would be too hard to speak completely in French for a full hour. But to my surprise, it was a lot easier than I had expected and since we are both the same age and with similar interests it was easy to talk to her. Cecily is American but lives in Paris and is fluent in French; if you are looking for a conversational session like this I would recommend looking into it! 

Yet, $35 can be a lot to spend, especially if you are looking to make it a routine. This is why I would suggest trying some of the options above that are free. In my own experience, I have been fortunate enough to (virtually) meet someone that I can call or text 24/7 and I’ve learned so much vocabulary and pronunciation help in the past 7 months it’s amazing! Plus, it’s especially nice to talk to native French speakers because you learn about the culture at the same time. One thing I’ve also discovered in the past year is that you can have international Netflix parties which is a great way to watch shows with a native speaker and chat in both languages (even though I probably watch too much Netflix now… at least it’s educational?) 

Overall, there are so many ways to practice writing and speaking languages with the online capabilities of today. Even with the current state of the world, it has maybe even become easier to connect with others internationally and get conversational practice, which I’d argue is the best way to really improve in your abilities. 

Let me know if you have any other recommendations in the comments! 

À la prochaine:)