French conversation: 5 tips to progress even more
Last week, I had the opportunity to work with Miguel, from Los Angeles.
He was motivated to work on conversation in French so we practiced 2 to 3 hours per day and we confirmed his level in French: definitely B2.
And because of his high level in French, I thought he was ready for 5 tips to progress even more:
1) Think in French
At some point, you absolutely need to think in French to be able to speak French! It means “let go of your reflex to translate from your language”. Obviously, it must be very tiring for you and also, in a natural interaction, while you are busy finding perfect equivalents from your language to French language (which often don’t even exist!), time is running and the person you were talking to might be left! The experience may make you feel no longer confident so here is the vicious circle!
2) Articulate
Trust me: if you keep your jaw in a position of a /é/, you will never be able to pronunce a French /e/ and no luck: showing clearly the difference between these two in French is veeeeery important. Otherwise, natives won’t feel comfortable listening to you so we go back to the same sad conclusion as explained in 1).
3) Practice outloud reading
Build your own routine where you are going to record yourself reading 5 sentences in French and you focus on articulation (if needed, cut the words before*!). Listen to yourself with a new perspective and redo the exercise. You can practice 5mn per week, it’s enough, the challenge here is to be consistent.
4) Learn to listen carefully
Active listening is obviously useful for anyone wether it’s for personal or professional reasons! As far as learning French is concerned, you are going to be able to build relevant answers / sentences thanks to the person you are talking to so let them do the job! Also, if something was not clear, you can definitely repeat and / or rephrase which helps rekindle the conversation which is a good thing, right?
5) Trust yourself
I will keep repeating like a parrot: trust yourself!
How many people did I have personally talked to who were B2 in French but they didn’t believe it even if I kept telling them haha?
See below a clarification inspired by Miguel during his stay in Montpellier: