Hi everyone! I wanted to ask for some advice or share a small discovery that helped me massively. My written French is slowly getting there, but my biggest nightmare since moving to France has been phone calls. Whenever I have to call Orange, the Mairie, or handle CPAM issues, the rapid-fire French on the other end of the line gives me instant anxiety. I just freeze up and lose half of what they are saying.
Recently, a neighbor recommended trying an AI tool called Palabra.ai for live calls on my laptop/phone. Basically, it generates real-time translated captions on your screen while the other person is speaking in French. I used it last week during a painful 20-minute call with a local contractor, and for the first time, I didn’t feel completely lost or miss key details about quotes and dates.
Obviously, it’s not a replacement for actually learning French (I’m still doing my daily lessons!), but as a safety net for stressful administrative calls, it’s been a massive relief.
How do the rest of you cope with official phone calls when your French isn’t fluent yet? Do you use any specific translation apps or strategies?
Hi, do you have any link with this app - if so commercial posts are welcomed, but commercial users are asked to discuss a subscription with @cat, the site owner.
I really loathe marketing dressed up as a useful tip some supposed neighbour suggested. All that faux innocent matiness and fake context. Like advertorial, so irritating.
Well Susanna . I find telephone conversations with French utilities impossible ..wether with a machine or a person . Conversions with the physical human beside one and they with no English is sort of workable ..but over the phone no way.
It is one of the hardest things when learning a language. But the sense of pride when you manage to win an argument on the phone is worth all the effort.
I am sorry Susannah .. Where I came from that would be considered a compliment .. as in “ fairplay to you “or” Good on you “ .. and nothing else ., and nothing more . So I apologise if it has another meaning I was unaware of …
In my case it was trying to inform EDF that the power cables had ripped off the house sometimes in the previous 3 months …Eventually I gave up and got a neighbour to ring in my behalf.
Probably not. They say they work across the US Canada and Ukraine, I wonder if it’s our friend from Kiev who was looking for movers or taxis or whatever it was.
