Quoi !! I think the point is that unless you speak french the chances of you getting a job with a french company are pretty slim - or at least here in Dordogne - where the chances of getting any job even if a native speaker are almost as slim.
We bought our house in 2007 and moved out permanently in March 2013. Very like us then.
As we are on the subject of French and how good one's French is, that would be LA manifestation (feminin noun). http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/manifestation
Quickest way to learn is to get a job with a French company, or failing that have school age children, or move somewhere where there are no English speakers, so no temptation, and don't have UK TV..
Good luck
Yes preparing the questions and getting information in writing would be huge help, good idea
When I arrived in France 8 years ago I just had very basic French but my husband had been living in France for many years so he helped a lot with administration etc. I immediately took a 3 month course at a tiny language school where they only spoke French and I was forced to learn really quickly. My advice is to just try to speak to French people as much as possible and to listen to French radio and watch French TV.
When you have appointments with doctors or are visiting CPAM or the Prefecture etc then make a list of the questions you have before you go and then ask them to write down any answers you don't understand. You can then translate when you get home. If you try then people are usually very willing and happy to help you. Good luck.
In 1971 I started working for a subsidiary company of SNPA (Elf) in the UK with only a very poor level of french (failed O level). 1 year later I was offered a job in the HQ in Paris so I did a 4 week course (only 1 day/week) to improve my understanding of the language to the extent that I felt I could speak the language. My new colleagues all said I would be fine and anyway they all spoke good English and would speak slowly to me in French until I was fluent. That lasted until noon on the first day and thereafter they spoke normally. 6 months later going home on the metro I suddenly realised I no longer had the headache that had been with me since my arrival. This was the turning point and by the year end I was only speaking English at home to my family. After 2 more years I re-located to the UK for a variety of reasons but retained my office in France and commuted from the UK so was living in France part time for many years. I do find it strange that so many people speak a foreign language as if it were their own and think that the fault is in the teaching methods. Children learn by listening , repeating and then learning a language in its spoken form and only later in the written form. If we took the same path as adults it might make things easier. A few years ago I was stopped at a roadside check in Provence and breathalysed (zero alcohol) and the gendarmes asked for my licence. They were surprised when I produced a UK licence and only on production of my passport were they convinced I was English.
Rambling on a bit here but I think to be integrated and feel comfortable in a language, total immersion with no escape route is the most effective.
I still spend time in France every year and it feels a bit like coming home each time.
that's a good suggestion, thanks.
Hi John, I think for an Aussie, my french is actually not to bad. It's at a basic level I know that. But I am not afraid to try and have a conversation with someone. I've taken lesson in the past, but without actual real world practice, I think they are a waste of time. I use to go to meet up groups to practice also. I carry a dictionary and phrase book. I watch french new, movies and read papers when I can all to try and improve. So I am not afraid of that.
I was just interested to hear the groups experiences from when you all first moved to France. You all now say that it is important to have strong french skills, but you must have started from some where. It sounds like some people had very little knowledge, but managed to get by and can can speak and communicate with more confidence.
We bought our house in 2008 but moved out permanently October 2014. We came with school French but did our best to communicate and practice our French as often as possible. Since we’ve lived here we’ve had weekly French lessons and feel positive about our progress, we are keen to learn, we want to speak French and speak it well. Setting up our businesses here was obviously difficult because of our lack of language skills and we had to pay for help with forms and translation of documents etc. Most of our clients are also English at the moment partly due to being unable to speak fluent French, but hopefully that will change as we improve! I think for anyone who can speak French fluently before they move out it is a huge bonus and certainly will make life easier, but otherwise, practice, practice, practice, and regular lessons certainly help and you’ll soon be confidently chatting to your French neighbours!
If you arrive with the basics and good intentions you should improve your French rapidly. In my experience it is conversing with French speakers that makes the biggest difference. Most people working alongside native language speakers will make rapid progress. My French skills go backwards rapidly if I have friends or family to stay for a while and I’m not sure how people who live in English language households and only watch satellite TV and BBC radio get on. As far a business is concerned I would imagine that it is best to use some sort of support service for business administration matters, letters, contracts etc, until your confidence and ability improve.
As an aside; I was close enough to manage to eat in one of my favourite restaurants yesterday evening but as I was facing a 200km drive home afterwards we arrived as they opened. The first group of other diners to arrive was a group of three English people, a middle aged couple and, I’d guess a twenty something daughter. The older woman went through the menu explaining the dishes to the other but after that initial interlude in French all of their contact with the waiter was in English. I saw this as the barrier that many people face, having good basics but being reluctant to use them at every opportunity. Ordering a meal in a restaurant is like a perfect French lesson role play activity in real life. As another poster mentioned lessons and textbooks are all very well but there is usually nothing better than listening to and reading then speaking and writing in real life situations.
From your previous posts I can’t see that language will be a big problem for you; you’ve spent time in France, you know your own strengths and weaknesses and you have a plan. Go for it. I wish you Good Luck.
Worked on the docks in Marseilles for a while when I left art school but learnt mainly argot and some Arabic; later, in 1968, taught English in Paris but this was interrupted by le manifestation where I learnt how to curse in French. However this experience gave me the confidence to always try and speak to as many French people as possible. I still use too much of the present tense but I can chat away. My wife came here six years ago with no French at all but she is charming and fearless - a winning combination. She now speaks pretty good French and has no problems making herself understood. Even the locals who speak Charentaise (has a lot of Celtic words) are delighted to converse.
Wendy Wyse, who subscribes to these posts, teaches or has some connection with teaching French I think. She is well known as an invaluable 'fixer' in these parts.
I had learned french to a poor O level pass and after Uni worked as an aupair where the family enjoyed speaking english. However by the end of my 10 months I was translating everything from French to English then back to French whilst talking to myself doing the housework !
20 years later we arrived in France and took over an SARL so all the administrative side was done by the accountant - even to getting us our Carte Vitale, and I didn't realise how much of the burden they took from us. I took the children to school every day in order to speak with the parents rather than putting the kids on the bus. The coversation about the weather got a bit tedious though! I listened to French local radio all the time. The kids picked up french and spoke french amongst themselves very early on. Once my husband came over on a more regular to full time basis we sadly no longer spoke french and the kids stopped completely as for them it was unnatural to speak to a parent who doesn't understand or respond correctly.
I would consider myself bilingual after 10 years here but can still struggle speaking to an answerphone ! I work in summer as a receptionnist and notice that whereas writing down a number in english is an autopilot thing, I have to work hard to deal with numbers in french. I also say words similar to the word I was looking for and I think it is because my brain 'sees' the word in its word dictionary and sometimes pulls out the wrong one .... (OK this bit makes sense to me !). I slip easily between the two languages now and no longer do the translate back and forth thing that as a beginner I did. I do miss not thinking in french anymore since hubby came back. I only started going to La Clé - an association to help foreigners and french speakers with poor written skills once my husband went and for me it was in an attempt to improve my letter writing skils to enter the jobs market.
My husband and I came to France in 2011 to build a new house. He basically has no French but has picked up a surprising number of words. I got unclassified in my 'O' level French (after about 8 years of being taught it) but it was up to me to communicate in every form with the French. I got all my "Teach yourself French books out and went through each one from beginning to end in about 2012 for about a year, read two adult books in French with a dictionary to hand (Kindle French English) and at the same time became more and more confident about bluffing my way through conversations. This taught me two lessons 1. You do not need to be that good at French to get by and as long as you try they tolerate a lot. 2. You do need to know the conjugation of verbs as they are used all the time - or at least have an understanding of why they need conjugation! Now, without trying too hard I can follow all conversations if I know the subject matter, can understand most written work, have the confidence to just speak in French even thought I know it is still quite bad - it impresses the English! French Accent magazine is good and has dictations which are very useful. Unless you like and learn in classes teach yourself - for me classes were a social gathering with a bit of humiliation thrown in and at the end of the day you are usually with a group of English people at different levels. ps you may be better off starting from scratch as at the beginning I decided I knew enough of the basics - and didn't!
My wife and I bought our first holiday home in France in 1986. We had it ten years and then bought this one we're living in now. We moved here full time 8 years ago. I didn't do any French at school but, fortunately Stella is from Mauritius so has always spoken 3 languages. Over the years I picked up more and more French and by 3 years ago, I was not bad at all. Then...... disaster! I had a stroke! Although I'm fine physically, bizarrely I lost nearly all my French! Because a bit of my brain is now "broken", I find it nearly impossible to remember lots words that came quite easily before and even if I have them, it's difficult to "put them together". Whereas before, we'd have French friends around for a meal and do a lot of talking, I now have to sit in the wings as my brain can't take it all in when they're gabbling , because it all goes too fast for me. I get stuck with words in English as well, but not as much. Still, I feel lucky that this is all I ended up with.
This has made us re-think about our lives though. Before we were here for the long haul but now we are thinking of at least buying a bolthole in the UK because if something happened to Stella, I'd be in the proverbial, here on my own. I don't know how Brits go from year to year without having a word of French. (I've just had to re-read all this to re-spell half a dozen or more words!). Isn't life a bitch! I can still laugh though!
I had some reasonable French but went to evening classes for three years beforehand which really helped with the grammar and structure of phrases. Plus I kept a French dictionary in the loo and made a point of trying to learn at least three new words a day. My bathroom radio was tuned to a French talk station in order to get my ear in. Yes it all helped, my French is good now and I can follow most conversations fairly easily and converse on the phone (that's always the difficult bit!). Preparation beforehand really did help. I still go to weekly lessons but I think, at our age, it takes a certain amount of dedication to learn an entirely new language.
Came to France in 2004 and I could not speak a word of French and my wife has some school French, we had some help from some friends who were fluent to help with our first could of meetings with the CofA and the MSA (we registered as farmers), after that we managed to grow a very successful business and just learned to speak and understand French as we went along.
During our first year we used a software translator to translate all the official documents and e-mails that came through and it was pretty simple.
Rgds, Mike L
Hi Ashley
I came to France nearly four years ago. My French was awful, and I had lessons before we came. But to be honest I found that without the opportunity to speak with French people they were of little value.
Once we arrived I discovered that most people here expect you to at least try. Shouting at people in English will make you no friends but once you are seen to make the effort most people are helpful and generous. My experience is in the countryside and small towns I suspect Paris and Lyon may be different like London!
The best way forward for me, is weekly lessons which give me the structure to improve with my French i.e. learning grammar and tenses, and speaking with French people to practice and articulate, and learn the local dialect and accent.
The other invaluable aid for me is a bi-lingual "fixer" someone who speaks real French and understands the culture and manners of France, he or she will be able to help you through the problems one can face with administrative issues etc.
But the answer to your question is you don't have to speak fluent French to come to France but you do need to try to learn when you get here!