I don`t know where you live but here our local town (Issoire) has an annual event where all the local clubs & associations take stands & have people there to try & encourage new members. Do you buy your local newspaper? We find ours pretty rubbish for world news but fantastic for all the local stuff. Also ask at the marie & they will often point you in the right direction for local groups.
Since you have the dyslexia in the way a bit, many of the on line courses may not work as well as they do for others. There are several that are good but a couple of them are already mentioned here. Rather than suggest more that is probably enough for you to look at. However, for conversation use the fact that your comprehension is ahead of your spoken French. Listen for set phrases that are used most frequently, for instance Tout à fait. It can mean Exactly, I absolutely agree or simply quite. Pas tout à fait is then not exactly/quite. Volontiers is often best for thank you, especially if you mean yes, please, or il me semble que... is it seems to me... There are many of them of course, but just pick up the ones you hear most to begin with and one or two at a time.
Once you have a good set of common phrases of this kind in your head it gets easier to patch in what you want to say in conversation, although you will always need vocabulary to grow in order to get all you want to say out. With a basic vocabulary the language grows fairly fast. You or I may be envious when we read about Joe or Josephine Smith who learns eight languages in a week, in fact when you look at what language experts say about how they do it, all they do is learn lots of set phrases off by heart and responses to them. In fact, they may have a basic comprehension of the 'normal' basic language but would probably be lost in an everyday setting where local modifications such as dialects mean that pronunciation and set phrases are different. So go with the flow and pick it up locally and bother about the language l'Académie française insists you should be speaking later, if ever, bearing in mind most people don't give a monkeys about what the Académie insisted they learn in school.
Just have nothing to do with any English speakers and mix only with French people. Simple.
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the comment, and suggestions.
It’s not the case of not wanting to attending a formal classe. I just found the methods of teaching out of date, course material, poor, over photocopied a 1000 times the text was so poor you couldn’t read any. To listen to a poor audio equipment just added more stress to my dyslexia.
I have studied to degree level, and post graduate, attending a class room environment is fine with me.
I’ll try again to contact local groups but haven’t had much successes to date, reason for posting is to see if there’s other groups out there or who I could contact.
Hi Simon, thanks for the comment and suggestion of the website/ app. I shall have a look.
I do try and speak with the neighbours and they are very encouraging, and supportive.
However, most of them are above 85 plus, and use their local language which occasionally doesn’t help me. We sure do have a laugh from time to time.
The offer of home baked treats also helps!
Regards - Steve
I`ve said this so many times now but I still think it is the right way if you don`t want to go to formal classes...which would never have worked for me. Join groups..hobbies or volunteer...that way you have to talk & listen to people. I joined an art class & the Red Cross when I came here & my French improved by leaps & bounds. It was hard at first but people really help you if they see you are making an effort. Also watch French TV with French subtitles for the deaf. that way you can keep up with the story lines. Good luck :)
Hi Steve - well, apart from just relaxing, jumping in and talking to French people whenever you can - I can thoroughly recommend Duolingo.com. Ok it's computer and app based but I've been brushing up on my Spanish with it over the past 3 months and I love it. It's about as practical and real as you can get when you can't get that invaluable personal interaction. I'm guessing their French version is just as good - I'm one of those bilingual French gits so I haven't used it!
You know what though? - don't beat yourself up too much, the day my better half stopped having formal French lessons was the day her spoken French came on in leaps and bounds! Relax, don't try too hard and miss the obvious - remember around 60% of French and English words are more or less the same - more than you'll ever need!! Good luck and above all enjoy it :-)