My wife is the French speaker. I’m the Anglophone with only OK French. We’re both at a complete loss for ideas for the kid.

My bright idea was to bring a French-language Where’s Waldo book. But apparently he’s Charlie in French!?

Also, this is Canada, where the teachers are a bit sensitive about English loanwords.

Also, he has to go second after another “W” kid.

Please help. What can the kid bring to his class?

Edit: OK, across Reddit and the other places I'm asking, the best answers so far are un wagon, un wok, un livre de Winnie l'ourson et les biscuits Whippet. I don't think I can send a toddler to school with an empty whisky bottle or wasabi.

Edit #2: Guys, his name is not William.

Hi everyone, just looking for friendly dialogue about how wacky this is. I speak Spanish and English and when I saw this my jaw dropped… is there any easy way to remember why it’s sixty and ten, and not fifty and twenty? Cheers!

As a French I am wondering where are you from and why do you learn French ? In the stats of our podcast I have seen that more than 50% of our listeners are from North America but if it’s true is it only for school or are you planning to move to France ? Or anything else ? It is so cool to speak with strangers learning French so keep it up ! 🇫🇷🥖

Native French speaker here.

When people switch to English, it’s usually not about your level, they’re just trying to help or be efficient.

If you want to stay in French, you can say:

« Je préfère pratiquer mon français si ça ne vous dérange pas »

(I’d prefer to practice my French if you don’t mind)

Most people will understand and appreciate the effort.

Also, it’s completely normal to mix. They speak English, you answer in French. That happens a lot and it’s actually a great way to practice.

I’m so tired of this. I work so hard and it feels like nothing pays off. I have studied French for 9 years now. I started studying Spanish 4 years ago. In 1 - ONE YEAR of Spanish I picked up what was equivalent 9 years of French studying.

It really sucks. I love French because it sounds sophisticated to me. I really don’t understand why Spanish was so easy to me.

When French people speak or Americans speak French It takes a LONG time for me to register what they said.

Sometimes I wish I just took Spanish (I understand them immediately after learning a word) . I’m just really frustrated and feel like I should’ve done Spanish when I was kid lol.

WHY DO I HAVE TO STUDY 9x HARDER FOR THIS LANGUAGE? WHY DOES THIS LANGUAGE NOT CLICK?

Je pense qu’on donne trop d’importance à l’idée de « parler comme un natif ».

Quand on apprend une langue, on entend souvent :

« Il faut avoir un bon accent. » « Il faut parler naturellement. » « Il faut utiliser les bonnes expressions. » « Il faut parler comme un Français. »

Et à force d’entendre ça, on finit parfois par croire que notre objectif est de faire disparaître toute trace de notre langue maternelle.

Je ne suis pas vraiment d’accord avec cette idée.

Bien sûr, une bonne prononciation est importante. Connaître les expressions courantes aussi. Mais parler français avec un accent étranger ne veut pas dire qu’on parle mal français.

Pour moi, le vrai objectif n’est pas de faire croire aux autres qu’on est français.

C’est de pouvoir raconter une histoire, donner son opinion, plaisanter, expliquer quelque chose, défendre une idée… sans passer plusieurs secondes à chercher chaque phrase dans sa tête.

Et surtout, pouvoir le faire sans avoir peur de faire une erreur.

On peut parler un français très naturel sans être natif.

Et peut-être qu’à partir d’un certain niveau, la question ne devrait plus être :

« Est-ce que je parle comme un Français ? »

mais plutôt :

« Est-ce que je peux vraiment m’exprimer comme je le veux en français ? »

Vous en pensez quoi ?

I wanted to share my experience in case someone was thinking about making this major expense.

Background:

I’m a non-native speaker who speaks at B2 or C1 on good days. I used to live in Montreal but now live in the USA. I read up a lot on learning languages so I could make sure my kids learn a difficult language effectively with the least amount of stress. Our routine is:

- me speaking everyday 30% of the time, at least basic sentences
- Online tutor, 25 min, native speaking, once a week for just conversation.
- Media consumption daily, passive learning through music (I find an album to put on while we are eating), reading, a tv show, video game, Duolingo even, lol.
- Grammar/workbook 10 minutes a few times a week

I thought kids learn like sponges, and they do, but this was not enough to become fluent at a C1 level. I would say B1!

I thought a 2 week summer camp would be a good push towards the finish line.

Well, they got sick for two of the days, being in a new virus environment! So it was actually 8 days.

As expected, they really hated it the first few days. Then they were a little mixed. Everyday they left being in a good mood, so I was confused why they say they hated it. I had to talk to the camp counselors and camp director, they were a little strict and even yelled at rowdy kids, my kids shouldn’t have had to put up with the group discipline. It was supposed to be the best camp in the city (also one of the most expensive). Their spots get sold out fast! I felt guilty sending them there, but I thought it would be good for them to also see how people are different. They also had a habit of talking to my kids in English! I also had to talk to them about that. All in all, the kids said they spoke like 50% of the time in French. At least they got unique exposure.

Results:

I noticed minor improvements, like they would say certain sentences they heard at camp, or repeat the songs they had.

I am sure there was also a lot of invisible learning.

Going forward:
I will try my best to speak more in French to them, it’s the most effective thing I can possibly do. I just need more ways of reminding myself not to slip into English!

I do not think summer camp is a good idea for small children because they talk to your kids in English most of the time and they hire people unsuitable for children. It’s risky, your kid could get sick and you could lose lots of money by not going. At least with a tutor, you can cancel.

I think it’s better to get more tutors. But at some point, kids need to interact in French in the real world, especially with other kids. There could be some drop in activities to consider that are low risk and lower cost. Pokémon tournaments? Any ideas or input would be appreciated!

-----
UPDATE / CLARIFICATION:
1. The French immersion camp is actually an art camp in French, in Montreal. It was an opportunity for my kids to be around native speaking French kids and learn something IN French, rather than ABOUT French. There was not supposed to be any English from the description I read on their website.

1. The kids are 5 & 7.

I never learned how to use a french keyboard but they are available to me. I work 50/50 in french and english, and use an english keyboard with ALT codes to do my accents in french.

I am pretty fast with it since i have the common codes memorized but would it be worth it for me to use the french keyboard? or would it complicate my english work lol.

Very curious how other people are set up.

Hi, all. I thought I’d just share my observations as somebody who has improved my spoken French.

I often see people say - on this sub and in real life - that it’s impossible to speak French on your travels because French speakers will just switch to English. And that happened to me the first few times I went to France. But it didn’t happen the last time i went to France, or this past weekend when I did a short trip to Montreal (where the level of bilingualism in the service industry is incredibly high).

I think there are a few things that helped: first, really work on your accent. Second, use French fillers like “euh” rather than fillers from your own language like “ummm” for Anglophones. Third, use conventions of the spoken language like avoiding “nous” in favor of “on” and dropping the double negation in favor of just using “pas.” Finally - and I think this may be the most important - practice having something to say when you don’t know what to say -“desolé j’ai pas compris” or “c’est quoi ‘gummy bears’ en français” so you don’t get stuck like a deer in the headlights. I think if you do all of those things, you can fool the people you are talking to that you speak French, and they’ll continue in French! And you may even fool yourself.

Bon courage !

So, I've been DuoLingo'ing French for like, 1110 days straight and still suck hard core at French because I do zero immersion and DuoLingo is basically a game. I work for a French company and one of my colleagues suggested I watch French Peppa Pig for some actual, applicable French since it's a dumb show for idiot babies and, despite being a 31 year old man, am basically an idiot baby and pretty much the target audience.

So anyway, I'm on the clock watching French Peppa Pig and besides wanting to shoot myself in the brain with a shotgun I am finding myself struggling with HOW I'm supposed to be watching French Peppa Pig.

My question for other French learners when it comes to this kind of immersion is: what's the best way to approach it? Should I be actively pausing and reading the closed captions to try and learn and build on new vocabulary or should I just sit back and let this absolute dog water show wash over me and let my subconscious thinky brain start making associations between colorful pictures and actual sounds in between the insufferable oinking? Does it help to have the closed captions be in French so I can make sure I'm hearing things right?

Merci beaucoup in advance, I want to die.

Edit: getting a few more comments than I expected so I can't reply to everything but thank you all for the suggestions I'm getting.

(15F). My father used to live in France, he's fully bilingual. Since I was born I've been listening French at home (from my father, music, TV) and I've been reading whole books in French too. I never practiced talking. Just basic words.

Due to this, I've been able to completely understand the language, even slangs.

However, I struggle speaking. In my head, it's hard to translate the words from my language to French. Surprisingly, I have the Parisian pronunciation my father has, so it shouldn't really be a big struggle.

I need help. I have 40% of the language dominated but I really want to complete the 100%.

How should I start to develop my speech? (This summer I'm practicing a lot of French in Paris!)

In the Uk, you’re seen as more refined and cultured if you can read a French menu. Which cultures do the French look up to whom they see as more refined?

Hi everyone!

I am an A2 French learner and I have mainly been learning through reading short stories and revising some grammar I had learned in school. It'll take a while for me to comfortably be at B1.

The journey is enjoyable so far, however, I'm only now starting to comprehend the amount of additional work I need to put in to understand Quebec French. Most resources for my level at in "French French." I can somewhat understand B1 French podcasts like Inner French, however, my listening drops to basically 0 whenever I listen to Quebec French.

Main question: Do you suggest I start building in some Quebec French input right away, or should I build my base up to B1 (or B2) first before moving onto that to prevent cognitive overload/confusion?

Side question: My situation is compounded by the fact that I live in Canada but (good) resources for Quebec French are extremely limited compared to French French. It has me feeling a little down lately (not unmotivated, but maybe a bit frustrated). If you do suggest consuming Quebec content right away, what's your main recommendation?

Thanks for all thoughts!

I'm trying to learn French. I'm arab, saudi arabia to be specific, and we have like almost two different dialect, like the first one we use to talk normally and another one only used in like the 1800s you get it and in poems and stories I'm scared if I learn french and at the end its a dialect that only a few understand. So if I were to Google translate a word would I get a formal version or a version that ALL locals use. (Ps: and no I don't mean polite I mean formal very different btw.)

I am coming on my last year of French Bachelor’s Art, now I am a little scared 😱, I’m not sure what to do I haven’t been doing any programs because I live in Indiana and there aren’t many opportunities for the French language here in my area. What have most of you folks done after graduation? I’m also looking into MAT masters or PH.D.

I’ve been traveling to places like HAITI and Quebec, and Cameroon, I’m looking to plan a research trip, does anyone had some advice for me ? Can I hear your experience

So just to get it out the way, I’m a Latino who’s currently residing in America and am fluent in both English and Spanish. I would love to learn a 3rd language and I have been battling between German,Russian and French til I decided finally to go with French. French is the most useful language out the 3 in North America and so my question is. Should I learn first France’s French then learn québécois français? Or learn first Le québécoise français et puis le Français du France? I heard that Le québécois français is more french then métropolitain français cause it continuously kept growing within the French language vs Metropolitan French borrowing words from English. Anywho I also made an Apple ID from Montreal, so if there’s any apps that can help me learn French ou québécois français, pls send me the recommendations.

I’ve been learning French on my own for the past few months (mostly consisting of decks on Anki, duolingo, and reading), and I am currently at an A2, early B1. I can read and understand text, but I can’t for the life of me understand when I listen to French. Like I genuinely cannot make out the shape of words, even words that i recognize if written. At first i thought it was because they speak too fast or drop syllables (and i’m sure that’s contributing for sure), but they just sound like jumbled sounds, as opposed to distinct words. What can I do to help that?

Hi there, I was wondering if some of you were in this situation : you have enrolled your kids in a French school and you don't (really) speak French at home. I'm interested in the kind of help the French schools provide and if you think something works well for extra-support with the language outside of school.

So I took the test around three weeks ago and today I got the email... and I still can't believe how well I did. I didn't took any preparation classes or studied that formally, the only French lessons I took were those 4 or 5 years ago and irrc they were not even A2 level ones, and after that I stopped for a long time before recently sort of picking it up again and went on by myself because I developed an interest in French politics.

I am ofc absolutely thrilled and grateful but things are also kind of getting awkward. The thing is I did not expect this score AT ALL, my mindset when I signed up was literally to just give it a go and have fun and stop there. I didn't know anything about grading metrix and I honestly was expecting a score of around 10 for production écrite and production orale since I really know NOTHING about grammar and just went with my feelings...

So, I really need advice from you wonderful people! I kind of wanted to try and progress to C1 right now, but is it realistic if I don't want to sit down and study grammar and all that seriously? Because I'm afraid that if I take things too seriously I'd lose my passion, and I honestly don't know how much of what I did in B2 was luck because C1 seems to require writing even in the listening and reading tests. Like if I just want to watch the news and listen to radios and read books would progression be possible?

Thank you!!

hi! so, i lived in belgium 10 years ago for a year so i had to learn french but it was from daily life so i have a lot to improve. i'd say i'm a b1, used to be b2 but havent trained in so long it's gotten worse. i want to do a masters and i'm thinking either france for several reasons or canada bc i feel id like quebec, so i want to enroll in a french class in my city (i need structure so no self studying), and the school i want to enroll has french french classes and quebecois french, and if you do go study in canada you get reimbursed for some if you took the quebecois. i want to understand if it's worth it or if i should just learn regular french? i have to say i understand like 90% of any french/belgian/swiss french i hear but when i do quebecois that % falls a lot, but i dont know if its just because im not used to it or if i'll have to relearn a lot if i lets say decide to move to france/europe later. google has been confusing, ive read its like american english x scottish english but i've also read media from quebec is subtitled for french people because they won't understand it easily.

thanks!

Hey everyone,

I've been learning French since January (with a background in another latin language) and I'm moving to France in the middle of June. I have no issue understanding most French because I've been listening to native Podcasts for hours a day, and I can mostly understand anything I read, but I really really struggle with speaking. If you give me time to think, I'll probably be able to formulate a robotic answer, but oh my God I suck so bad and I don't know what to do about it!

I'm super anxious because I'm moving there soon and I need to be conversational/organic in my delivery, especially for job interviews... And at this point I feel like listening to Podcasts is just kind of useless? I need to "produce" more... What do you recommend me to do? I can spend as much as 6 hours per day to study and I was thinking of talking to an AI and trying to practice "chunks" of common sentences out loud, maybe even act some monologues, but other than that I'm not sure how to speed up the process and I cannot really afford a teacher right now...

Thank you!

I have just passed DALF C1 in the June session this year. I feel like eventhough I passed, there are still many nuances in daily life that make me feel not very fluent at the language and cultural level. To be fair, i felt more fluent at C1 english than i do now at C1 french.
Should I aim for the C2 to improve or continue improving through work/life/french films?
For your reference I live in BE and my daily work includes a combination of french and english.

I've just discovered Serge Gainsbourg, the French singer, songwriter, lyricist and actor. Although he died in 1991, his popularity in France seems to be even greater now than when he was alive.

What do francophone Canadians think of Serge Gainsbourg and his lyrics?

If this is the wrong Sub for this kind of question, please be so kind and point me to the right direction. Thanks.

I was advised to listen to as much as possible, but it feels very frustrating. I started watching the show Friends with French subtitles and French audio, and I do not understand anything even though I have watched the show multiple times. Is this normal? How do I proceed?