Wow - One of my favourite topics. How much and how fast English speakers who live in France actually learn the local language and become fluent and comfortable in speaking French. I learned French at school, took a lot of private lessons many years ago and went on a tour of France and England. I was ok for a tourist but I could not carry out a fluent conversation in French. I was very frustrated but I had a good tourist trip. Move forward to now! I started to re'- learn French. I have used the Internet to have language exchange conversations. One of my correspondents became my Romantic Correspondent. On my last trip to France, I stayed in the one city for a month, and I felt like a local. I am gradually morphing into a French / Australian person. My French has improved to the point where I consider myself to be "street" fluent in French. My journey from just learning French as a hobby has turned into a lifestyle and a lot more to come...
This makes perfect sense. I'm just beginning to study French, and I think it will be well worth the effort. It will open up a whole new world of communication and enjoyment for me.
Ah, those metro announcements... I knew my French had really improved when I started to understand the muffled metro announcements, train announcements, etc. You also just feel a lot more comfortable and SAFE when you understand what’s going on around you. I’ve been in Paris with my parents who speak no French and once they assumed that someone was trying to get them to buy drugs when really it was some fortune teller/ life coach type person pedalling his business. 😂
ThesaurusToblerone It’s very true! Not understanding really disconnects you, and that can lead to some very confusing and sometimes stressful situations 😅
Totally agree with your statements in this video. For me as an Aussie living in Paris the hardest thing is two fold. One is my accent and the other is that my work (vlogging and tours of France) are in English so practicing is the hardest for me. But you just have to keep going. Sure it might take the waiter 10 times to understand I just asked for a carafe d'eau. But I know that after two years I'm a lot better than what I was when arrived and that in five years I will be so much better. The best bit of advice I can give is that if you don't know your french to at least try. Politeness if that's a word is important, it will get you everywhere. Oh and finally I think it's important to remember that it is another language you are in one of the most visited places in the world and there are good and bad people everywhere so if you do have a problem trying to communicate with someone and if they are rude to you, remember that. Not all French are that way. In fact I've found the complete opposite. Great video merci 😀🇫🇷
I work in English for the most part too -- it definitely slows down my French progress, but that just means I have to find (and make) other opportunities to practice 😄
You’re Australian and you’re living in Paris! Omg are you crazy?! 😅 Sorry I got excited, I’m french and lived for 2 years in Oz and fell in love with it, Australia is just sooo beautiful, clean, wild, with amazing people and amazing wildlife, lifestyle.. I wish I could have stayed there :)
So true. Living here instead of just visiting I hear regular announcements on the Métro, and have been to exhibitions at more out-of-the-way museums that are only captioned in French. Being able to understand and read at a reasonable level has made all the difference. Re. going to the theatre, I recently saw two one-act plays by Georges Feydeau, famous for his French farces. I didn't understand everything, but enough to follow the story. Being comedies helped enormously because of the physical acting and they weren't too long.
I was a bit afraid to go to the theatre when I moved to England (and I was bilingual by that point) and the first time was a bit hard to understand, but it grew easier with time. After a year or two, it was fine for me to understand. 😀
You should definitively try to go see French theater, that being say you might go out a bit frustrated : French comedies are often packed full of slang, puns and references to French pop culture (like old TV shows, 80s songs...) or personalities, so it can be tough for non native French speakers. You could feel pretty much like lot of French people would feel watching Saturday Night Live or Family Guy in their original version. I'd say a good test would be to see if you can more or less follow the hit show "Bref" th-cam.com/users/bref . A lot of comedies in Paris theaters would have a similar flow and rate of puns and French culture references. Classic "popular" theater like Moliere or Corneille's play could be an option, there will be some old-timey words we don't use much now, but they are more likely to be similar to literary English words I would guess. Dramas might be an option, but you might have a harder time finding people willing to go with you. Musical seem fairly easy to me to understand in English, so maybe that'd be a good option too !
Great video!! I gotta say, it feels like there’s a lot less pressure to speak perfect French outside of Paris for two reasons : 1) people outside Paris generally don’t speak English very well so you have to speak in French, and 2) they are more friendly and/or patient with me 😬 I live in the suburbs of Paris and even in my area (Yvelines 78) people take the time to tolerate my French haha! On the other hand, all the expat groups are in Paris so making friends has been hard. If you have any suggestions for American/English speaking expats in Paris, maybe that could be an upcoming video? 😉
Andrea, what do you think about becoming totally proficient in a very bilingual city - e.g., Montreal in Quebec, Canada? There is often quite a bit of a segregation between the Francophone and Anglophone communities, and because almost all people you encounter in pharmacies/retail/restaurants etc speak both languages, if they perceive a moment's hesitation when you speak French, they will switch to English.
I've been living in Montreal for two years and I've learning french on my own for one, I'll talk from my experiences. Yes the communities are divided. It's very possible to be here for years and not learn a single bit of french/english if you just stay within the community you're comfortable with, so if you want to learn french you'll have to make an effort to participate in the francophone community, at first everyone will almost surely talk to you in english and honestly some people always will doesn't matter if you can talk in french BUT as time passes and your french gets better you'll start meeting people that will be open to converse and help you out, you just have to stick with it and not get frustrated when people switch to english. On switching at stores and stuff, actually I've found that in general people WILL respond in french if you address them in french and they'll stick to it even if you're struggling a bit, I've had cases where I could not understand something and the person just kept repeating stuff in french till I finally had to say "Sorry, can you say it in English". Also Montreal has a very healthy language exchange community, lots of people want to better their french/english and other languages (I speak spanish so i do french/spanish), I've taken advantage of this and it's proven to be an immense help. Meeting up with with francophones weekly to practice has drastically improved my french, it eventually led me to form friendships/social circles that are predominantly french, which just helps me keep getting better at the language. So in my experience it is totally possible to come here without knowing a word of french and successfully learn it in all its quebecois glory, you just have to know where to look for it.
Michelle L I haven’t been to Montreal before, but I’ve had the experience where when I speak French, the person responds in English. Normally I just insist on continuing to reply in French! It’s a bit annoying at times, but most people only do it because they think it’ll help or because they’re too impatient, but either way I need the practice 😜
I want to go to university in france, I’m 17 and I graduate this year but I stopped taking french class a year ago. I really do wanna study there but I doubt I can learn the language. I’m terrible at learning languages
Y a-t-il une différence avec n'importe quelle autre grande ville dans le monde? (Sydney, Madrid, NYC...) je ne crois pas et je ne vois rien de spécifique plus à Paris qu'ailleurs. Qu'est-ce que tu en penses?
great video Andrea!!! I totally agree with all your arguments and your point of view on some elements (especially the French administration) is really enlightening for us, French people! thank you for that great video! I hope Summer is going well in Paris, do you plan to do some vlogs during the Summer by the way? i'd love to see some!
Last time I was in Paris (I live in the Province) the métro line I was on, from my train station to my destination, announced in French, English, German and Spanish. So... so much for that idea!
Simon Purcell You seem to have missed the part of the video where I said that popular lines are announced in multiple languages. So I don’t know what this comment is trying to prove 🤷♀️
Simon Purcell I also very clearly stated that I was talking about last-minute announcements or changes, not pre-recorded statements telling people “don’t forget your belongings” or “beware of pickpockets” or those routine things. Sooo yeah, please watch the whole video before leaving comments like this! Thanks 😊
In my experience, on international trains like that, the staff (and even train conductors!) are always bilingual at least. The train I recently took from Paris to Frankfurt, Germany had a conductor who announced in French, German, and English and pronounced all of them well, and it seemed all the staff knew at least some of all three languages as well! Very different from local city transportation 😊
It is funny that native English speakers can even imagine that they could easily live in a country without being able to speak its language. It seems so logical to me that you can’t live somewhere without speaking the language.
Parisian are the worst French with tourist, there is just too much tourist in Paris, so don't expect the Parisian to be super nice and helping with you I think you definitely need to speak French if you live there.
Wow - One of my favourite topics. How much and how fast English speakers who live in France actually learn the local language and become fluent and comfortable in speaking French. I learned French at school, took a lot of private lessons many years ago and went on a tour of France and England. I was ok for a tourist but I could not carry out a fluent conversation in French. I was very frustrated but I had a good tourist trip. Move forward to now! I started to re'- learn French. I have used the Internet to have language exchange conversations. One of my correspondents became my Romantic Correspondent. On my last trip to France, I stayed in the one city for a month, and I felt like a local. I am gradually morphing into a French / Australian person. My French has improved to the point where I consider myself to be "street" fluent in French. My journey from just learning French as a hobby has turned into a lifestyle and a lot more to come...
This makes perfect sense. I'm just beginning to study French, and I think it will be well worth the effort. It will open up a whole new world of communication and enjoyment for me.
Ah, those metro announcements... I knew my French had really improved when I started to understand the muffled metro announcements, train announcements, etc. You also just feel a lot more comfortable and SAFE when you understand what’s going on around you. I’ve been in Paris with my parents who speak no French and once they assumed that someone was trying to get them to buy drugs when really it was some fortune teller/ life coach type person pedalling his business. 😂
ThesaurusToblerone It’s very true! Not understanding really disconnects you, and that can lead to some very confusing and sometimes stressful situations 😅
Omg, go to the theater! It’s a great way to get more comfortable with a language, even if you don’t really understand everything that’s going on.
Totally agree with your statements in this video. For me as an Aussie living in Paris the hardest thing is two fold. One is my accent and the other is that my work (vlogging and tours of France) are in English so practicing is the hardest for me. But you just have to keep going. Sure it might take the waiter 10 times to understand I just asked for a carafe d'eau. But I know that after two years I'm a lot better than what I was when arrived and that in five years I will be so much better. The best bit of advice I can give is that if you don't know your french to at least try. Politeness if that's a word is important, it will get you everywhere. Oh and finally I think it's important to remember that it is another language you are in one of the most visited places in the world and there are good and bad people everywhere so if you do have a problem trying to communicate with someone and if they are rude to you, remember that. Not all French are that way. In fact I've found the complete opposite. Great video merci 😀🇫🇷
I work in English for the most part too -- it definitely slows down my French progress, but that just means I have to find (and make) other opportunities to practice 😄
You’re Australian and you’re living in Paris! Omg are you crazy?! 😅 Sorry I got excited, I’m french and lived for 2 years in Oz and fell in love with it, Australia is just sooo beautiful, clean, wild, with amazing people and amazing wildlife, lifestyle.. I wish I could have stayed there :)
So true. Living here instead of just visiting I hear regular announcements on the Métro, and have been to exhibitions at more out-of-the-way museums that are only captioned in French. Being able to understand and read at a reasonable level has made all the difference. Re. going to the theatre, I recently saw two one-act plays by Georges Feydeau, famous for his French farces. I didn't understand everything, but enough to follow the story. Being comedies helped enormously because of the physical acting and they weren't too long.
YES. YES. YES. I live here for almost a year now and I'm soooo happy that I speak French. Everything is so much less complicated 🙈
Most Pleasant and Appealing Video! :)
I was a bit afraid to go to the theatre when I moved to England (and I was bilingual by that point) and the first time was a bit hard to understand, but it grew easier with time. After a year or two, it was fine for me to understand. 😀
You should definitively try to go see French theater, that being say you might go out a bit frustrated : French comedies are often packed full of slang, puns and references to French pop culture (like old TV shows, 80s songs...) or personalities, so it can be tough for non native French speakers. You could feel pretty much like lot of French people would feel watching Saturday Night Live or Family Guy in their original version. I'd say a good test would be to see if you can more or less follow the hit show "Bref" th-cam.com/users/bref . A lot of comedies in Paris theaters would have a similar flow and rate of puns and French culture references.
Classic "popular" theater like Moliere or Corneille's play could be an option, there will be some old-timey words we don't use much now, but they are more likely to be similar to literary English words I would guess.
Dramas might be an option, but you might have a harder time finding people willing to go with you.
Musical seem fairly easy to me to understand in English, so maybe that'd be a good option too !
Great video!! I gotta say, it feels like there’s a lot less pressure to speak perfect French outside of Paris for two reasons : 1) people outside Paris generally don’t speak English very well so you have to speak in French, and 2) they are more friendly and/or patient with me 😬 I live in the suburbs of Paris and even in my area (Yvelines 78) people take the time to tolerate my French haha! On the other hand, all the expat groups are in Paris so making friends has been hard. If you have any suggestions for American/English speaking expats in Paris, maybe that could be an upcoming video? 😉
Very Well Done Andrea, Very Informative and Entertaining, Most Helpful and Insightful, Thank You So Much, Appreciate it, Have a Wonderful Day! ⭐⭐⭐⭐💯👍👍
I’m sure you would understand à French play. They’re often much easier to understand than movies!
Really good vídeo!
Andrea, what do you think about becoming totally proficient in a very bilingual city - e.g., Montreal in Quebec, Canada? There is often quite a bit of a segregation between the Francophone and Anglophone communities, and because almost all people you encounter in pharmacies/retail/restaurants etc speak both languages, if they perceive a moment's hesitation when you speak French, they will switch to English.
I've been living in Montreal for two years and I've learning french on my own for one, I'll talk from my experiences. Yes the communities are divided. It's very possible to be here for years and not learn a single bit of french/english if you just stay within the community you're comfortable with, so if you want to learn french you'll have to make an effort to participate in the francophone community, at first everyone will almost surely talk to you in english and honestly some people always will doesn't matter if you can talk in french BUT as time passes and your french gets better you'll start meeting people that will be open to converse and help you out, you just have to stick with it and not get frustrated when people switch to english. On switching at stores and stuff, actually I've found that in general people WILL respond in french if you address them in french and they'll stick to it even if you're struggling a bit, I've had cases where I could not understand something and the person just kept repeating stuff in french till I finally had to say "Sorry, can you say it in English". Also Montreal has a very healthy language exchange community, lots of people want to better their french/english and other languages (I speak spanish so i do french/spanish), I've taken advantage of this and it's proven to be an immense help. Meeting up with with francophones weekly to practice has drastically improved my french, it eventually led me to form friendships/social circles that are predominantly french, which just helps me keep getting better at the language. So in my experience it is totally possible to come here without knowing a word of french and successfully learn it in all its quebecois glory, you just have to know where to look for it.
Michelle L I haven’t been to Montreal before, but I’ve had the experience where when I speak French, the person responds in English. Normally I just insist on continuing to reply in French! It’s a bit annoying at times, but most people only do it because they think it’ll help or because they’re too impatient, but either way I need the practice 😜
I want to go to university in france, I’m 17 and I graduate this year but I stopped taking french class a year ago. I really do wanna study there but I doubt I can learn the language. I’m terrible at learning languages
Please mind the gap between the train and the platform
CUIDADO CON EL ESPACIO ENTRE EL TRAIN Y EL ANDEL
Y a-t-il une différence avec n'importe quelle autre grande ville dans le monde? (Sydney, Madrid, NYC...) je ne crois pas et je ne vois rien de spécifique plus à Paris qu'ailleurs.
Qu'est-ce que tu en penses?
here , we have a old theatre , tatui são Paulo state
great video Andrea!!! I totally agree with all your arguments and your point of view on some elements (especially the French administration) is really enlightening for us, French people! thank you for that great video! I hope Summer is going well in Paris, do you plan to do some vlogs during the Summer by the way? i'd love to see some!
alfinou_13 targaryen I’ve been doing a bit of travel vlogging, but I’m not sure what’s in store as far as Paris vlogs. We’ll see! 😄
Andrea Heckler any kind of vlog will be interesting for us! Thank you for your videos !
alfinou_13 targaryen Thank you for watching!! 🙃
When in Paris, I felt more comfortable asking African people for directions. My French is not good at all but I can get by.
A little bit is always better than nothing! 😁
Last time I was in Paris (I live in the Province) the métro line I was on, from my train station to my destination, announced in French, English, German and Spanish. So... so much for that idea!
Simon Purcell You seem to have missed the part of the video where I said that popular lines are announced in multiple languages. So I don’t know what this comment is trying to prove 🤷♀️
Simon Purcell I also very clearly stated that I was talking about last-minute announcements or changes, not pre-recorded statements telling people “don’t forget your belongings” or “beware of pickpockets” or those routine things. Sooo yeah, please watch the whole video before leaving comments like this! Thanks 😊
Nice video =)
What if you take a train from Paris to Belgium or Germany? Do those trains have announcements in English?
In my experience, on international trains like that, the staff (and even train conductors!) are always bilingual at least. The train I recently took from Paris to Frankfurt, Germany had a conductor who announced in French, German, and English and pronounced all of them well, and it seemed all the staff knew at least some of all three languages as well! Very different from local city transportation 😊
Andrea Heckler thanks for answering that!! I really appreciate the information that you provide!!
It is funny that native English speakers can even imagine that they could easily live in a country without being able to speak its language.
It seems so logical to me that you can’t live somewhere without speaking the language.
Hi🔮💫
So she doesn't work with vat19 anymore???
"Châtelet... Châtelet... Attention à la marche en descendant du train" definitely not english haha.
Parisian are the worst French with tourist, there is just too much tourist in Paris, so don't expect the Parisian to be super nice and helping with you I think you definitely need to speak French if you live there.