If you want a good laugh, watch this short YouTube video by Erica Guaca, a mother living in Bordeaux, France.When I don't understand someone, I tend to nod my head and say "ah, oauis," or "ah, non," depending on the tone of the speaker. I'm guilty of doing the routine of eating something or sipping on my café so I don't have to respond. It is especially easier with my daughter because I can reach for a new toy to give her, or be "distracted" by something she does.What are you guilty of doing?Of course, instead of faking French, some ways to learn the language while in France … [Read more...]

Writing the French Word of the Day emails has been a learning experience in more than one way. Something that became clear over the past few months was that I overextended myself. I took on more than I could handle and overcompensated by cutting back on everything to work on my book. I'm working on my next book and I figured out what I must do in order to achieve balance.My daily emails still have the word, definition, photograph and two practice sentences. My husband is recording pronunciation audio clips for each word - so that is a fun addition! We have already finished a months worth, … [Read more...]

My husband moved to the USA after we met, so we spoke only in English from the beginning. After years of speaking together in English it was hard to switch to French when we moved to France. My vocabulary was limited so he had to help me on nearly every sentence. We continued only speaking in English while I learned French independently.To help prepare me for the OFCII welcoming appointment, my husband announced that we would only speak in French. He has said this many times over the years so I doubted it would last over 15 minutes. Surprisingly, he stuck to it. He was so persistent and … [Read more...]

Over the years, I have purchased countless books to try and learn French. I used to go to the bookstore Barnes & Noble to relax and each time I was there, I would feel guilty for not bringing a French book to study. So I would go ahead and purchase another book. I had quite a library of learning French books at home before having to sell everything when I moved to Montreal (before moving to France).Of the books that I have tried, my favorites are French Made Simple, Complete French Grammar and French Stories.Overall Learn to Speak French BookFrench Made Simple is probably my … [Read more...]

Since black mold took over our house in Normandy, we had to move in with our mother-in-law until we can move into our new place in the south of France. While staying with my husband’s mother, I learned the key to learning French – live with your mother-in-law!I lived with my husband in the USA and Canada before moving to France, and we have grown accustomed over the years to speaking to each other in English. When we try to work on my French, we would speak a few sentences in French and then slowly end up speaking in English again. … [Read more...]