Started learning french almost 5 years ago... and until now, I'm still learning.
Well, I did improve a lot, can speak more fluidly (definitely not fluent) and understand conversations without having any anxiety attacks.
The hard part about learning French as an adult is that nagging consciousness of sounding stupid. Yes, the hard part of learning this complex but beautiful languages is FEAR. Fear of sounding doltish and unintelligent. Fear of making grammatical errors. Fear of not pronouncing the words properly. Fear of just speaking.
When a child learns, they are not afraid to make mistakes or sounding stupid. They just start speaking and learn as they grow. And that realization hit me. The locals don't expect me to speak perfectly. It was myself who put that unattainable expectation that I would speak perfect french right from the beginning.
Once I had that realization, then I finally started learning.
So I would like to share the things I learn while learning french in my day to day life.
Words, phrases, expressions, that I find interesting and that perhaps I discover as I continue on my journey to fluency...
In my first french class in Paris, I learned these phrases to introduce myself:
Je m'appelle Neil. J'ai 30 ans. J'ai démenagé en France depuis 2015.
Just in these 3 sentences, gave me the idea of the complexity of this language.
Je m'appelle Neil
This is literally translated as I call myself Neil. That's a bit strange, isn't it?
J'ai 30 ans
Again in its literal translation means I have 30 years. Or normally we say, I am 30 years old.
J'ai démenagé en France depuis 2015
Finally, this one means, I have moved to France since 2015. Sounds about right but wait until you start learning what the french (and most Latin based languages) call Les Conjugaisons. (which I would be perhaps sharing a lot in the coming articles)
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