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Living in France: Should you learn French?

  • Do you need to learn french? No.
  • If you want to, you should.
  • If you’re planing to install in France for a few month, or if you intend to live there for a couple of years, learning the language will only make your life better.

Do you need to learn French?

  • Financial services, Real Estate companies, Legal professionals, all of them have their ways with the English language.
  • They will be able to provide advice in both languages with no troubles.
  • Contracts have to be written in a language understood by the parties that’s integral to the European dynamics of inclusiveness.
  • The biggest, most reliable french companies all have an international division.
  • If they don’t, look for another.
  • Every Publics services from Security to Heath to Tax services is equipped to assist you.
  • Education can be delivered in both languages in both languages in many schools & institutes.
  • Entertainment
    • Most cinemas propose non-dubbed versions of the movies or English-subbed versions.
    • The biggest museums & art galleries have bilingual guides.
  • Restaurants
    • Most restaurants have their menues in both languages.
  • Self-Catering & the Markets
    • Almost every super/hypermarket will be English friendly.
    • Many markets have English label nowadays.

If you want to live in France, and enjoy your french mates.

  • You could say Pastries, or Patisseries.
  • Bakery or Boulangerie.
  • And so on.
  • There are very few languages in the world that as a close to English as French.
  • French vocabulary has been introduced into the English language since the Normand invasion of Britain up to the XXth century.
  • English is classified as a Germanic language, but up to 2/3 of its vocabulary is directly inherited from Romance languages, namely Latin (1/3) & French (1/3).
  • If anything, learning French will allow you to discover new English words.
  • Similarly, English is an easy language to learn if you are already speaking french, and is of great value if you wish to understand the evolution of French language as the 2 languages are so intertwined.

Travel & Taste

  • Les Marches locaux (Markets) are probably one of the best places to learn French.
  • Because you’ll learn French in its rawest form.
  • Local producers won’t try to tailor their speech for the customers, they’ll speak their way.
  • That’s also why markets are the best place to learn dialects.
  • And also the best places to discover regional specialties.
  • Try to visit as many cities, towns & villages as you can especially at the border of Spain, Italy & Germany.
  • The cities, towns & generally the Regions bordering these countries will have a lot of foreign communities but also give you access to regional languages such as Occitan, Savoyard or Languedocien.
  • That’s as many open doors for you to the rest of Europe.
  • Travelling is a game, Play.

The Joy of thinking in another Language

  • Linguistic flexibility in 1 of the many that allows to enjoy Cognitive Joy.
  • When you’re able to understand what the main character says in this movie you’ve always watch with subtitle, and understand the emotion behind the words you’ll be golden.
  • It brings us back to the reason why you decided to move: you wanted it.
  • And you probably want to speak the language of the country you’re living in just to interact with others.
  • But maybe even more so to remind yourself that you wanted to satisfy yourself.
  • Being able to switch from French to English & back to French is a pleasure in itself.
  • So much so that we’re now learning true foreign languages such as Arabic or Japanese.
  • Japanese is an especially challenging one & probably one of the hardest languages to learn period.
  • Even so, Enjoyment > Difficulty.
  • You may already know that feeling if you’ve got a couple of foreign languages under your arm.

Your daily french games

  • Order a full meal in French.
  • Watch a cookery show (’emission de cuisine’).
  • Ask for directions.
  • Treat yourself to your favorite meal, as long as you can read it out loud.
  • Read a Hugo’s poem, a LaFontaine’s fable.
    • other writings: Le Horla Guy de Maupassant, À la recherche du temps perdu Marcel Proust or Vingt mille lieues sous les mers Jules Verne.
  • Watch a whole movie twice: with & then without subs.
    • examples: Céline et Julie vont en bateau Jacques Rivette, A Bout de souffle Jean-Luc Godard,  Shoah Claude Lanzmann or La Règle du jeu Jean Renoir.
  • Listen a whole song trice a week: listen, sing along, sing without.
    • examples: any popular song you like.
Try Random Expressions.
  • Think of French as a regional dialect of English (or vice-versa).
  • All you need to learn is the accent.
  • Some key phrases to get you started:
    • La grande illusion, c’est le passé.
    • Les portes de l’avenir sont ouvertes à ceux qui savent les pousser.
    • Puis-je vous aidez avec votre sac?
    • Vous avez de magnifiques toilettes.
    • Je préfère les chats sans poils.
  • Make up your own phrases with random words.
  • You could even make a song out of this.