She Said 'Pardon My French', I Said "Bonjour Madame'

Feb 22

Feb 22 She Said 'Pardon My French', I Said "Bonjour Madame'

This year I'm making it my life mission to learn French.

I'm sure a lot of you probably took a language up to GSCE level (the age of 16) but I feel like although I did it for 3 years, I've forever been at that awkward phase of knowing too much for a begginers class but then being nowhere near good enough for an intermediate course.

So, I've taken it upon myself to overcome this in 2017.

Not only because I think being at least bi-lingual is an amazing skill to have especially in a world becoming increasingly more globalised, but I want to break that English stereotype that we tend to make no effort whatsoever when abroad to speak the language of others.

To do so I've gone back to the absolute basics. As stupid as I felt picking up a french vocabulary book aimed at 9 year olds, I soon discovered that I was definitely not above this. It's crazy how much you are able to forget when you've been out of the loop for so long... the simplest things like learning time got me all flustered!

Although I felt so silly trying to string together broken sentences (even finding myself adopting the infamous 'eeeer' in-between words that the French are known for), I think the key is to embrace the silliness of it and just go for it without worry so much about sounding perfect.

So, I'm going to share my French journey with you - whether its twisting my mouth into all sorts of shapes in a feeble attempt to nail pronunciation or if its just once in a while progress checks to let you know how I'm getting along. For now, I'm using two textbooks I bought from WHSmith called 'French the essentials for 9+' and 'CGP French: The revision guide, higher level', both were pretty cheap and so easy for you to grab a copy in any language of your choice too!

I've been advised to watch movies in French or better yet play games in French because it's one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the French world if you are unable to physically be there. Netflix has a pretty good selection but as more of gamer it would be great to get any recommendations that you may have for Mac users!

Because in the famous words of Kylie Jenner circa 2016 it's all about 'realising stuff....and realising things'.