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When Learning A Language
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why is it that you can read and understand it but when it comes to speaking it, you forget how to say what you want to say? That's my experience, anyway.
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Stick at it Tilly.They say that French is the second hardest language to learn after English.As you progress you will probably find that when speaking to someone in French you will find that you are thinking in French. Good luck with it. I only have an O Level in Italian but was lucky enough to have an Italian wife who helped me a lot, as did my in-laws.
We are really lucky as I got support sorted out for him before he started school. He has a TA every morning who does speech therapy with him (she has moved from reception to year one with him) and she really 'gets' him. He also gets one-to-one speech therapy from a 'professional' who then works out a programme with his TA. Also very fortunate that he is bright so he understands what he needs to do to improve his speech. It was terrible when he started school, I was the only one who could understand him and now everyone can understand most of what he says.
Tilly, The only way I know of being able to speak French without having to think about it is to start off with learning as many everyday phrases as possible. You will then be able to say these without thinking about how to do so as with English. You will find that as you accumulate a stock of these you will unconciously join them together to make sentences. You have to practice them by speaking them so as to the get neural pathways set up. Just say them aloud to yourself. So the greeting...'Bonjour, comment ça va?' will be followed by tthe reply 'Bien, merçi, et vous?
Ask yourself the question then answer yourself then when someone asks the question you will reply without having to think about it.
Ask yourself the question then answer yourself then when someone asks the question you will reply without having to think about it.
It is almost universally the case that one is much slower at speaking than understanding in any language - that is also the case with infants learning their first language. I should warn you that the French have a strong reputation for being very snooty about their language not being spoken perfectly as a native of France. I recall a French Canadian I know who's first language is French leaving France early on his first (and I believe only) visit to the country because he could not stand their looking down on him for his accent and vocabulary, including pretending they could not understand him at all. But there are those in France who (like those of other language backgrounds) admire foreigners for trying to speak their language.
Also, French is not a very difficult language as such (apart from pronunciation to satisfy the French) and English is one of the easiest to learn as a second language - that is why it has become so widely accepted (there are almost no grammatical challenges). You have already been well advised: Keep at it, try to find opportunities to converse with someone who is a native speaker. Oh, the French absolutely loathe anglo-saxon pronunciation of French as typified by "ay" at the ends of words like bouquet, fiancé, voulez, etc. Get that right and you will really be taken notice of.
Also, French is not a very difficult language as such (apart from pronunciation to satisfy the French) and English is one of the easiest to learn as a second language - that is why it has become so widely accepted (there are almost no grammatical challenges). You have already been well advised: Keep at it, try to find opportunities to converse with someone who is a native speaker. Oh, the French absolutely loathe anglo-saxon pronunciation of French as typified by "ay" at the ends of words like bouquet, fiancé, voulez, etc. Get that right and you will really be taken notice of.
