Figuring Out What I Need to Learn

Aujourd'hui j'ai parlé avec ma nouvel amie Aurélie via Skype. Aurélie et son mari Piérre créent des podcasts pour les personnes qui apprennent le français «Native French Speech». J'adore les podcasts de Native French Speech. Ils sont très interessant et je les écoute plusieurs fois dans la journée. 

Jusqu'à maintenant je suis un «free» membre du site, mais je vais payer pour être «super» membre car je veux utiliser tout ce qu'on reçoit: 

• Les podcasts
• La transcription en français
• La traduction
• Les exercises
• Le soutien via email
• Les corrections
• Un heure avec Aurélie via Skype 

Ça vaut le coup !

Aujourd'hui était le troisième fois que j'ai parlé avec Aurélie via Skype. J'aime bien parler avec elle, et aussi avec les enfant et Piérre, who show up now and then in front of the computer camera. I like to ask her questions about her life and learn more about how the French live.

C'est très intéressant pour moi !

Parler via Skype avec un francophone c'est genial pour beaucoup de raisons, inclus: 

• I get to listen to real, authentic French spoken in a natural way
• I get to practice my French, working on vocabulary and pronunciation as I try to make myself understood
• I get to meet a new person from whom I can learn, and this enriches my life

But one of the most valuable things I got from today's time with Aurélie was a clear understanding of what I want to say but can't. There were many times that I wanted to tell her something, but I had to think too much, and it didn't come out very clearly or easily, even though if she had said it, I would have totally understood her.

I left our Skype session with some concrete goals about phrases that I want to be able to say correctly and easily. I want them to just role off my tongue, without having to think about pronunciation, word order or verb tenses. These are common conversational types of words and phrases, as well as words that help you link your thoughts together. So that's what I will be working on this week before our next Skype meeting. 

Related to this realization that I had today about wanting to master certain phrases that I want to be able to use when speaking with Aurélie is a video from the Canadian polyglot Keith Swayne. In this video he talks about the reasons why he likes to learn languages - mainly to speak with other people. He talks about learning words that you want to be able to use in conversations with others, typical words to talk about your life, your day, your hobbies, and things that you like -- not just any old word that you may never actually use. I find that I have a large vocabulaire française, but I mostly need to focus now on really being able to say what I want to say, and to say it well, so people can understand me.