French Conversations ????

?? Here's the scene:

A dinner party, a group of friends, colleagues or clients, a conversation starting.

How do you approach this moment? What do you talk about spontaneously? How do you take your place? What is your state of mind? What image do you project?

?? Will you remain in the background, in the shadows?

For a long time, I hesitated to express myself spontaneously in a foreign language. Taking my place in a conversation represented a struggle, and that was even in French!

Firstly out of politeness, because I'd learnt not to interrupt. But also for fear of not being in the right tone, of sounding off-key... 1,000 questions nagged at me:

? ‘Can I express my thoughts in this way?

? ‘Is it better to keep them to myself?

?‘Is it right to say it this way?’

? One day I said to myself that if I didn't impose myself no one would give me my place.

If you're in France, you may be held back by speed: to interact, you have to draw fast, because there are a lot of chatters who want to monopolise the floor. ??

? I know that for French-speaking foreigners like you, taking the floor in the middle of a squad of voluble French jokers can be a perilous exercise.

? I also know that you'd like to occupy a legitimate place; to put the spoken word at the heart of your life, but you often find yourself on the sidelines for a whole host of reasons.

? So, if you're looking for more autonomy, more ease, more confidence, more recognition in your professional and social life, I invite you to have a little chat with me. Ready ?

But if you're not yet ready for a bit of conversation with me, here are a few tips to get you started ;)

For starters, ...

?? Practice on familiar ground. To get started, choose people you've already been in contact with. That way, you'll have gathered quite a few clues as to how they operate: do they use polite or informal language? Do they cut each other off easily? Do they express themselves in a relaxed or sustained tone?

All this information is a lot less effort, because you'll have mastered one of the 3 most important elements in speaking: the profile of your interlocutors.

?? Get your bearings:

The little words that punctuate and time your speech. These are windows through which you can swoop, bounce to catch the conversation on the hop: Grab hold of these little words to find your bearings in the conversation and perhaps... introduce an idea.

Voice intonation. At the beginning you don't hear words, but packets of words. When you finish speaking?? it Raaalennntiiiit.

Idiomatic expressions: they're the stuff of conversation. Knowing the most common ones will help you.

The tone of the conversation (or mode of communication) between the protagonists: friendly, implicit, ironic, sarcastic, joking...

??? Practice regularly expressing an idea, thought, feeling or emotion in a sentence out loud. Why should you do this? To get into the habit of expressing your thoughts spontaneously in just a few words.

That's why I'm inviting you to join my conversation group. Every week at breakfast, you'll speak French!

This will be a free space where you can work on your phrasing, pronunciation and vocabulary, clarify your thoughts, express yourself according to French codes... and master your hesitations.

Learn to say things with confidence! Join me for a French breakfast ??? ???? ??

If you have at least a B1/2 level, I'll explain how it works and what to expect from these conversation breakfasts during a quick introductory webinar on 17 October ????

?? https://fb.me/e/1T8BSE48c

#French #conversation #expats #breakfast #speak