13.26.a - Living in France vs Living in French

I’ve been overwhelmed recently by friends and people online asking me the same question - How can I have fun with my French and improve ‘out-of-sight’?

Today at a Glance: paid subscriber newsletter

1. Living in France vs Living in French
2. NEW - #FranceStack - the launch of a rich Francophile resource
3. NEW - Judy’s Missive 13.26 (year 13 week 26) - launched on Notes
4. Merci mille fois

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Judy

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1. Living in France vs Living in French

I’ve been overwhelmed recently by friends and people online asking me the same question - How can I have fun with my French and improve ‘out-of-sight’?

Recently a friend said to me that she needed to go and spend some serious time in France to hone her French language skills - to finesse her French - to experience the ‘magic’ of immersion. We spoke at some length about how wonderful it would be to flit off to France regularly and to spend say a month at a time - but we were dreaming of course.

Recently I published an article about the joy of planning a trip to Paris and that the planning was almost as good as the trip itself according to the author Debbie Brezinsky who seemed to share the regret about not being able to travel to France frequently when she said:

Much like many of us, a Paris holiday is not always a given. I feel fortunate to have the desires, the means & the ability to travel, and Paris is the one place I always long to return to.

Eventually, my friend and I became much more practical and positive about what we could do and we shared many ideas, tips, and techniques we’ve used to improve our French skills.

I told her that for years I’d spoken about ‘learning French’ but that I’d changed my mindset to ‘Living in French’, which is all about learning French ‘the natural way’. The way children learn a language—yes, by total immersion through sound and sight and repetition in particular and how to do that at home. This is what some of us have been trying to do since March 2020 and the #leconfinement.

Here’s how I went about this challenge, but I’ve slackened off and I need to reinvigorate my plan because it’s a good one!