I have enough French to carry a conversation with someone who doesn't know English - a frustrating, halting conversation, where half the time is spent in me asking them to remind me of a French word by describing its meaning, then going back and using that word in the sentence I actually wanted to say.
I got as far as "Advanced French Conversation" in college, where we did things like write skits and perform them. So much of that ability to speak French is gone now, and I really hope this visit will bring some of it back by the end of our time there.
Which means I want to practice, dammit! :)
Fortunately, one of the things I'm best at with foreign languages is pronouncing them (though I've never tried a tonal language), so I've had natives mistake me for a native speaker in places like Italy and Finland when I only say something brief, knowing only tiny scraps of the language ... but saying them correctly. On my recent few-hours stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport on a return trip from Israel, I bought food in French and asked guards questions in French and they answered in French, most times. But those were simple tasks for which I knew all the words.
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momijizukamori
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I got as far as "Advanced French Conversation" in college, where we did things like write skits and perform them. So much of that ability to speak French is gone now, and I really hope this visit will bring some of it back by the end of our time there.
Which means I want to practice, dammit! :)
Fortunately, one of the things I'm best at with foreign languages is pronouncing them (though I've never tried a tonal language), so I've had natives mistake me for a native speaker in places like Italy and Finland when I only say something brief, knowing only tiny scraps of the language ... but saying them correctly. On my recent few-hours stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport on a return trip from Israel, I bought food in French and asked guards questions in French and they answered in French, most times. But those were simple tasks for which I knew all the words.