Thinking

[Richardrawlings]

A question for all the people who live in France. Do you now think in French when using the language or do you still translate back to English. The reason for the question is I know the words but they don't seem to make sense if you know what I mean

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

Yes, I think in French; it takes a bit of effort to start with but if you make the effort to think in French when alone it will come more and more naturally. A teacher at the Alliance Franaise told us not to worry if we were stuck on the tube getting to his class, just at the appropriate moment to start thinking in French. No dictionary, instead finding a way to express everything you thought in French. And of course, should anyone wish to improve their fluency with a little extra homework, what better way...

[Alexis]

I had loads of advantages when I arrived here:
1. I lived by myself so no English spoken at home
2. I had no telly so listened to French radio
3. I worked with the French.

It started by learning phrases, or perhaps, listening to phrases and using them in similar circumstances.

Then I dreamt in French.

Now I talk to the pets in French, which seems very affected but my husband is French, I don't speak English except for once a week when I see my Welsh friends....everything is French for me. As you can see from the spelling, I have nearly forgotten English. Mind you, I am not saying that my French is good. Nothing seems to go into the head these days! Some people understand everything I say, other are confused by bonjour. As you can imagine, the early days of our romance with a French non English speaking man and an English little speaking Englishwoman were trs romantic. Thank goodness for the dictionary. Amazing how many words are the same too.......! Oh, the effort of looking them up!!

I would say it took minimum, a year.

[Liz]

If I'm speaking French I think in French and it is one of those real breakthough moments in language learning when this starts to happen. Even if I'm stuck for a word I'm thinking of a French circumlocution (there's posh!) rather than the actual English word.

It takes a while and the more you mix with the French themselves the better. Alexis has the right idea, no English spoken at home, no English TV etc. Although, I have to say that when I was in that situation there were times when I said to myself if I hear another word of French I shall scream.

Our cat, by the way, is bilingual

Liz (29)

[Alma]

When I'm in my car or trying to get to sleep at night I have perfect conversations in french with all sorts of 'people' but when I get in a situation that I'm caught off guard and have not 'prepared' myself of phrases I might need I go to pieces! Still better now than 12 months ago
Alma

[Sue56]

Half and half would be generous - may be 75% English translation 25% French straight away.

Breakthrough - Dreamt in French (not for the first time) only this time understood what I was saying!

I try to describe (in my head) either what I am thinking/feeling in French or what I am doing ie. "I'm driving along the road to the supermarket, I going to turn right, now going to park over there, etc, etc." Sometimes change the tenses.

However, still get stage fright when it comes to off-the-cuff converstions and often going away thinking why didn't I say such & such.

[Laotze]

I think in both languages (I think) and find translating very difficult. I often have to translate for my husband and really struggle for the English words. We increasingly use French words for some things especially building stuff as I dont really know the English. Funnily enough I dont think my spoken French has improved at all since moving here last June. I dont know why it is but I speak well when speaking to strangers but struggle with those I have known for some time. I think its because I try to talk too fast. I am much better in formal situations - dealing with notaires, bank, offialdom.
My mother was totally bilingual - when she was talking with her sisters they would switch languages often within a sentence. I grew up understanding French but never wishing to speak. I now wish that I had taken the opportunity to perfect my French as a child when it would have been so much easier.