Our French Speaking Experience

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Have you ever gone to a foreign country where the primary language is not your own and tried to live like a local?  This is exactly what Mikhaila and I did as part of our language exchange, and it is not as easy as you might think.  

The idea behind our exchange was so that Mikhaila and I could practice our French, and Zoe and Juline could practice their English.  Mikhaila and I were in the extended French progamme at our old school so we knew how to conjugate verbs and speak basic French.  We wanted to test our skills in the real world.

Since we wanted to get to know one another better, we all agreed to create videos to share about our daily lives and hobbies.  We sent one video every week to each other for four months. Mikhaila and I sent our videos in French, and Zoe and Juline sent us videos in English.  The videos helped Mikhaila and I get to know the girls better and also got us into the habit of speaking French.

Here are a few examples:

Mikhaila talks about her Greek dance recital she did in Montreal, Canada:

Here is a video of my best friend and I showing what we do in dance class:                                         PS. It isn’t perfect

For the first week in France, Mikhaila and I did not talk very much because we were jet lagged and very tired.  We focused on understanding what everyone else was saying because they spoke really quickly which made it harder for us to understand.

By the second week, Mikhaila and I knew the family a lot better, got over our jet lag and we were having full conversations in French with the family.  We were able to speak more, and we could understand whenever someone spoke at 100 words per second!

Here are some things we did with the Lenoble family to practice our French:

Watched a Movie

We went to the local movie theater and watched Despicable Me 3 in French.  It was easy to understand and very funny!

The French movie theater.

Listened to French Music

Throughout our stay, the girls played their favorite French songs such as Sur Ma Route by Black M, French Kiss by Black M, and Papaoutai by Stromae.  We also went to a park where there was a live concert playing French music that we could listen and dance to.

Dancing!

 

 

Lived With The Lenoble Family

Living with the Lenoble family really helped improve our French. We played games like Headbands and Charades, as well as some new ones we learned.  We also talked with the family as much as we could which really helped us with our conversational skills.  They taught us some French tongue twisters to practice such as:

-Mure Usee, trou s’y fait, rat s’y met

-trois tortues sur un toit tordue

It was not easy to speak French as it is our second language.  The Lenoble family didn’t mind if we mixed up our conjugations or said the wrong word.  They were very supportive towards Mikhaila and I which gave us confidence to talk with them.  

Overall, this exchange was an incredible experience.  Mikhaila and I really improved our French speaking and understanding skills.  I hope to do another exchange some day because I would like to get better at speaking French, or maybe even learn a new language!

Au revoir!


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Comments

15 responses to “Our French Speaking Experience”

  1. Sharon Faulhaber Avatar
    Sharon Faulhaber

    How wonderful. Love hearing about your adventures & admire your skills and passions. Keep up the good work & keep sharing.

    1. Hi!

      We had a lot of fun doing this exchange and it was an amazing experience.

  2. C’est fantastique!

    1. Hi!

      Oui, Oui! C’est tres fantastique!

  3. Sandra Campbell Avatar
    Sandra Campbell

    That’s the best way to learn a language. Immerse yourself!
    Sandra

    1. Hi!

      I fully agree.

  4. Ingrid Stevens Avatar
    Ingrid Stevens

    hello Zoe, going somewhere as an exchange student gives you the opportunity to stay with a local family and learn their language. Dymphi, our youngest daughter, was away to Dominican Republic for about one year, when you and your family were here for the flowerparade. You probably remember the turkish boy we had in our family.
    Dymphi loved her year abroad, speaks fluently spanish now, and has an extra family who she loves a lot, and they love her too ! She now has a belgian mama and a dominican mami 🙂
    She went away with AFS (american field service). I don’t know if they also operate in Canada, but you could check that.
    There are also other organisations who organise for exchange-students, like Rotary, Wep, YFU and maybe more. Mostly you can do one schoolyear in a highschool, between the age of 15 and 18.
    There is also EF, which is different, because then you go to school to learn that specific language. They also have the possibility to stay with a host-family.
    Hope this helps you to think about being an exchange student somewhere in the world.
    Good luck, and thank you very much for your blog. I always like reading it.
    friendly greetings to all of you,
    Ingrid

    1. Hi!

      Thank you so much! That sounds like an amazing experience! Maybe Mikhaila and I could do an exchange for a year too!

  5. Ingrid Stevens Avatar
    Ingrid Stevens

    btw, if you have questions about this, I am sure Dymphi would love to answer all of them !
    🙂

  6. Hi Zoe, Beautiful blog and very interesting info! Love, Baba

    1. Hi!

      Thank you so much!

  7. Elle était trop bien ta video ZOE {CANADA}

    1. Bonjour!

      Merci! J’aime aussi toutes tes videos.

  8. Zoé d'ANNECY Avatar
    Zoé d’ANNECY

    J’ai adoré la vidéo que tu as faite 🙂
    La musique était trop bien.
    tu pourras me dire le nom de la musique s’il te plait ?
    La fête au bord du lac était rigolote et amusante.
    la danse de Mikhaila était jolie et son costume était magnifique.
    Le film du cinéma était rigolo mais il y a trop de suspens à la fin.
    Mais j’espère qu’il y aura un “Moi moche et méchant 4”
    j’ai bien aimé quand on jouait aux boules au bord du lac.
    cela était rigolo quand on faisait les chevaux et que quelqu’un nous montait dessus.
    quand on allait sur la scène pour chanter des chanson de Black M
    ou quand on dansé sur la chanson de Patrick Sebastien
    ou quand on dansait la danse des pouces. 🙂
    c’était trop bien !!!!!!!
    Zoé d’ANNECY

    1. Bonjour!

      Oui, c’etait trop bien! Le nom du chanson est “Rather Be” par Pentatonix.

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