Corpus Callosum: Behavior
How to Speak Your Target Language with 5 Effective Methods
“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
Oh no, I panicked, what did she just say?
I greeted the boulangerie worker with a delighted Bonjour and asked if I could have un pain au chocolat, s’il vous plaît, with the proper gender agreement and everything! But then she asked me a question I’d never heard before or seen in the simulated conversations in my foreign language learning content.
C’est tout ?
After living in the USA for my entire life, I moved to Paris, France, for work. I had taken some french classes in high school and university, so I was sure that I could handle my French.
I was so sure of this that I walked to a nearby bakery on my first day of work, ready to put my “ordering in a bakery” knowledge from my classes to use.
This wasn’t in the textbook…
It turns out she was just asking if my lone pain au chocolat was all I wanted or if I wanted anything else. However, I hadn’t expected her to say that and faltered an appropriate response. After a string of French conversations that left my ego battered and bruised, I started to see gaps in my knowledge.
Through the help of google, youtube, and some lovely language partners, I’ve become more confident speaking French and have improved quickly since working on these foundational but valuable skills.
1. Learn how to make the sounds of the language
Your knowledge of phonetics at the beginning can be basic enough to gain a grasp of the language and utilize it. However, perfecting your phonetics is a marathon and is essential to leveling up your speaking ability in your target language.
As you learn to form the sounds and words properly, your ear will get used to recognizing them in speech.
If you’re like me and find yourself in the country with your target language and need to use it to function every day, you can’t spend your daily study sessions only practicing pronunciation. The goal is to spend a little time focusing solely on pronunciation and then applying that to spoken phrases.
2. Learn to anticipate common questions and provide common responses via “chunking.”
As language Youtuber Lindsey Bottes puts it, “Chunking is learning entire set phrases, rather than little vocabulary words out of context.” We can remember new words much easier when they’re already in a form where we can readily use them.
Many language learning textbooks will have sections with “simulated conversations,” but as I learned in the boulangerie, these conversations don’t always authentically portray conversations. Conversations will, mostly, follow a generic structure, as you might have seen in your textbooks, but not always.
If the boulangerie was busy, the person will probably be keen to know exactly what I want and try to get me out in a friendly but quick fashion. If it was empty, the person might ask how I’m doing or comment on the weather or current politics.
Chunking is learning entire set phrases, rather than little vocabulary words out of context. — Lindsey Bottes
Focus on building your vocabulary via learning groups of words and common response structures.
Start by doing this: Type “French conversations boulangerie” in google or youtube for examples. Expose yourself to different videos and scripts so you can feel more prepared and confident going into basic conversations.
When you’re feeling more comfortable, you can note down useful phrases from tv shows and movies in your target language.
I like using the extension Language Learning with Netflix to shown French and English subtitles for media that is more difficult for me to understand.
3. Practice the 20 most common verbs in past, present, and future tenses with and without negation.
Most conversations can be made with a limited vocabulary, and verbs are superstars of sentences.
If you can learn to properly use a verb to describe something that did or did not happen in the past, present, or future, then you will have a strong foundation for forming entire sentences.
When you learn the proper conjugations, don’t simply memorize them via a list. Memorize a verb’s conjugation via the chunking method. This is better practice for your brain to retrieve the correct verb form when creating a sentence.
Start by doing this: Search “most common verbs” and your target language. Next, type the verb into an online dictionary and look at the conjugated forms. Write down a sentence that you could say in everyday interaction, or look for common example sentences online.
I like using WordReference for verbs, but there are many other conjugation dictionaries available.
4. Don’t know what vocab you don’t know? Use Fluent Forever’s 625-word guide to get started.
Gabriel Wyner, Fluent Forever blog's Founder and CEO, made a list of the first 625 words to learn when learning a new language. These are supposed to be the most common words and will get you pretty far in most conversations. The trick is to get these under your belt as soon as possible, via chunking, to make conversing much more reflexive and much less anxiety-inducing.
5. Use the learning style that works best for you
If you’ve studied things before, you probably know your ideal learning methods. It’s also better to take various studying techniques and not confine yourself to one learning style or approach.
Be honest about what works for you and what doesn’t.
Maybe you work better with writing these phrases repeatedly before saying them. Perhaps using flashcards to recall a term in your target language is more beneficial. The key is to keep practicing and producing speech each day. Whatever road or method you take to get there is fine, as long as it works for you.
Oui, ce sera tout
I forced my stomach down from my throat and just said, Juste le pain au chocolat after an awkward silence. It worked out in the end, but my ego was bruised enough to realize I needed to find a way to learn basic communication skills efficiently and effectively.
That was over one year ago. I have a long way to go before I start sounding and feeling like a native French speaker. But now, I can walk into conversations with a decent word bank, prepared phrases, improved pronunciation, and less anxiety.
