Readers' Suggestions

On page 1 I shared my ideas for practicing your French every day. Now let's take a look at some of the great practice ideas suggested on the À la française forum. Look these over and then visit the forum to share your ideas.


I challenge myself by picking a few objects around me and playing "I spy" with myself or others around me who also speak French. For example, I see an umbrella. Using circumlocution I describe the item without using any of the words such as pluie to give it away. (Merci à SamanthaCarr !)


Because I'm so self-conscious about speaking French, I find myself speaking it to my mother who speaks no French. A live person allows me to put myself out there and I can practice my pronounciation without feeling so uncomfortable. Speaking to some one live forces me to form the word order in my mind along with the pronounciation. I'll say it out loud in her presence then switch over to English so that she can understand me.

I make sure to find things in French that really interest me so that it doesn't feel like school. The internet is a great source because there are so many avenues to explore. I read reviews of things I'm interested in like books and movies. I go to French language message boards that deal with subjects I'm interested in.

I've also started a journal which is slow going but fun because I get to write about whatever I'm interested in.

A couple of weeks ago I was focused on reading my favorite book translated into French. Then I found myself focusing on memorizing vocabulary and phrases with coup in them.

The forum provides me with tons of ideas to dive into and explore so that my learning experience never has to become too tedious.

And lastly I make sure to take time off when I feel like it so that I don't get burned out. (Merci à lrh65 !)


I have books on tape in French and I listen to them while driving. I also have a Teddy bear given to me by a French friend. When you press his jaws, paws or stomach he says things like Je m'endors... bonne nuit or Aïe ! Ça fait mal ... his left paw says Bonjour. Every morning, I touch his paw, he says Bonjour and I proceed to tell him, in French, what my plans for the day are. It gets me "in the mood" for French for the remainder of the day! (Merci à InfoSteph !)


I try to skim the French newspaper Le Monde on the Web several times a week. If I have time, I'll read one of the articles out loud, which is difficult because the stories are written in fairly sophisticated written French, not in the style of a newscast. Occasionally I play their aural stories.

I get a daily and weekly horoscope in French from Yahoo. They're just as accurate as when presented in English, :-) but they usually have a lot current French expressions in them.

A couple of weeks ago I rented Finding Nemo. After watching other special features on the DVD, I realized that it had a French subtitle option. I played the movie with the subtitles and read them out loud over the English. I did that for about 20 minutes before having to return the DVD.

I listen to a series of Hachette pronunciation tapes, Phonétique, in the background. I try to do the exercises, but they sometimes are very difficult even when I can give them my full attention and it's easy to get frustrated.

I try to keep on in the background, Bouillon de Culture, (a program, which like its predecessor, Apostrophes, I will always try to like but never succeed). It usually airs a couple of times on Thursday. If the International Film Channel or the Sundance Channel is showing a movie I've already seen, I'll try to keep that on in the background to see if I can pick up the French.

At one point, I set my cell phone menus to the French option.

I often try to think about the French equivalent of something and articulate it, but I'm often worried about speaking in "phony French" and/or making mistakes, which would be easy to do, as I haven't undertaken the formal study of French in quite some time. (Merci à guermantes !)

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