Focus on what you have control over, like speaking and listening skills. Don’t worry about your accent because it’s not a big deal. [Image courtesy of Snob Affair]
It will require work of you and it won’t come overnight, but it’s within your control and it’s achievable.
Last week in Montréal, I overheard two women, one francophone and one anglophone, speaking to each other in French. The two women didn’t know one another. The francophone asked the anglophone for directions, and they spoke together for almost two minutes.
I listened in on their conversation. I’ve developed a very bad habit of listening in on other people’s conversations since I started this blog.
What struck me about the conversation was that the anglophone had an English accent so thick that you could have sliced it with a knife — and yet, the francophone did not switch to English on her. They spoke in French only.
The anglophone, although she had a very heavy accent, seemed reasonably comfortable speaking spontaneously in French. Admittedly, I don’t know if the francophone was bilingual.
I know another woman, also anglophone, who has a very strong accent when speaking French. I don’t know her very well, but I can recall four times recently where she spoke in French with a bilingual francophone who did not switch to English on her.
She may speak with a strong English accent, but she’s able to speak French spontaneously, and I’ve never noted any listening comprehension problems.
I have observed other instances of this with different anglophones in Montréal. Although they had an obvious English accent — sometimes heavy, sometimes not — there was no language switch from French to English.
Yes, I know this is all anecdotal evidence. That’s because: OffQc.
One of the most frequent complaints I hear from anglophone learners of French is that bilingual francophones always switch to English as soon as the English accent is detected.
I too used to believe that the language switch was caused by a heavy English accent. I don’t believe this anymore.
I believe now that what causes the language switch is the impression that you’re struggling to find your words (speaking problem), or that you don’t understand what’s being said (listening problem).
This is great news for you.
It means that you can chill out about your accent, which is pretty much impossible to eliminate entirely for us adult language learners, and focus on the stuff that you have much more control over — speaking and listening.
How do you improve your speaking and listening?
I’ll let you in on a secret.
The best way to improve your speaking and listening is by… speaking and listening. 🙂
You’ll become great at whatever you spend large amounts of time doing. Spend your time memorising verb conjugations, and you’ll become great at memorising verb conjugations. Spend your time speaking and listening instead, and you’ll become great at speaking and listening.
As adults, sometimes we think that we’re not ready to speak with others in our new language because we still have trouble recalling words. We fear that we speak too slowly — and it may even be true. However, no amount of independent preparation will ever cure this entirely.
The only way to become a faster speaker with the ability to recall words immediately is through speaking with others.
Until you begin putting yourself in situations where you’re obligated to speak spontaneously in French, you’ll always be a slow speaker searching for your words. And those bilingual francophones will switch to English on you.
The same goes for listening. I don’t remember who said this, but it’s not the native speakers who speak too fast; it’s you the learner who listens too slowly.
Until you begin putting yourself in situations where you’re listening to large amounts of spoken French, you’ll always be a slow listener with a look of bewilderment on your face. And those bilingual francophones will switch to English on you.
So, the best way to get those bilinguals to stop switching to English is to improve your speaking and listening by doing lots of speaking and listening.
You can worry about perfecting your accent later. Or never.
And this is great news because speaking and listening are things you can start improving right now. Yes, you’ve got work ahead of you, but it’s your call.
_ _ _
In the meantime, here are a couple essential phrases to learn for the times when you’re confronted with the language switch:
Nooon! Continue de me parler en français! L’accent québécois, je trouve ça tellement hot! Noooo! Keep speaking to me in French! I think the québécois accent is so hot!
Tu vas devoir me parler en français, tsé. Sinon, tu risques de pogner un ticket. You’re gonna have to speak to me in French, you know. Otherwise, you might get a ticket.
Who knows, maybe you’ll even hope for the language switch just to try those out on someone. 😉
Amazing post 🙂 Et ouais, je voudrais utiliser ces deux phrases un jour! Haha, ça serait malade! 😀
Amuse-toi bien, ¡che!
I envy people learning English because there is so much infrastructure for learning English. I used to tutor Chinese people learning English and they’d all arrive with their little electronic dictionary gadgets that pronounced the words as well as giving the meaning.
It is really hard to find Quebec French spoken with written backup on a variety of subjects, except for your site. It is even hard to find Quebec French dictionaries; I find Le Robert Junior, North American edition, the most useful.
I am learning German as well as French. Deutsche Welle has a huge amount of spoken material with written backup. I can listen to German even when I`m tired following the written backup. When I`m fresh, I just listen to the German.
It really gives me a bridge to real life conversation.
That bridge is lacking for Quebec French. I tend to make my own material – my own private dictionaries and recorded material when I find a speaker. But it is certainly slower than learning German.
Finding French friends is a great idea. But I am studying full-time (not French) and just do what I have time for, at the moment. Sometimes just a few minutes a day, now and then. So sometimes just listening to spoken material on the internet with written backup to check when there are problems is all I have time for.
You’ll have the problem you described with any smaller variety of a major language. There is no shortage of material for world French, world Spanish, world English (if I can call them that). But you’ll have trouble finding learning material for Québécois French, Chilean Spanish and Australian English. Publishers just don’t find it as lucrative to develop materials for smaller varieties. As for having limited time, do your best with the time you’ve got. Nobody expects any more of you than what you can reasonably handle.
I hold conversations with imaginary people to see where my vocabulary lets me down. 🙂 (Really — and no, j’suis pas folle!)
I agree with Beverley that this is one of the few resources around for Quebecois French. Laura at about.com is nice, but there’s not much help there either.
I’m trying to track down a widget that was supposed to provide Quebecois pronunciation — if i can find it, I’d love to know how accurate it is.
Down here there just aren’t many people to talk to/listen to.
It doesn’t have to be a francophone from Québec. It would be ideal, but a francophone from anywhere will make a huge difference for you. Are you in the US? Yes, it’s more difficult to find other francophones in this case. Try Skype. Do the best you can with your particular situation.
I found the “French Canadienne” voice I was thinking of. It’s here — you have to pick “French (Canada)” and the voice’s “name” is Louise. I’d like to know how accurate they are … http://www.acapela-group.com/voices/demo/
I’m considering joining the local Alliance Francaise (when I can afford it — no cheap!)
Hey, that’s cool 😉 It’s not terribly accurate, but it can help give you an idea. I wouldn’t rely entirely on it though: some words that I tried at random sound wrong (or more like world French than Canadian French). It tends to work better if you just check the pronunciation for a single word. At the sentence level, the intonation sounds wrong. Even when just typing one word though, it didn’t sound particularly québécois. But it might still be useful to you just to get an idea.
Well, I could not have agreed more with you (even though I did not like what you said) about SPEAK and stop just listening, reading, etc. I have been working on my French for 43 years now. My problem… I live in California. I never run into francophones. I am also a snob. I do not like thick American accents in French, so I do not like beginners, although I tutor one. I have only recently become interested in quebecois French because my daughter is marrying a Quebecker and has been living in Montreal for the past 5 years. My future SIL’s family does not want to speak French with me. They outright refuse. They want to use their good English. Since I am 66, I do not even care anymore. My solution to this problem is to say to people I meet in stores, the library, etc., je suis ici pour travailler mon francais! (This does not work with my belle famille.) I refuse to speak anything but French to any other francophones while in their country. I am sometimes slow (even in English), but I know French (from France)… my relatives are French. And I have lived there. The weirdest thing happens to me lately in France. Shop keepers who speak wretched English try to use their English on me. I NEVER LET THEM! I give them the same line… I am in France, so speak French! I NEVER let them get away with switching for me in France, and rarely in Quebec (unless they are friends of my SIL). I remember when I was young, the French adored that I spoke French well. I even remember a TSA agent in Montreal who said something like Enfin! (qqn qui parle français). But that is kind of rare. I find they understand everything I say, but I do not always understand what they say in Quebec, especially if they have a thick accent. In France I understand 99% (with proper names my biggest problem). Anyway, for young people, things like Skype are good. I do talk to my relatives in France on the phone, but speaking takes so much energy and I have so much to say, and I want to say it quickly. The best thing in the whole world for me is to find a francophone who DOES NOT SPEAK ANY ENGLISH! Then I am confident and totally in heaven!
Even if a francophone begins speaking in English, you can continue in French. It doesn’t have to be a battle with the other person, though. Just speak in French and let the other speak in English. If you’re uncomfortable with that, speak in a blend of English and French. You can do this with people you know to let them get used to hearing you use French without coming on too strong. As for the family members, if it’s just absolutely not going to work, let it go. There are lots of other francophones out there.
After having everyone speak to me in English, I actually end up becoming less and less confident (and more likely to have people speak English to me, as per your post). Every time it happens, I feel like more of a failure. At work I’m the only anglophone and even when I speak French to people (short phrases, no hesitation), they speak English back.
I don’t want to give up, but I am very frustrated.
I hear you. 😉 You’ll probably need to “retrain” them at work — if they’re not used to hearing you speak French, then try incorporating small amounts of French into what you say, little by little, rather than all at once.
If your confidence has eroded, you’ll need to start being more assertive. When they switch to English on you, it doesn’t mean that you must as well. Continue in French and see what happens. They may not switch back to French after all, but at the very least you can demonstrate to yourself that you can stand your ground without being bossy. You need this for your self-esteem.
You don’t have to do this during every encounter, and you can begin in small doses, but do start. Confidence is earned.
And besides, you have just as much freedom of choice as they do. Remember that.
Hi, I have an opposite scenario and I wonder if you could cast some light upon my confusion. A while ago, I was boarding on a flight to Toronto and was listening to a bilingual Francophone mother (standing behind me) conversing with the flight attendant in English. They were sharing the regular baby-awing and a few laughs. I decided to join and making a comment of the baby’s feet. And all of a sudden, the mother switched to French and I awkwardly carried the rest of the language in French and not knowing what happened. She was pretty nice to me. But why the switch?! It’s not like we had to speak in code so the flight attendant wouldn’t eavesdrop our small talk?! I have your regular Asian face, and I predominantly speak English with a slight Southern Ontarian accent by choice. (My French has a Slight Quebec ring to it.) She’d never seen me speaking French before. What was that?
Later when I came back once, when I asked someone in front of me to borrow her pen in French, she looked through her bag, and looked at me in a very French-sounding English, and said, “I don’t know.” And I was just bewildered, though as as bewildered as the scenario above.
I’m not sure; were you on a flight from Montréal to Toronto maybe, and she just assumed you were a francophone traveller like her?