Language Learning

As I try to speak more French I increasingly find that I am half way through a sentence and I realise I don’t know the French word I want to say. I ‘um’ and ‘ah’ a bit, trying to retrieve the word from my brain (although in reality it has probably never been there in the first place) and then in desperation I say the word in English, with an inflection that implies a question. I am surprised at how many times the person I am speaking to says ‘Oui’ and then repeats the very same word but with a French pronunciation. This week, using this technique, I have learnt the French for:

flexible

complication

measure

economic

social

individual

Another technique I find helpful for remembering words is to think of another English word meaning (almost) the same thing I want to say. So:

To ask is demander

To stay is rester

To look is regarder

And so on. But my favourite French word so far is the word for raincoat – it is impermeable, which is just what you need a raincoat to be…