Learning French blog

Learning French is like learning to ski

If you've ever tried to ski you'll remember how scary it was the first time you put on your skis, tried to stand up, and looked down the slope. All sorts of scenaios play through your mind: you're going to make a fool of yourself, you're going to fall over and break your leg, you're going to lose all control and so on.

When you are learning a language things can feel just the same. It feels like there's a huge barrier, a wall, a mountain to climb, and if you try to communicate then you're going to say the wrong thing and make a fool of yourself.

Here's a simple route to get over this:

Acceptance

Just accept that you are going to make mistakes, get stuck, not find the right words, or not understand what people are talking about. That's OK, and completely normal.

Little wins

Instead of worrying about not understand everything, or saying what you want to say perfectly, just celebrate each small part of a conversation you do understand, and every time you are able to say what you want to, even with mistakes.

It's only snow!

The best way to learn to ski is to say to yourself: "It's only snow, if I fall over then I can just get up and try again". Try using the same attitude with speaking French. Just try to say what you want  to, however you can, with whatever words you know. No, it won't be perfect, but if you "fall over", just get up and try agian. Each little win will help you move forward and progress with your level of language and your proficiency.