It took me considerably longer to master speaking a foreign language, although I was able to learn French fast. I’ve always had a sort of natural facility for languages, as a lot of people think it is hard to learn how to speak French. I grew up speaking German and English in my household, so I was already bilingual before I even tried speaking French. I actually started off pretty casually. One of my friends was a native French speaker, and she agreed to be my conversation partner. Besides that, I used an online French course and some software that had been recommended to me. It definitely helped to master the basics in my spare time. I did not really have time to take another course at that moment, so it was nice to be able to learn the really simple stuff on my own.
Still, I never mastered how to speak French until I finally took a course overseas. I did a study abroad program, staying in a French academy in Paris. It was one of the best experiences of my life. If you can really immerse yourself in the culture, learning to speak a foreign language is easy. When you have to know how to speak French just to get by, order food, or get directions, you can pick it up pretty quickly. The thing is, you don’t even really need to work on it that much. The desire to learn is so strong when you’re trying to immerse yourself in a culture that it comes almost naturally.
My sister had a lot more trouble learning how to speak French, and I know her experience isn’t uncommon. Learning one can be extremely difficult, if you have a natural affinity for foreign languages. Still, studying French abroad is probably the best way to go, even for these people. It is true that the more you work on something, the faster you pick it up. It will take you no time at all to get the basics down, if you work on a new language for several hours every day. You might never master it and speak truly fluently, but you can at least make yourself understood. After taking a course in France, even my sister could speak fluent conversational French – well, fairly fluent anyway. People can tell that she is not a native speaker, but she never has trouble getting her point across.
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