this is how you can think in French and speak naturally

THIS IS HOW YOU CAN SPEAK NATURALLY WITHOUT THINKING IN FRENCH

So, are you thinking correctly in English to help your confident French conversation?

If this is what you’re asking yourself, you’re not alone.

I received this question from Joseph, in the J’Ouellette Facebook group:

“How can one think in French and speak naturally without translating words from English?”

This is a question that comes to me very frequently, in different forms – even yesterday, from Inna. Generally, everybody wants to be ‘thinking in French’.

This problem comes from the myth that first we have to stop thinking in English and everything else will easily follow.

If we’re thinking in French, we’ll be able to find our words easier, the sentences will flow naturally and we’ll become fluent. That’s what people think.

Want to feel more confident speaking French BEFORE you start thinking in French?

Read the article below for my 3-step bullet-proof technique, and watch the video for some French worth thinking about.

(This week: the verb PENSER – to think)

Think in French right now.
Really, step away from my blog and try it for a minute.

Was it easy?

Of course not!

We can’t think, walk, breathe or speak easily in a different manner than we are naturally habituated.

We can train ourselves to do it, but it won’t come naturally.

It takes time and practice.

So, expecting to be thinking in French BEFORE we speak it is like putting the cart in front of the horse.

We can only start thinking in French the moment we speak it long enough and fast enough.

That means that, before we are speaking the language fluidly, we won’t be able to think in it.

Is that a heart breaking news for you?

It shouldn’t be.

Because we have to accept that this is how the human brain works.

The brain is lazy, and it will find shortcuts (a.k.a become efficient) only if forced. Not a minute before.

If it’s easier to translate from English into French, that’s what he’ll do.

And it’s much easier for the brain to go from something familiar (English) to something still unfamiliar (French), so it’ll do the transfer faster than if we force it to go full on into the (still) unfamiliar territory of the French language.

Once we start speaking too fast for it (or too long), Monsieur le Cerveau will raise his tiny arms up and say: this is too tiring, I’d rather stay in French than switching this quickly from English to French.

And that doesn’t happen consistently.

First, he’ll stay in the French zone for the words that he practiced the most. He’ll quickly go back in the English zone if translating is more comfortable.

And so, the periods of time you’re ‘thinking in French’ will be more and more frequent, the more you speak the language.

There are a few steps
that our brain goes through until we finally start thinking in French.

Don’t be afraid, our brain is like a little computer, or like a dog. 🙂 We’ll call him Gershwin (get it? An American in Paris… not just a pretty face, eh?)

What he, Gershwin tries to do is to be most efficient for the task at hand.

So, how should we deal with the inconvenience of thinking in English?

Step 1: don’t think in French

First, and the most important step is to NOT focus on it, rather to become skilled at translating from English.

Thinking in French is a process managed by the brain and we have little control over its timing.

Trying to control when we start thinking in French is like pulling your hair to help it grow faster.

Typically, we start by thinking in English (mother tongue) and skillfully translate while we speak.

The techniques that I share in the BILINGUAL Extensif program help you become a master at translating from English to French, and give the impression that you’re thinking in French.

Not bad, right?

Step 2: be patient

Later on, the brain starts to create a shortcut and bypasses the translation.

But it does this gradually and not in a linear progression.

First will be familiar words and phrases.

Then will come the rest of the language little by little.

Step 3: be clear

The most important point to remember is that, whether you translate from English or you’re thinking in French, your CLARITY of communication is what counts, regardless of the process you have backstage 😉

You focus on this, and let “Gershwin” manage the timing as well as the speed of your speech.

Let me tell you a story.

Before I started to coach French, I was trying to speak English without an accent, and I couldn’t do it for years.

One day, I realized that I should try to speak ONLY English to avoid any influence from my mother tongue.

After 2 years, I succeeded to have a clean English accent, but I wasn’t happy.

I had become another North-American who speaks only English, and I was on my way to lose all the advantages of speaking other languages.

So, I changed gears and I went back to being a polyglot. But little did I know that I had lost a large part of my mother tongue.

Now I had to find a solution. And quickly. So, I started to work in an all-French school with kids between 3-8 years old.

These little people are not waiting for me to think… in French. They are quick and are easily getting in trouble if I’m not on my game.

BUT I was surprised to notice that it took me a couple of months to go back to my natural fluency.

If I lost part of my language after not speaking it for 2 years, you can relax and focus on what matters: keep French in your lifestyle and leave ‘thinking in French’ to the best friend you have, your best friend, ‘Gershwin’.

I share this technique with all my clients, and if you find it useful, I would like to invite you to check out the exquisite French experience I created for you to celebrate a new beginning: the first time you’re relaxing about your thinking and YOUR first confident French conversation.

This way, you will practice this technique so that it becomes natural to you, and so that you can jump into the conversation more easily and worry less about struggling for hearing the words when you are speaking with the natives.

Now it is your turn!

Tell us in the comments below: what is your bullet-proof technique to sustain a conversation when you don’t think in French, while in a conversation with the French?

Let me guess.

Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?

Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.