WHY THINKING IN FRENCH IS A BAD IDEA AND HOW TO CHANGE YOUR WAYS
So, have you ever been told that you’ll speak better the language if you think in French?
Believe it or not, this is a myth that could prevent you from progressing!
Whether it’s sweating the small stuff or learning to speak French, thinking right can be a recipe for success!
Check out the article below for more insight into the power of thought and watch the video for some French worth thinking about!
(This week: the verb PENSER – to think)
You probably are one of the many people whose goal is to think in French.
And that is definitely a good idea. Or is it?
Let’s see what this goal does for you.
FIRST, it motivates you to learn vocabulary. Words. Lots of them. Maybe you’ll even challenge yourself to learn hundreds of words / day (I know someone who prides themselves with this record).
I’m tempted to make a case that you don’t need too many words to make sophisticated conversation, but more about this another time. Let’s continue…
SECOND, it motivates you to learn verbs – and you need special motivation for this. Because verbs are boring. Or are they? If you use the sense memory technique (something I teach in my classes), you can make verb conjugation as dramatic and fun as a Shakespearean play.
Also, you won’t be one of those people using « ON » in order to avoid verb conjugation. You may want, however, to know how to avoid difficult verb tenses, until you get comfortable with them (but this secret in another article too).
THIRD, it will make you aim high, and motivate you to identify yourself with the French. Very noble goal.
But what if you can’t make it?
What if, no matter how much you try, you keep thinking in English and you rarely end up thinking in French? If ever.
In this case, I suggest – just for kicks – that you notice what exactly you are doing, if you push yourself hard enough.
FIRST, you may have the tendency to speak fast. Great idea – if you make yourself clear, that is. But we tend to speak fast either when we are not sure of what we say or how to say it, and we hope to get it over with. To sneak out of trouble. The more we are unsure about the way to speak correctly, the faster we will speak, and we end up telling a story that nobody understands all that well.
SECOND, you may end up avoiding conversation altogether, just because you don’t think in French. And, because everybody told you that you should, seeing that you keep translating frustrates you so much, until you quit trying.
Let me remind you something here.
40% of the English vocabulary comes from French or directly from Latin, so they sound quite similarly. That’s a lot of words you already know.
Of course, the pronunciation of the words spelled identically can be very different in the two languages, but I can tell you all about pronunciation in another article.
May I ask you this: why are you avoiding to use the biggest asset you have to possibly speak at least 40% correctly in French: your mother tongue? (If English is not your mother tongue, but you know it better than French, it still applies.)
Trying to avoid the “false friends” prevents you from enjoying all those good friends. Share on XBut this is not the biggest damage.
You may end up considering yourself a worse French speaker than you really are.
And, in conversation, confidence is everything because, without it, we make the most obvious choice: we shut up and start nodding.
The trick here, in fact, is not to aim to think in French.
Not even a little.
Confused? Let me explain.
Thinking in French is the brain’s shortcut to find the words quickly, when we speak too much and too fast in French.
The brain doesn’t think in words, it thinks in images. When we make conversation, we only describe the images we hold in our mind’s eye with the words that come to us. While you are a beginner, you have to think in words (vocabulary, verb conjugations, etc.) and the brain has no need to create a shortcut: you are too slow.
Try to speak fast before you have enough practice, and it’s like running before you learn to walk. An accident waiting to happen.
But place yourself in an immersive experience, where you have to survive with food and shelter, or better yet, surround yourself by French children, and you’ll be forced to pick up the language and to speak intelligibly fast – otherwise, you may end up with some angry childless parents on your hands. In a few short months, you’ll surprise yourself thinking in French.
What’s a better solution? Be nice to yourself, and drop the idea that you have to think in French, before it naturally happens.
Thinking in French is not a goal, it’s a “collateral damage” that comes and goes, depending on how much you use the language. The function creates the organ.
Practice it daily, and your thoughts will follow suit.
Stop, and you’ll be back to your English self.
Now it is your turn!
Tell us in the comments below, what do you do to think more in 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.
Immerse yourself as you FINALLY reach your dream of becoming bilingual, learn to speak Parisian French on Skype and BREAK your language barrier!
…and now, please SHARE this article with your friends. They’ll love you for it! : )
Always in your corner,
Llyane
Photo credit: Marc Nouss
So true, I tend to avoid conversation for fear I will not be able to conjugate verbs or keep up. I like your point to not try to speak fast, and not be understood, but to go slow as the brain catches up. I love your point, “Thinking in French is not a goal, it’s a “collateral damage” that comes and goes, depending on how much you use the language.”
Thanks, Jul’s – always a pleasure to have you here! 🙂
Hi Llyane,
I’ve just found your post in a common Linkedin Group we both belong to.
Now, as a French native speaker and as someone who’s been speaking English for 22 years of my life, I’m not sure if I agree that too many words sound similar in English and French.
I would say, they do and they don’t.
By that I mean if I say the word “limitation” in French and in English, even though they spell the same they do sound very differently. They are tons of words that are indeed similar, but the English pronunciation is so different than the French one.
Just my thoughts.
Hello, Sylviane
You are perfectly right.
However, the point of this article is not the pronunciation – that will be discussed in another post.
The point here is that many words are similarly (or identically) spelled, so we can know what they mean.
Keep in mind that this article is for beginners or people who force themselves to ‘think’ in French, which is close to impossible as a goal in its own.
Using the English language as a support, allowing the ‘thinking in English’ as a tool (rather than dreading it), learning when one can use it and when they can’t brought, in my experience, a huge relief and, as a consequence, faster and more enjoyable conversation in French earlier in the game.
Lovely seeing you here, and thank you for your visit! 🙂
Hi Llyane, I love this article and saw myself in most everything you said. I do have a question, though. Is there a difference between “thinking in French” and thinking of what you want to say in French as opposed to thinking of what you want to say in English and then translating in your head to French before you speak? If I try to think of what I want to say in French, then I find I stay within my vocabulary limits but if I think of what I want to say or write in English, I am quickly over my head because I am adhering to English expressions not to mention vocabulary that is beyond what I have the French words for.
It’s a good point, Debbie!
The article is for the beginners who aim to think in French and completely avoid English in the process. What you experience is what I describe in the article as ‘too much and too fast’ for the brain to switch from English to French in conversation. Therefore, you will find easy to ‘think in French’. However, when you do think in English, use it for as long as it helps. My point is to work with what comes naturally: sometimes will be thinking in French, sometimes will be thinking in English.
Thanks so much!
Llyane
Absolutely! Thinking in a different language IS collateral damage of continuous practice. I find that now that I speak English most of the time I also think in English and I have been forgetting Spanish.
But I do LOVE the idea of a French immersion! How exciting to be able to experience French culture in America.
Yes, Victoria, I spoke with many people who forgot their mother tongue out of lack of practice.
I will be using your tube clip in class very soon. thanks!!
My pleasure, Catherine!