Want to Understand French Faster? Start Talking First.

WANT TO UNDERSTAND FRENCH FASTER? START TALKING FIRST.

“I just want to understand what people are saying.”

That’s one of the most common goals I hear from French learners—and it makes total sense.

But what most people don’t realize is this:

Understanding doesn’t start with listening. It starts with speaking.

And that changes everything.

The fastest way to improve your understanding is actually to speak first.

Why?

Because when you say a word or phrase out loud, your brain creates a strong neural connection between the sound, the meaning, and the physical action of saying it.

Later, when you hear someone else say that same word or phrase in a conversation…

You recognize it more easily.

It’s already familiar — because your mouth has said it.

This is called production-to-comprehension priming — a proven learning principle.

It’s like when you learn someone’s name by saying it aloud — you’re far more likely to remember it when they say it again.

Think of it this way:

“If it’s already come out of your mouth, your brain is faster at catching it when it comes out of someone else’s.”

That’s why in our work together, we focus on speaking first — even before you understand every word that others might use.

You’re not just practicing speaking.

You’re training your ear to pick up those same words when they appear around you — and that’s how real-life understanding begins to click into place.

That is why I need to explain to you in English the patterns that I notice in your speech — so that you can become self-sufficient quickly and apply those patterns in real conversations.

Because once you understand the structure behind what you’re saying — not just the words — you begin to recognize those same structures when other people speak.

So instead of feeling lost when you hear French being spoken around you…

You start to catch phrases you’ve already used.

You recognize grammar patterns you’ve practiced.

And you understand not just isolated words, but full ideas in context — because your brain has already mapped them through speaking.

This is how we flip the process:

Speak first. Understand faster.

And this is what makes our sessions so effective — we don’t wait for comprehension to magically appear.

We build it from the inside out.

Why listening alone doesn’t build awareness and comprehension:

Because passive listening doesn’t activate your brain the same way speaking does.

When you’re just listening — especially without context or emotional engagement — your brain can’t always tell which words matter, how they connect, or what to focus on.

It hears a stream of sounds, but without a framework, it can’t organize them into meaning fast enough.

That’s why people often say, “I understand when it’s slow… but when natives talk, I get lost.”

Passive listening keeps you on the outside of the language.

But when you speak first — even if it’s slow or imperfect — your brain is actively engaged:

You’re choosing words

You’re forming structure

You’re attaching meaning

You’re physically producing the sounds

That full-body, full-brain activation is what builds awareness — and it gives your brain something to anchor to when others speak.

So when you hear that phrase again in a café, a conversation, or a movie…

Your brain goes, “Ah! That’s familiar.”

Because it lives in your body now, not just your ears.

And that’s why the work we do together is designed to build speaking-to-understand fluency, not just passive exposure.

In conclusion, the formula is:

If you want better comprehension → you need clearer speaking → which comes from recognizing patterns → and to do that quickly, we start by explaining them in English.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Tell us in the comments below – what is YOUR biggest comprehension challenge?

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.