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OK French life is bureaucratic and people who run businesses don't seem to like opening them much, and I am still waiting for my French driving licence, and it's pissed down constantly in 'the second-sunniest place in France' this year, but it's largely a much kinder and more socialist society, I'm settled, working again and the future we had planned for ourselves is once again possible.
How did you find the language barrier? It's something we really want to do but my French is rusty at best. I'm happy to work hard at getting good but reading A Year In Provence has left me with a fear of the grammatical awkwardnesses.
ReekBlefs-
Well, how are you generally with languages? As you're a musician, your musical ear should help you in being able to pick up spoken everyday French, including a good accent, pretty quickly. Spoken French is fairly different from what you may have learned in school (although it varies considerably between the Paris banlieue and la France profonde), but the basics are pretty simple, and France has the not inconsiderable advantage that they don't speak English there as well as they do in Germany (although that's obviously also changed a lot with the Internet), so people might be more willing to help you improve than elsewhere where they'd rather practise their English. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you needed French for your job; that would obviously require much greater proficiency.
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My own French is GCSE grade C plus French movies and music. Frankly it wasn’t good enough, and I’m really not good talking to new people, even in English. Round here spoken French is a patois with a strong injection of Occitan. Speaking to a Parisian is so much easier.
But luckily my wife is fluent and did all the talking at first. Plus there are a lot of native English speakers here so I wasn’t isolated. It’s been a year and I can basically read anything in French now, I can mostly follow French TV and films with French subtitles rather than English. I’m getting more confident in spoken French and have had successful conversations with French people. Though I can do a good accent I find it better not to as if I do speak too well the reply is too fast for me to understand!
I have 4 years before I have to be good enough to pass the citizenship exam. I think I’ll make it. I know people who have been here for decades who don’t speak a word. Life is so much shitter for them.
Oliver Schick
bq
For balance my wife and I moved to France just before the withdrawal agreement came to an end, and I very quickly settled and decided that I never want to come back to the UK. I still haven't changed my mind, especially after returning to the UK pack up the rest of our belongings for the removers. If Brexit made me want to leave the UK, Covid took away everything that would have made me stay.
OK French life is bureaucratic and people who run businesses don't seem to like opening them much, and I am still waiting for my French driving licence, and it's pissed down constantly in 'the second-sunniest place in France' this year, but it's largely a much kinder and more socialist society, I'm settled, working again and the future we had planned for ourselves is once again possible.