• 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.

  • 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.

  • Don't worry about the language - you'll pick it up quickly (again). I studied at school (D in A-level) and then didn't really speak it for 20+ years... I moved here 5 years ago and now I'm native (I just got my nationality) and working in highly technical areas where communication skills are essential (medicine and research). I made a big effort when I got here to not meet English-speaking people, instead trying to speak only with people in French. It was super hard!! And quite lonely too... Now I'm much better so I'm trying to expand my friend circle (as most of mine were back in London, difficult to see with all the travel shenanigans associated with the pandemic) hence have been branching out again to other ex-pats. And if I lived my life over, I'd totally do it again, I love it here and a recent visit back to Blighty only confirmed that to me. Hence, I'm heading south for winter to spend on my own in the sun (and with some friends) rather than going home to do the family thing. Yes, my folks are disappointed, but really I find the UK too scary at the moment.... I do know there are good things there too, though ;-)

    (obviously that's in response to @ReekBlefs but just following the thread in replying...)

  • Appreciate this, and @d0cA, @bq, @atz. My family have lived in London for the last 300 years - no-one in my family speaks a second language and we're all very British but I'm not sure how much longer I can stay here and I want to live somewhere people are kind to each other - the language barrier is the thing I've been most nervous about. Lots to think about but less scary, seemingly, than I was worried about.

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