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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.
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bq
skinny
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.