One key influence has been a class that I have taken in Milton Keynes. Marie da Silva is a French national who has lived and worked in the Milton Keynes area for a decade. She has set up a number of meet-up groups in the area - which have brought together people from a number of countries and languages. These have been great for actual conversations - and have often some fun evenings, which have boosted my learning. Do visit the following website - if you think that this might be for you.
https://www.meetup.com/Language-Cafe-FrenchGroupMK/
Also visit the Lingo Mix Website at http://lingomix.co.uk
As you'll see French is just one of the languages available in the Milton Keynes area - and Marie has been key to setting these up. Her French classes (these are weekly - and are separate from the meet-up group) - concentrated on building a framework of grammar.
That has been key. I had built up a recognition of a wide variety of vocabulary over the years. This was done by concentrating on reading. I've been a reader of Le Monde and French books picked up on holidays in France - and from Librairie La Page in South Kensington; The European Bookshop & Foyles (near Tottenham Court Road) - for a very long time. But the trouble is - that while you can get the gist of something - you don't get the structure necessary to communicate yourself.
I also don't have much of an ear for the subtleties of spoken language - and find it difficult to replicate pronunciation. Marie has been very patient with me - and over time I've got better - as a result of having to speak in class and at the meetups.
Gabriel Wyner, in his book "Fluent Forever" [How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It]" argues that there are three basic keys to language learning.
1 Learn pronunciation First
2 Don't translate
3 Used spaced repetition systems.
Good advice - and in future posts I wish discuss these ideas further.
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