I’m not just an English teacher: I’m also a language learner – mainly of French.
My learning path has not been simple or easy at all – but from my current perspective, having passed the C2 French exam and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Toulouse 2, I can see how my French training could have been a whole lot more effective.
In order to tell you how, I have to tell my story.
In the school system of Maryville, Tennessee, where I grew up, foreign language instruction began in high school. I was 15 when I first entered my first French class. I have fond memories of my teacher – she was friendly, very smart, and seemed much more aware of the world outside our mid-sized Appalachian suburb than any other teacher I’d had up to that point. Everyone loved her. French was not her first language, but she had lived in Switzerland (and by the way, she told us, David Bowie’s children were in her class. According to her, he was very involved in their education and personally attended parent-teacher conferences).
Despite how inspiring my first French teacher was, and despite the fairly strong sense of the basics of French I gained from her classes, I found, when traveling to France for the first time as a senior in high school, that I could not understand French people and they could not understand me.
This realization moved me to pursue my French studies in college where I did a double major: French and English.
I assumed, illogically, that having a college degree in French would mean I would be fully competent in the subject. Alas, this was not the case at all. My teachers were very good, but still rather traditional, and even then, none of them had French as their first language. I left university having done hundreds of grammar exercises, having read a lot of classic French literature in depth, but still unable to speak or understand conversational French.
A few years later, married and now a father and English teacher, my family and I found an opportunity to teach English in Spain, where we moved without any knowledge of Spanish. After a few months, however, we found we could all speak it in practical and conversational situations. This was very encouraging. Meanwhile, I joined a French conversation group, with real French speakers! The phrase “That’s how you really say that!” was constantly popping up in my thoughts. The next year, I found myself in total immersion, living in a small village in southwest France and taking a Master’s course completely in French in Toulouse. After decades, I finally felt at ease in conversation with real French people – and the way I got there was, well, having conversations with real French people!
Why would I think that by practicing one thing – grammar exercises and reading – I could achieve something completely different – namely, speaking?
If you’re looking to learn English (or any other language) I’d encourage you to talk to native speakers – like me if you’re interested in American English – to cross the threshold to true mastery of the language.