Hi Bev!
We're going to Chamonix for a visit in September and want to try our basic, beginning French out. Is it not too embarrassing to try to speak French, even if all we can only say is "I have a cat", "Nous aimons faire du ski"
and "I would like chicken"?
We're trying to learn French and have a lot of time to get better at it before we retire, but I'm not sure if we know enough right now to be able to converse on our trip in September. Would the French people know that we are at least trying to speak French, even if it is basic, basic, 'We have a brown house' sort of thing? By September, we should be able to say more than "Où sont les toilettes, s'il vous plaît?".
We're having a LOT of trouble understanding what someone says in French, but can read it so much better. At the local Alliance Francaise where we takae weekly lessons, one guy came up to us and said something in French and I had no clue. My teacher was like "Oh, come on!! You know that!". Found out that all he said was 'it is a pleasure to meet you'. I was embarrassed. I probably would has known what he said if it were written down. I don't have any real understanding of what someone is saying, though. Would subscribing to TV5Monde be useful or way over my head to where I wouldn't catch anything?? I barely made it out of 2 semesters of Spanish in college, so I really hope that I can do this. I'm trying!