[totalpony]

It's the speed-dating style language exchange where you do a few minutes in English, a few in French and then move on to the next person.

It sounds like fund - I've signed up for a session tomorrow, I'm just curious to see if anyone has any experience of it.

 

[Bevdeforges]

Sounds interesting - if perhaps a bit hectic. I'm more familiar with the longer language exchange things - like Parler Parlor - 45 minutes in English and 45 minutes in French. Normally tiring enough for me, but I'm not getting any younger.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[hils]

It's the "norm" in this house - and, I think, in many other homes where the inhabitants have been here a while. Except it's not a few mins in one and a few mins in the other - every sentence is peppered with words of the other language, if not complete hybrid/mutant/perversion variants of the source language.

 

[totalpony]

I can imagine it's pretty hectic, yeah. I'm at the Alliance Française at the moment which is intense enough! I shall post the results of tomorrow night on here in case anyone wonders.

 

[maartenvd]

I'm curious to hear how your experience is.

I tried Parler-Parlor once and didn't like it enough to go back, but I was spoiled from having had private lessons for a while, so getting to practice my french about 1/6th of the 90 minute session didn't feel like a good use of my time.

 

[Bevdeforges]

Oh, I used to be buddies with Adrian Leeds (who operates Parler Parlor) - back when she was running the language exchange at WICE. Don't know if WICE still has its language exchange.

You could try one or more of the AVF groups in Paris. I know some of them have French Conversation groups of various sorts for the foreigners. (Our local AVF out here in the suburbs has a French conversation group that is pretty popular.)
Cheers,
Bev

 

[koppazee]

It's the "norm" in this house - and, I think, in many other homes where the inhabitants have been here a while. Except it's not a few mins in one and a few mins in the other - every sentence is peppered with words of the other language, if not complete hybrid/mutant/perversion variants of the source language.

This is our home too. Discussions in both French and English. Always seem to be rushing and if not us, it's the kids. Broken language discussions are our norm and it works for us.

It brings back memories of being a kid as we spoke English and when we were not supposed to know what the adults were speaking about they switched to a different language. Warm regards

 

[FrancophileDavid]

When I was in Paris for two months last spring I attended the Franglish sessions. They are held on Sundays and Tuesdays for two hours. You are assigned to a table with a French speaker. You speak one of the languages for seven minutes and then the other for seven minutes. A very nice lady comes to tell you when it is time to switch languages. After the fourteen minutes is up either you or the other person switches tables so you get to talk to several different people in the evening. The cost is ten euros which includes your choice of a cocktail. The events are held in bars; one on rue Oberkampf and the other in a bar around the corner from rue Oberkampf, but I forget the name of the street. It's not really that hectic and you get to meet some really interesting people from all walks of life that you would never meet otherwise. I found the events to be a lot of fun. Of course, you are free to stay after the event and chat with other participants. I will be returning to Paris in a few months, hopefully on a long-stay visa or if not for ninety days, and I will definitely be going to the events again.