Comments on: A Quick Tip on Learning a Language In-Country https://howlearnspanish.com/learning-a-language-in-country/ I learned Spanish entirely on my own, online, and I'll show you how you can, too! Thu, 06 Dec 2018 23:39:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: admin https://howlearnspanish.com/learning-a-language-in-country/#comment-10 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:10:30 +0000 https://howlearnspanish.com/?p=73#comment-10 I’ve heard this before as well, Jim, that is if you’re at or above a certain proficiency level they won’t switch to English, I think it’s just an issue of them not wanting to waste time trying to wade through it with you in French when they know they could get whatever needs to be done, done, faster in English since they speak better English than you do French (if that’s the case, if not then they’ll stick with French, like I said above).

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
Andrew

]]> By: Jim Morrison https://howlearnspanish.com/learning-a-language-in-country/#comment-8 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:55:39 +0000 https://howlearnspanish.com/?p=73#comment-8 I am English but have lived in Paris for a year.
Luckily I have to speak French at work but if it wasn’t for that, you are right that it would be very difficult to learn French here. One thing I noticed is that now that I have got above a certain level, they don’t switch to English as much. You have to speak to them confidently in French. Also, if they ask you ‘Parlez vous francais?’, don’t say ‘err… oui, un peu’. Say ‘Oui bien sur’. Then they will be more likely to carry on with you in French. The problem is that you need to get above a certain level before you can get that confidence and as you say, that is very hard to get in Paris.
I regulary go to my grilfriends village in Catalonia where everyone speaks Catalan and almost no-one can speak English. I learn more Catalan there in a week than I learn French in a month in Paris.

One way, you can make it work in a big city (Paris included) is to go the Polyglot club. They usually meet in a pub once a week and there are people from everywhere wanting to exchange their languages with eachother. I have been a few times and it is very good.

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