🎧 Why Speaking Like a Native Is Not the End Goal

In this episode, I’ll share my thoughts on why you don’t need to sound like a native French speaker to speak beautiful French. 💖

Transcript

Hello everyone, bonjour tout le monde, welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast!

In today's episode, I want to talk to you about something that is holding back a lot of French beginners from speaking French clearly and confidently.

And that is the goal of speaking French like a native.

Since I started to teach French, I've heard that sentence countless times: "I want to speak like a native." 

I don't actually hear it from my students at all because I think the students who are part of my French Pronunciation Made Easy course know very well that I don't teach them to speak like a native.

But I do see it a lot online. I see a lot of articles, youtube videos that promise French learners to "learn to speak French like a native in 3 months," or even "learn French pronunciation to speak like a native in 20 minutes," etc., "You just need 3 hours to speak like native," and I'm not even exaggerating, those are real headlines.

And although those might just be cheeky headlines... It's something that I don't quite agree with I thought I'd chat with you about it today! 

So what is the problem with saying, "learn to speak French like a native in 3 hours, or even 3 months"?

I don't think that speaking like a native is a very helpful goal for French learners to have. It's not very specific or attainable enough in such a short amount of time.

When you're reading those titles, those promises as a French beginner, you expect it will take 3 months to speak like a native, and the truth is, you're setting the bar super high. 

And when you set the bar that high, and you don't meet the expectation that you've set for yourself, you feel like you're not good enough, and it leads you to disappointment which then leads to giving up. 

Learning French, whether studying pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, takes time. It's a journey. I like to say that learning French is a marathon, not a sprint.

And that's one reason why many students give up learning and speaking French after a few months because they get disappointed; they think it's "too hard."

But you're comparing your pronunciation; you're comparing your French that you've learned for three months, with people who speak French as a first language. It's not fair on you at all.

Speaking like a native with a native accent is, I believe, a very hard goal to reach in such a short amount of time. 

And also... in my opinion, I don't think speaking like a native should actually be the end goal.

What about your accent? You don't want to lose your accent. Your accent is part of your identity. 

Personally, I've been living in Australia, where they speak English right, for about 9-10 years now. And I have no wish to remove my French accent. That's my identity. I'm French, and that's the way it is. 

But I do want people to understand what I'm saying in English. I am working on improving my English pronunciation because I want to speak clearly enough so people don't ask me to repeat myself 324 times. Still a work in progress, right? But you know what I mean. 

And to be fair, there are many many French speakers that aren't natives but who speak perfect, beautiful French. You do not need to be a native French speaker or to sound like a native French speaker from any French-speaking country to speak beautiful French and converse in French clearly and effortlessly.

The ultimate goal and I believe that is why you are learning French, is to converse with French speakers.

And to converse with French speakers, what you want is to speak French clearly, with words that you don't struggle to pronounce and that French speakers can understand. 

Speaking clearly, in order to converse with French speakers. That should be the end goal, not speaking French like a native. 

In my French Pronunciation Made Easy course, I critique my students, so I give them feedback on their French pronunciation. The first thing I check when I receive their audio recordings is to see or to hear, in that case, if I can understand clearly what they say. If I can't, then we work on it. 

But their accent is not what actually matters. 

I don't teach my students to speak like me, like a native French speaker. I teach them French pronunciation so they're able to say what they want to say in French clearly, and confidently without stuttering, blushing, and getting stuck! 

So there you go, I hope that little episode helps you reframe a little bit the goal of "speaking like a native" into a more achievable goal. 

If this episode resonated with you, and you want to learn French pronunciation from me, I invite you to register for my FREE masterclass: 5 Steps to Clear French Pronunciation, where you’ll learn:

• The 3 reasons why beginners struggle with their spoken French (so you won’t!)

• The 5 essential steps you need to take to learn or improve your French pronunciation

• My number 1 pronunciation tip

• How I can help you inside my course, French Pronunciation Made Easy

I hope to see you there.

À bientôt, bye.