What to Talk About as a Beginner?

What to talk about as a beginner...

Here's a paradox of language learning. You spend countless hours learning how to speak a foreign language so that you can use it. YET as a beginner, you believe you don't have the tools necessary to converse with others! This is completely false, and if you keep reading you'll find out why.

How can I talk to French people when my French is so bad. What do I say? Unfortunately this is a something I hear about a lot when I talk to new French students. The first step towards progress is to realize that your French is not as bad as you think. Secondly, if it is bad then you can only improve! By talking to people, you subconsciously learn a lot about the language all while bettering your pronunciation, word order, and vocabulary. Regardless of bad French or not, French people are delighted to hear someone try to speak their language. Here are my tips:

Be Curious!

Be Curious!

I don't do this often, but I'm giving you the biggest piece of advice first. BE CURIOUS. Wait... what? John, how does that help me talk to French people? 

People love talking about themselves and it's an easy way to break the ice (not to mention everybody loves a good listener). As a beginner you should try as hard as possible to make the conversation about the French person! Naturally, by you being curious in them then they'll start asking you questions about where you're from, etc.. and a conversation will flourish. But keep in mind, you have to be genuinely curious! You won't have a great conversation with somebody if you are halfheartedly engaged. By using this, you can carry on a huge conversation and the added bonus is they do all the talking!! More on that later.

Here are some important words to be a curious Frenchie: who (qui), what (quoi), where (où), when (quand), why (pourquoi), and how (comment)! In addition, you should know how to ask people about things they like and opinions.