How to have an EXCELLENT PRONUNCIATION in FRENCH? with @alicechance

By Manon

Alice is Australian and has been living in France for several years. She now has such excellent pronunciation in French that you'd think she was French. She tells us her secrets for excellent French pronunciation.

Transcription:

Hello, Alice.
Hello, Manon. How are you? Are you doing well?
I'm fine, and you?
I'm doing great, thank you! Thanks again for accepting the invitation for this little interview about your learning of French and more specifically on how you acquired such good pronunciation in French. I think it's a big challenge for all learners, and I think it's going to be super interesting to talk about it.
You're welcome!
And before we talk a bit more about that, can you introduce yourself, tell us who you are?
Sure! So, my name is Alice. I am an artist, music composer, and aspiring author. I also occasionally teach language classes. Also, I grew up in Sydney, Australia, and I've been living near Paris for about two years, and that's where I just finished a master's degree in musicology and composition.
Congratulations!
And do you teach in French, in English?
Both. I've already taught English at a private business school to the French. But in fact, I'm less comfortable because I never had to learn English. Whereas the French lessons I give, I'm much more comfortable because even if I don't claim to speak perfectly, at least I've learned grammar rules that I teach more recently.
It's fresher in my head. So, initially, how did you start learning French? What inspired you to do it?
So, 10 years ago, I was part of an Australian choir and we went on tour in France. We sang at La Madeleine, it was super cool. But I also had a bad experience during these tours. I didn't speak a word of French and I went into a tobacco shop trying to buy a SIM card for my phone, to have network. So, I didn't speak French and the man behind the counter didn't speak a word of English and voila, we struggled for me to get my SIM card. He ended up really yelling at me, he shouted and it was something that, voila, had quite marked me. You know, sometimes, it's these experiences and bad experiences that mark us more, that traumatize us, voila. And I said to myself: 'OK, I'm going to learn French to avoid this happening to me again if I ever come back to France'.

It's a blessing in disguise, in the end, yes.
And so, I was motivated and I said to myself: 'OK, I'm going to start learning French. I'm going to go on Duolingo'. And for five years, I lingered on Duolingo, but really not continuously. A few weeks, then a break, a few weeks, then a break. And after five years, I didn't know how to introduce myself. I had learned maybe 50 words, no more. And I said to myself: 'But Alice, what have you been doing for these 5 years? If you had really tried to learn French, you would have made progress. This is not right'. So, I calmed down and enrolled in French courses at the Alliance Française in Sydney. That's where I really started my learning on the right track.
So, we're going to mostly talk about pronunciation, because I think that's what you've really focused on to achieve these results. What were the biggest challenges you faced with French pronunciation and how did you overcome these challenges?
So, for me, it was mainly the nasal vowels. I had a lot of trouble distinguishing the sounds 'un' and 'on', for example. Even 'un' and 'en'. Seeing the letters 'a', 'i', 'n', I had a lot of trouble making 'in'.
These are not sounds that exist in English.
But I think that having sung a lot since, well, 15 years, 16 years, helped me do what I needed to do with the tongue, mouth, and where the air passes, to make these sounds. I'm also very lucky because my boyfriend, who is now my husband, was schooled in French. So, he's Australian but he went to a French school in Australia. There are two and he went to the one in Canberra. So, it's him who helped me. Well, it's him who noticed: 'Alice, you don't make a good distinction between this and this.' Voila.
So, he directly mastered French pronunciation?
Yes, he has been speaking French since he was 3 years old.
Ah yes, at that age, that's where, precisely, one picks up the pronunciation. The eardrum, the ear, forms to the sound. So yes, it's easier for pronunciation when you're young.
I admit that I am a little jealous, I would have liked to learn from a young age.
Me too, from the English-Spanish side, it's true that I would have liked to be in an international school too. But well, it is what it is. And so, did you use any particular techniques to improve
I too, on the English-Spanish side, it's true that I would have liked to be in an international school as well. But well, that's how it is. So, did you use any particular techniques to improve your pronunciation in French? You mentioned singing, but were there other things?
Yes, there was singing. And also... Actually, I invented a song to remember the verbs that use 'être' in the past tense instead of 'avoir'.
Great!
I composed this song and showed it to my teacher at the Alliance Française who was like: 'Ah, very good Alice!'
You need to put it on YouTube!
Yeah, yeah, I should do that.
Movement verbs, state verbs?
Exactly. But actually, the technique of recording myself was my number one tool. It was about, well, filming myself, recording myself. It's not fun, it's not great for the ego. Yes, it lowered my self-esteem a bit. But for me, it was good because, when we are in the process of producing what we would like to analyze and improve, we necessarily have less capacity to pay attention. And so, if we divide the tasks, if we speak and then afterwards, we have the means to analyze it, it allows us to make more progress.
And so, were you able to distinguish yourself what you needed to improve? Because often, we say: 'I don't know if I'm saying this right or doing it right.' Did you, yourself, manage to say: 'This is good or this is not good?'
Yes, in fact, what I did, I found French speakers on YouTube and I imitated what they said. So, I had direct sentences to compare. Because you're right, otherwise, we don't necessarily know what we're doing well and what we're doing wrong. But with, I think, the musical ear, it allowed me to improve.
In fact, you were shadowing. That's really the technique I recommend to everyone to improve their pronunciation.
Yes, it works.
It works very well, it works tremendously. But it's funny, it's true that I hadn't thought of the fact that singing can help. It's true that when you sing, you go for notes and maybe pronunciation, it helped you look for sounds that you didn't have in your native language. Interesting.
And just, doing weird things with your face and mouth... We never do that in life, or not for a long time, maybe when we're surprised. But then, you have a choir director in front of you who goes: 'Ah, no, vowel, more open please.' You're at least training yourself not to feel a bit ridiculous doing that. You tell yourself: 'Ah, it's normal to manipulate the mouth and face.'
Because I believe that French, compared to English, uses a lot more muscles in the mouth and there are often learners who tell me: 'After speaking French, their mouth hurts because their mouth works more.'
Yes, I can confirm.
I believe there are also those who use the pencil technique, of putting a pencil in the mouth and saying sentences. I know we can do it to articulate better, OK, even in our own language, but there are also those who try to do that. It's cool for practice.
And so, is there... I don't know, if you have a before and after, well, what was the... Since you live in Paris, is the pronunciation, having good pronunciation, did it help you or on the contrary, maybe when you didn't necessarily have good pronunciation, did it not help you, living in Paris, rubbing shoulders with French speakers?
Yeah, I would say there are two sides. Like when you, well, after, when you have good pronunciation but are not necessarily used to the codes of politeness or vocabulary, the everyday vocabulary, sometimes, people think you are French, but you're just dumb because you don't understand. It happened to me, it's a crazy anecdote, but I walk into a bakery, I ordered, I don't know, a pain au chocolat, and I was asked: 'With this?' And I heard: 'With worry?'
One of my students had told me the same thing. Yes, I think she was at the market, I don't remember, and likewise, they had said 'With this?' and she had understood 'With worry?' and she had the same reaction, like: 'No, everything's fine.'
It's a phrase that French merchants use to say 'And in addition to this'.
It was very useful for me to have, not really, well, not much of an accent when I speak. I find that it greatly facilitates life. If I have a lot of expat friends, they don't necessarily have as much, well, joy and ease living here as me. I'm really lucky to be able to live, like, almost normally in French society and that, well. After, there are a lot more prejudices that can come into the whole thing and everything. But above all, I am very grateful to myself, in the past, for having worked so hard on my accent, because well, it's a pleasure every day, you know.
Yes, it's sure, it helps. Afterward, I always make a distinction between accent and pronunciation.
Yeah, it's a good idea to do that.
Yeah, because we all have accents. I have one, in the regions, we have one. But there can also be discrimination based on accents. Well, that's pretty sad. It's the flip side of the coin. But it's true, good pronunciation helps to be understood. Yes, and afterward, well, it's true that having an accent or not is a delicate question, because, well, it's internationalization. It's a beautiful thing, but it's true that there are people who are discriminatory.
You are so right to make this distinction because, in fact, at the beginning, I told myself that my goal was to speak like a native French speaker. And it's only now that I realize, it's a bit toxic that. Well, why? Because I was a bit ashamed of not being one, even though I can understand.
It's true that it flatters the ego, but on the one hand, it's true that it can be quite toxic. There, I'm not sure there's a native French speaker who speaks... I mean, we all speak differently, so it's a bit hard to have a base. It can become a bit of a vicious circle. I totally agree. But good pronunciation, it's good to be understood, it helps. The accent, it adds charm. And you said there were... You already said, about the nasal vowels, which posed problems for you. But were there other sounds or words that posed problems for you in French and how did you manage to master them?
There's a word that still gives me trouble, it's 'hiérarchie'.
Ah, I was thinking about that one. Actually, I've noticed that the words, even for me, in English that give me trouble, are the words that exist in your native language and in the other language, but are not pronounced the same way. And that, I find, is very difficult. Yeah, 'hiérarchie'.
Yeah, I think. The fact of imagining a 'Y' at the end, 'hiérarchie', I think you completely fixed this problem for me, because I always imagined the 'H' which is not pronounced. Whereas if I imagine 'hiérarchie', thank you, Manon.
Ah, yet I just pronounced the word haha! But it's that in English, we have the 'k' sound in 'hiérarchie' and in French, it's the 'SH' sound. I think, all words like that, there are 'chirurgie', 'quincaillerie', these are words that very often pose a problem for English speakers.
Otherwise, the 'R' sound, too, sometimes I don't put enough air to properly produce it and I acted like... but I find it charming to do 'ah, I'll come back a bit'.
Yes it's true, yes, it's not easy, it's really difficult to master. There were several students, one student who, for weeks, was imitating a tiger. And another who listened a lot to Edith Piaf's songs because she has a very exaggerated 'R', really very exaggerated. And so, by listening, by repeating, it can help, but it requires practice, that's for sure. And do you have any tips or exercises that you could share that have helped you master French pronunciation? You've already mentioned quite a few, but if you have others.
Yeah, recording yourself, I think. In fact, instead of a specific exercise, I encourage people not to be afraid to slow down their learning to perfect their pronunciation. Because it can happen that we have a rich vocabulary and we can express ourselves and say what we want to say, but the accent hasn't yet arrived where... Well, the pronunciation, sorry, it's not... For me, they were synonyms, but now you've opened my eyes. But, in fact, we have to make a clear distinction. So, there, the pronunciation hasn't arrived where we would like it to be. Sometimes, when we can speak quickly, we don't want to speak more slowly. Again, because we say to ourselves: 'Ah, I'm going backward, it's as if I'm still at level A1.' But in fact, it's the same with musical instruments. For example, in violin, if you play with bad technique, if you go back to basics and aren't afraid to go slowly, it allows you to speed up, like twice as fast, and to go much further in the future.
That's it, it's starting over on the right basics. What you're saying is interesting. You can have a good vocabulary, good grammar, but if when you speak we don't understand what you're saying, well yeah, so it's less interesting to have so many skills like that. It's better to go back a bit, it's true, to pronunciation.
Yeah, it's the image of, yeah, having perfected grammar, if in the end, we don't understand.
Yes, well yeah, that's for sure. And have you been able to notice, have you been able to track your progress in your pronunciation over time? Have you had standout elements that told you: 'Wow, I've really improved?'
Yes, I think, the fact that I filmed myself so much, it allowed me to notice because I started recording my progress in 2019 I think. And so, at the time, I thought I was speaking perfectly with great pronunciation and then, like two years later, I say to myself: 'Ah, yeah, I still had progress to make.' We don't necessarily notice ourselves at the time, but later, we can say to ourselves: 'Ah, yeah, I did make progress.' And so I encourage learners to do this, just in case they need a bit of a boost and tell themselves: 'Hey, actually, I have made progress.' Because sometimes, we get the impression of, well, having hit a plateau. But above all, my first year in France, there were moments... I made a Moroccan friend who is a very good friend, and our first conversation, half of my brain was talking to itself saying: 'But, we've made our first friend in France, it's incredible. We're talking to her in French, she's not responding in English'. There were many moments like this where I was saying to myself: 'Hey, we've made it, that's nice.'
And so, what would be your advice, you've already given a lot, but if we only remember one, one piece of advice to improve one's French pronunciation?
I think, it's easier said than done, but as much as possible, to get rid of the shame. The shame of making mistakes, for example, or more broadly, the fear of making a fool of oneself. Because that allows for progress in any field, but especially foreign languages. And if we are in our corner and we are afraid of mispronouncing something, we will not make progress. So, even if it's hard, and we can really be embarrassed.
It's often a trigger. Well, it's, you can repeat it 20 times to someone, it won't come. And it's one day when they will have the trigger to say to themselves: 'Ah yeah, no, but now, I really, I need to, I need to go for it.' That's true, it's really not easy. No matter how many times we hear it, but yeah, you just need to dare.
And be aware that everything, well, also the fact that the person doesn't think about your level when you talk. Nobody's there: 'I'd say B2, but not C1.' It's, we don't care.
It's, most people don't even know what A1, A2, these notions are. So, the important thing is communication. It's to make yourself understood. And I think, rather than people being admiring to see someone trying to speak another language. Especially in France, we're not the best at foreign languages. So, I always find it flattering to see someone speaking the language in France.
You always have to be more positive, even if it's true that the French, sometimes, are unpleasant, but they are with everyone. Maybe, we're not, I have, strangers on the street, we're not necessarily warm. But at least, we're like that with everyone, it's not discriminatory. We invented a term, it's being nice in a French way. It's, actually, you see, we go to a shop, I don't know, somewhere, and I ask myself: 'Was the lady or the gentleman nice?' And you can't say yes, but you can't say no, it's a yes. It's too weird, it's really typically French. And we say: 'Nice in a French way.' You can't say that he was mean, but you can't say that he was nice. And that's being French. Not everyone is like that, thankfully, but many are.
Honestly, for me, every French person I've met and had the opportunity to really, well, have a conversation with, they're lovely people. Just sometimes, a little cold, that's it. The first, well, the facade is a little cold.
You have to dig a little to find a little heart. Thank you so much, Alice. It was really very interesting. To have your feedback on your learning, which is also very impressive. I think you're going to inspire a lot of people in their learning journey. And where can we find you?
Ah yes, on YouTube, on social media, YouTube channel and a website: www.alicechance.com. There, you can listen to my music and finally, a bit, my projects apart from French.
And there you have it, I'll put, anyway, the links in the description. Thank you very much, thanks again and see you soon. Have a beautiful summer in Paris.
You too. See you soon.