Hi, I want to accelerate my French learning by living in France for a month and hopefully have my A1 level turn to an A2 or a B1 by the end of the trip.
I'll be staying with a foster family in Strasbourg, France, who won't be speaking to me in English as much as possible. :)
Thing is, for the first day, I don't know what to say aside from my name, my age, why I came to France, what I do during my free time, and what's the Philippines and Filipino culture like. Would anyone please suggest anything else that I can talk about? I'll be having diner with them every day for the entirety of May.
I know that I may have a sufficient amount of stuff to say, and I know that they'd be asking questions of their own, but I just really want to be prepapred for my new family. Merci!
Native English speaker from the Philippines here btw.
You seem a bit stressed out by this trip. First of all, relax. We french are so curious about foreign cultures, that this familly won't stop asking questions. Find the most exotic stuff to tell, and you'll be the star! Like what food is like in your country! We love to hear about other culinary cultures. French people appréciate food talking. Another great subject is relationships and how people behave with one another. Plus, this would help the familly to undersand you better.
Now believe me, you don't have to behave perfectly, or to be the perfect guest. But if you feel like you need to ask some questions about good maners or standard behaviors in france, feel free to ask! But in france we are veeeeery cool with behaviors, much more than other countries. Sad point is that french appear to be gross to strangers. Good point is that you'd have to do a really big mistake to make a bad impression. For sure, this familly will just love you don't worry.
Memorise the rules and prewrite your questions and your two truths and a lie! You'll do fine and maybe they've done this before!
I don't know how formal your family is and what the culture is in France, so maybe someone from there would have better advise.
I was just thinking that maybe you can play an ice breaker game to get to know eachother. A couple fun games come to mind. One is '21 questions,' where you take turns asking eachother questions, they can be creative as you want, or basic ex. "If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?" Just try not to get too personal with your questions. Another game is 2 truths and a lie. In 2 truths and a lie you come up with two things about you that are truth, and one thing that is a lie - other people at the table try to guess which one is a lie and they can say why they think it's a lie. Other than that, just be yourself, I'm sure you'll come up with things to ask naturally when you're in the environment! Good luck!
I went camp in France(Cavilam-Vichy) for 2 weeks and then 1 week to Paris for tourism.I had just taken B1 and 4 months later I was able to take B2.It is really good experience.Especially for the vocabulary and the pronunciation.
I wish you to have fun
No problem, don't hesitate to come and chat if you need anything else to keep cooling down!
