What a title!

Now that I have said it, there is no turning back.

Let's have a closer look at why you want to get back into French, shall we? 

Picture yourself planning your next trip, speaking with your local boulanger, asking about the origin of the produce at the local market, enjoying an aperitif with your delightful neighbours...that's what we all want when we learn another language. Very rarely...ermm...actually never, do I hear : "ohhh, I'm learning French because I really want to understand the reasons why avoir is so irregular".

No, what we want is connection, we want to understand and be part of conversations, we want to get the jokes, the nuances and feel culturally supercharged..hey..maybe we want to feel we could live there and be ok, maybe we could almost be French.

I know because that was exactly me when I started learning English. I just wanted to be able to talk to Madonna, the guys from Depeche Mode and Lloyd Cole if I ever met them. That's true, when I...

You have learnt so much, you are killing it with your grammar, you feel ready to take on the French world by storm and speak French all the time until your conversation partner asks you to repeat or simply and rudely switch to English half way through your effort....how frustrating!

They might just want to be practising their English but they might also feel that you are actually struggling and maybe they are saving you.

To keep the natural flow of a conversation going, you will have put 'your French mouth' on. That's what I always tell my students when I hear them slip...You know what I mean, us French can go a bit lazy too and revert to " Ello..ow arrre yoo? " or  "Ze sheese is delissious".

So, follow these few tips and before you know it you will sound like you have been learning French for ever.

• listen.

Obvious, non?  learning a new language will be the exact same process as learning your first language, just faster. Hearing it over and over and over again will get...