The Long Road to Success in La Langue Française

Many of Us Have a Language Journey Story and Here Is Mine, Bumps, "Cooking Naked," and All.

I met my French husband in French and I will always be thankful. I know several English speakers married to French spouses who met speaking English and now have a lot of difficulty speaking French at home. I’ve been told that the language you meet in becomes your “together language.”

In my case, I didn’t realize until our third date (in Paris, in the latter part of the pandemic) that this tall, handsome, and charming man actually spoke perfect English.

My future husband (we call him Monsieur B) was so respectful of my French that, he just spoke to me (and texted) en français. If I weren’t already in love with him after our first two dates (I was!), the discovery of this kindness and respect would’ve been the thing that reeled me in.

Photo by The Paris Photographer

Why? Two reasons.

First, I’ve spent years (on and off) working to become fluent in French. Second, I’d had the opposite experience with my longtime ex, a trilingual chef who absolutely refused to speak to me in French despite my earnest efforts. OK, we had, indeed, met in English, but still, un vrai con (a real idiot).

Side Note I sometimes dream of running into the chef now, as I could so elegantly pulverize him with magnificent French insults. #winning #espècedepourriture :-)

Becoming fluent in French

My fellow French language learners often ask me how I got here. They’re impressed that I passed the DALF C1 exam in Paris in 2017 on the first try. I tell them, that wasn’t the first try. I spent four months doing….

Want to know more about how I’ve embarrassed myself “speaking French while American?” Get the whole story — check out my new piece as a contributor to My French Life™ – Ma Vie Française® (it’s free and there’s lots of good stuff there!)