French Conversation

[Marie Gilbert]

I have a French conversation assessment coming up and i can never think of what to say, and how to develop my sentences enough to get excellence. What are some tips for doing this easily????????? The topic is health- drugs, smoking, alcohol, exercise, eating etc.

[fjhartnell]

The lack of responses may tell you this is a very big question to ask. Here are some suggestions. Start your answer by referring to the question or by specifying what the topic is. Then depending on the question either give a list of points joined by d'abord...puis...ensuite...enfin... Or give two different points of view D'une part..... De l'autre part.....and end up with your own opinion A mon avis..... I suspect you have this kind of information in your notes on oral work or your textbook. You could always ask your teacher. There are lots of different ways start your answer. Look these up. En ce qui concerne.... Pour ce qui est de... Cote...[with accents] e.g. Cote politique or En ce qui concerne la politique or Pour ce qui est de la politique if you were going to talk about politics in your answer. Bon courage!

[Neil Coffey]

This is (deliberately) quite a wide topic, so I would first of all try and focus on the areas that you're genuinely interested in.

 

Try and "make it personal": learn some phrases ("Je trouve que...", "À mon avis...", "Je ne suis pas d'accord." etc) for experssing your opinion about things.

 

At a more basic level, learn expressions for saying what YOU do in relation to health and why ("I don't smoke because...", "I exercise every day because...", "For exercise, I ride my bike/go to the gym"). Obviously make sure you know some basic vocabulary in that area.

 

You could try and find out about different attitudes to smoking/exercise etc in your country vs a French-speaking country and talk about that-- and then obviously make sure you know how to say things to express this comparison: "En Angleterre, les gens font du jogging ... Mais en France, on préfère ...".

 

If you have time, and you're doing this to a more advanced level, try and find out about what the current "debates" are in this area in the news. For example, have a look at what people like Ben Goldacre (he writes for the Guardian -- search on YouTube for some of his presentations) are saying about current issues, lies and misunderstandings being spread by media/companies around medicine/health. If it's for basic GCSE/SAT level, though, this may be going beyond what you need to do, so check with your tutor if you're not sure.

 

And as I say, if possible try and find the bit to focus on that you find most interesting and know most about.

 

One thing: @fjhartnell is right that you should know a few basic "structure" words. But I'd also say be careful of littering your speech too much with these because they don't actually add much to your argument: you won't necessarily get high marks for using loads of stock phrases with no actual content in what you're saying.

[yong leong]

Hi there, I think you have a easy conversation assessment, really, because the topic is so wide and you could easily just say something to get the ball rolling.

    You do need a certain level in french to go into more detail conversations but normally the examiner would try to adjust to your level so it wouldn't be a big problem.

    Is it difficult for you to say in french things like "I see many people smoke even though they know it is bad for their health" . 

    Well, just blast your way through , just say things you want to say and don't bother if you had made mistakes, then  you find you are talking , otherwise your mind keep worrying about your perfection in  your french and it will stall the conversation. Good luck to you