Improving my French

Hi! I have been using meetup to meet people and speak in French with great teachers! Look on meetup.com! :-)

Thanks Olive!
Never thought of Meetup!

Bad news. According to this report from an English newspaper, your task just got harder!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/f … circumflex

Hi Citation2b, you should try Franglish. It's like speed-dating but for language. I've tried it  a few times, it's very casual, and you can learn a lot.

And meet a bunch of French people, if you're keen!

http://www.franglish.eu/

Thanks Everyone!
For the good and not so good info.
I teach photography and do walking tours for photographers, for the most part
my clients are anglophone but recently I have had French speakers and I found myself
tongue twisted all too often for my own liking. Speed-dating in French sounds like fun. I'll have to put it another way to my wife though! Thanks again!
Kevin

I think you need to mingle more with the locals. I had some businesses in France some years ago and spent some time selling in boutiques and exhibitions. The first few weeks were nerve-racking, but after that I picked it up very fast. I became pretty fluent in conversation after about 6 months. But I just saw you are living in Paris....it's probably less easy to learn there as the people are less friendly than in the provinces.

Thanks Hansson,
I find in Paris that on the friendliness front they have made efforts, still some way to go but they do try. I find more and more people very quickly reply in english to me which is not helpful but it's a kindness.

I must correct my phrasing when I said "For the good and not so good info". I was hoping to use my Irish sense of humour but I think it came out wrong. None of you let me know so I'm hoping no feelings were hurt as that was not my intention. The info was good, but it wasn't all hopeful. Thanks again! Kevin Hayden

hahaha I was laughing at the speed dating and the wife part!

Anyways, since you have been here in France for 12 years, the parcours FLC and CAI of OFII won't do.

How about Alliance de Francais? well they are very pricey to start with.

Im such a newbie in the language and Im studying with the book my formatrice is using for our DILF - the book is Grammaire Progressive du Francais by CLE international.

And there are lots of expats here offering their services as well