Practicing French in a chat group?
 

I'm gearing up for another trip to France, so i'm looking for a chat board <BR>(or something similar)to practice my French on. Anybody use one? I tried yahoo.fr, but couldn't find anything.<BR>Ideally, i'd just like to chat with someone who could use some help w/ english as well, so we could help each other sound more like a native speakers, and get some practice chatting about day to day things. <BR>Thanks.

Christine,<BR><BR>I would check the BBC online site. I believe they offer links to chat rooms for both Italian and French. They also offer free language lessons. You can test yourself to see what level you're at. Too, The Wall Street Journal recently ( within last two weeks?) featured an article on where to find chat rooms and language lessons online. If I saved the article, I'll post the date etc. here. Good luck!

Christine,<BR>The info I spoke of was in The New York Times, not the Wall Street Journal! I don't have the date, but it says for chat rooms to check: chat.yahoo.com. Also recommends: www.studyfrench.com.<BR>Hope this helps!

I think Bonjourparis may be the best bet for you. I haven't used it, but I think it may have Anglophone speakers who want to practice French at different levels. I have a Yahoo account in France and there are chat boards on it, in fact, I just went there to check them out. The problem is that they aren't really geared to beginners and all the instructions and info are in French, including the names of the board, so that may be why you couldn't find them. For example, &quot;chat&quot; isn't a French word or sound, but they try to mimic that in French spelling, so the boards are in the section labelled &quot;tchatche&quot;. They have one on music, one for meeting people (where I just was, there were several people on there but they were native French speakers and not writing simply). This is the actual URL for the chat groups:<BR>http://fr.chat.yahoo.com/<BR>Maybe you have to have a Yahoo account to use them.<BR><BR>YOu may not have this, but I have an AOL account and because AOL is available in France, I often have French people IMing me to chat (especially guys, of course, but sometimes females) and often they want to practice English. They just find me because my profile mentions French as an interest and is partially in French. I met a really nice guy from Bordeaux university that way and we've messaged and emailed each other for several years now. You could actually get one of those AOL try-out free accounts, the discs are in a lot of stores, which is good for 45 days.<BR><BR>You might also try www.virtualtourist.com because a lot of people from various countries are on there.<BR><BR>I think there would be more productive ways to brush up your French that would make better use of your time, and those chats are only written, as far as I know, so won't affect your pronunciation (the Yahoo ones do have some kind of sound on them but I can't figure that out and haven't used it). If you can find some kind of language school where you live with a beginning conversation class, that would be a lot better way to practice.<BR>

Thanks for the tips. <BR>I've taken a basic conversation class and am getting ready to take the second level in a couple weeks. I've been studying, listening, and practicing, and sometimes going to French restaurants/cafes here in SF to practice, but beyond ordering food, saying my age and occupation, it's tough to think of everyday things in french! Trying to take my conversation to the next level is challenging...just saying &quot;I went to see Frida this weekend, and it was really great.&quot; is tough. I'm going to check out some of the sites posted, though i don't know if i could stomach AOL again...can't you get instant messenger w/o being an AOL subscriber?

Beware of yahoo chats! I naively thought I could practice my Italian in their chat rooms, but I would say that 99.9% are only interested in webcam &quot;adult encounters.&quot;

Christine, Bonjourparis was a practice your French night.<BR>parler Francais&quot; on Fridays from 8-10p.m.<BR>you will see a list of what's in French, english or mixed. There is also. a book discussion evening in French.

Try www.mylanguageexchange.com