How to train my brain

[myrtleWilson]

hello - we're off on holiday soon to France. I know some French, from school. However I speak Spanish (not fluently any more but not bad) - whenever I try to think in French/or think about speaking in French I default to Spanish - I did this a couple of years ago in Paris - I remember having a confusing conversation in a bakery where I was about to speak French (insofar as I knew the words) but ended up speaking Spanish and they were (unsurprisingly) speaking French - we got there in the end.... How can I bring my latent French vocab up to front of brain and push down Spanish....(or maybe I can't and I'll have to style out the holiday being Spanish with English family...!!)

I honestly don't think people will mind as long as you try! When my daughter was tiny she usedto rattle away in franglais and everyone got the gist.

Depending on where you are going you may find that younger French people in shops etc want to practise their English on you anyway.

I am bilingual though not from birth (A level French then 20 years in France) - I find that there are certain words, often ones that I have more occasion to use in French, which sometimes "block" the equivalent English word and make it very hard to access.

More practically, you could try an app like duolingo (free) or babbel (pay for, but worthwhile for a short preholiday refresher course).

That just comes with practice anc exposure to the language - I don't think you can do anything other that speak as much French as possible.