My biggest worry about doing a French stage race.

[rollindoughnut]

I know it's not bikepacking but you guys are more worldly than most so it seems a good place to ask.

There's a mtb stage race in the French alps that I was supposed to do this june which I deferred until june 2021. They managed to pull off this years race in August so there's a good chance it'll happen.
I was down to do it with a friend as a pair but he's got cold feet now.
Thing is I really want to do it, I think 5 days of Alpine racing with full support package would be an amazing life experience. I'd be ok racing on my own, I'm used to that and like to go at my pace anyway, so my biggest worry is the language barrier.
It's a predominantly European field with a French bias, but a fair few Brits do attend. Accommodation is in shared rooms of 4-6 so being able to communicate would be nice. I can speak enough French to be polite and buy things in shops etc but not enough to have a conversation.

The way I see it I've got 4 choices:
1. Spend the next 6 months improving my French. This would be vaguely exciting but I don't pick up languages easily so could be a struggle.
2. Just go, wing it, hope to meet people who can speak English.
3. Don't go, get a refund and do something in England.
4. Find another partner which is a minefield but could be very rewarding.

Advice?

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'm inclined to say a combination of 1 and 2.

1, It's always worth making a bit of an effort and additional French (or any other language) will always come in handy and option 2, well why not - what's the worst that's going to happen?

Obviously, there's option 5 to consider where the whole situation could be avoided, if you forgot all about a staged event and simply bikepacked the route at another time

[voodoo_simon]

1 - make the effort and learn some more this winter

But... I’ve raced in Finland a few times and gone out for dinner with Danish, Dutch, German and French altogether and they all reverted to English straight away.

Edit - thinking about it, their English was better than mine

[rollindoughnut]

I think doing this trip would be just the thing to inspire me to return in the future for a bikepacking adventure in the mountains. Having a definite start date would force me to sort out the logistics and then after that I'd be familiar with the procedures and more likely to return.
I'm coming to the realisation that I want to keep bikepacking and racing very separate. Both things float my boat in different ways and provide real contrast to each other.

[whitestone]

My advice would be don't worry. A much larger proportion of French speak English than you might imagine, especially if you are anywhere near ski resorts.

In Chamonix it used to be that you had to speak decent French to get any sort of service. Then cheap ski holidays over in the States took off. Suddenly everyone could speak English! More to the point, if your French wasn't good enough they'd reply to you in English saving you any embarrassment.

Generally if you try to make an effort to speak someone's language they'll be receptive and try their best. Conversely just speaking English ever more loudly will get you ignored. The main problem is the speed of conversation and discerning the individual words. Unless you are truly proficient you won't pick up most of the conversations anyway.

[pistonbroke]

It's not a language barrier, it's a language opportunity. 6-7 months is plenty of time to learn the basics if you really want to, and why wouldn't you? Of course the gallic shrug takes years to perfect but if you're prepared to give speaking a try, you will find people will meet you more than half way. Also google translate works very well once you've sorted the pronunciation differences.

[sean_iow]

I say a mix of 1 and 2 as well.

Just about all the overseas riders I met on the HT550 spoke good English and even with those who didn't I met when riding, we could tell what each other was thinking without language

Also, if you've got enough energy left for socialising at the end of the day... surely you're not going hard enough during the day

Just go for it, it will be amazing

[Cheddar Man]

Definitely 1.

Especially as we will have properly Brexited by then, and they will all be stroppy about the whole fishing situation

[mattpage]

My experience racing in France is that almost all areas and certainly the Alps everyone speaks English well.
So learn French for sure and try and speak it, but don't get too worried as you won't ever be stuck for not speaking French.

Go and do the race though, the Alps are vaguely exciting and stage races are so much fun.

[rollindoughnut]

I can speak French to the degree that I could ask a shop assistant for two 50cent pieces in my change so that I could pay to use the toilet, however when she replied I had no clue what she was saying. After the fact I realised she was trying to tell me that my change didn't amount to €1.
I'd absolutely love to get more fluent in French. Unfortunately the path I would have taken would have been adult education centres. I like small groups of people and would have enjoyed being a bit sub standard but trying hard. Online courses leave me a bit cold.
Ideas?

[ScotRoutes]

Try Duolingo. It "games" the learning process in order to encourage you. I'm doing Scottish Gaelic at the moment which is working fine, though I've had to revert to text books to try to get to grips with some of the grammar nuances. French, Spanish etc are better supported.

[whitestone]

Any local tutors? There's often people helping out kids for their exams so worth checking.

Other than that - get stuck in! Making mistakes is half the fun I take a small dictionary/phrasebook but I did French at school so it's really just refreshing things but like anything if you don't do it you won't get or stay good at it. It's three years since I've been in France so my French is really rusty.

[tobasco]

Search for Coffee Break French podcasts. Lots of 15 minute lessons

[psling]

The hardest part of learning a language is to think in that language. The tendency is to think in our first language and translate. Sorry but that doesn't help you now but you'll probably learn more on the event than before! Watch French films, tv if you can. Enjoy the event though whatever

[composite]

I would tell myself that I would try to do 1, but then just end up doing 2...

I have been quite into online gaming over the last 10-15years and played with a number of regulars groups that have consisted of players from all over Europe. I have done quite a few meetups and my normal experience of mixed European groups is that the common language is English. It's not a reason to not learn more French in your case but it does mean that winging will almost certainly not be a problem.

[Jurassic pusher]

Watch French films, tv if you can. Enjoy the event though whatever

I remember watching "those films" as a teenager, happy days!!

[middleagedmadness]

The hardest part of learning a language is to think in that language. The tendency is to think in our first language and translate. Sorry but that doesn't help you now but you'll probably learn more on the event than before! Watch French films, tv if you can. Enjoy the event though whatever

When I lived in Spain the easiest way to pick up the language as Peter says is watch tv , I’d try to avoid films and news and watch cartoons as they are a little slower with pronunciation and they speak correctly , which brings me to the next minor problem is dialect , it’s the same as over here every region has its own dialect comparable to geordie or Black Country , my Spanish is murcian , it’s not so much of a major issue just different words are used for a beer or a sandwich, I’ve been out of Spain for15 years now but still find my self thinking in Spanish and when I get carried away my swear words come out in Spanish and english

[Bearlegged]

I'd go with a combo of 1 and 2.
My limited experience is that you don't need a perfect grasp of languages to communicate. I'll often simplify things to suit the words I know, rather than aim for good grammar and meaning. E.g., while I mightn't know the French for, "Bloody hell, I crawled up that hill near Grenoble!", I reckon that, "Le Mont pres de Grenoble, j'ai allez comme un escargot! Merde!" would get the point across.

[PaulB2]

The last time I was in France I managed to get two phrases out in french and that was about it: "Parlez-vous anglais?" and "Parlez-vous lentement, s'il vous plait. Je parle un peu francais, mais vous parlez plus vites pour moi." No idea if that last one is correct tense wise or grammar wise but it worked!

Most french people outside Paris will take pity on you if you try.

[gairym]

I've lived in France for over twelve years now and when we first moved I spoke literally zero French

The willingness to get stuck in, give it a go and not minding looking the fool is all you really need to get by.

Alpine touristy places will nearly always have folk who speak English and if not just do your best with your French.

I ride a lot in Italy and speak no Italian but it's never an issue, I just ask if they speak English or French and when they say no I use a combination of sign language, gesturing and guessing what the words might be in Italian - we usually end up laughing and I've never failed to survive the ordeal.

[benconnolli]

I had always considered myself bad at facts, therefore languages, but in this last year took a online test to see what sort of learner I was and came back kinesthetic. Made sense as I could remember nearly every tackle I made on the rugby pitch when others would only know the result. Have had some success listening the Welsh learning podcasts when on slow runs and keep meaning to set up simple high rep circuit training with phrases at each station. Learning is a much more personal thing than a school teacher to 30 kids could practically cater for but in adult (ish) life we can tailor it to ourselves much better.

[rollindoughnut]

I had a go with the Duolingo app last night. Quite a fun way of learning.

[jameso]

I had always considered myself bad at facts, therefore languages, but in this last year took a online test to see what sort of learner I was and came back kinesthetic.

Ben, what test was that? Interested. I've tried re-learning the French and German that I was pretty good with at school but had almost written myself off as unable to learn it again. I think it's the method more than the time needed that I struggled with.

My experience in France is that I can get by in French to the point where I don't feel like the ignorant Brit using 'loud slow English' as a substitute for French, but it's poor enough that they often reply in good English. Maybe to save themselves from listening to their language being so distorted : )
I'm always a bit embarrassed by how little languages I speak when it's so common for people in Europe to speak 3 or more pretty well. Being in Italy is awkward as I can never remember the phrases I try to learn before or during a trip. But at least knowing the polite basics helps, I think that's just manners.

[benconnolli]

I had always considered myself bad at facts, therefore languages, but in this last year took a online test to see what sort of learner I was and came back kinesthetic.

Ben, what test was that?

It was a few months ago, but I searched "what kind of learner am" I and then took a sample from a few of the top results which were convergent. Most answers describe what to do about it in reasonable detail.