Is one week enough to make any real headway with speaking a language like french ? It will all depend on how you use that one week. The key will be how much you hear and say french words and phrases, and not just how much you read them. A quick plan of action will give you an idea of what you can aim to learn.

Firstly, we need to start off by stating our assumptions. You are starting from zero with no prior knowledge of speaking french. In addition, you have a reasonable amount of time in the allotted one week to devote to hear, say and learn the french language.

Secondly, let’s lay down a couple more conditions for success. Whether you are working with a french course or with someone who speaks enough french to be able to communicate it to you, you must have access to french sounds and pronunciation. The other option of trying to battle through the written words and their phonetic equivalents just is not viable. Especially in a week.

Remember to listen carefully so that you can then dive in to start speaking. First the simple key words that are going to allow you to communicate and get what you want. Then, using some of these simple key words as “building blocks”, go for some very simple phrases.

Here are a few “building blocks” to get you moving for that first week. Just remember, you need to get the audio version and work with it to see really solid progress.

“Yes” and “no”. So basic. So useful. In french, yes is “oui” and no is “non”. When you understand that despite its spelling, “oui” is in fact pronounced “wee”, you can understand the need to hear how french is spoken rather than just written.

Get to grips with some pronouns like “I”, “you” and “he/she” to follow up. To get going, learn how to say the french equivalents and get creative. Your french may not win any prizes for grammar, but you will have a good chance of communicating what you want.

Follow on with some of the useful verbs in french such as to want, to have, to go, to eat, to buy and so on. Stick to the present tense to begin with. You can “bend” the meaning by adding words to mean “now, yesterday, tomorrow”. Again, no literature prizes here. We are on a quest for a rough and ready solution that will help you move forward.

Add in a basic form of negation (”I don’t want”, “I don’t have”, etc) and then names for the key items such as the french words for “food”, “sleep”, “hotel”, “car”, “book” etc.

If you’ve got this far, then let me tell you some good news :

- you are motivated (an important factor)

- these words will allow you to communicate even if it is in “broken” french.

From then on (week two and beyond), you can concentrate on mending the fractures in your french and extending your word power. Remember to keep on with the “hear, say, learn” approach in order to maximise your results for progressing with how you speak french.