French has a lot of sounds that you’re probably not familiar with, but they’re not random. There is a system behind them! Once you learn: 

1. How letters and groups of letters form specific sounds
2. How to move your tongue and mouth to make those sounds, 

> Everything starts to click.

In Traditional French classes, they don’t teach you this. You might learn the alphabet or a few basic sounds, but they never dive into the real pronunciation rules.

You are trying to pronounce French the English way, but almost every French and English sound is pronounced very differently, even though you might think they sound pretty much the same.

Also, English has strong intonations on almost every word, which is not the case in French. French rhythm is different, and it can be hard to understand you if you speak French with an English rhythm.

Outside of pronunciation, you might use outdated vocabulary and grammar structures, so it is important to use vocabulary used outside from the formality of traditional French classes.

You might have the impression that French people speak fast and that all the words blend randomly.

In reality, they use different word connections, and most of them are not taught in traditional French classes.

However, that’s the KEY to understanding real fast-paced conversations.