Hi everyone
I know this isn't exactly a new or original topic (!) but I have just started living in Lille and intend/hope to stay here for up to a year. I'm 47 years of age, divorced, and a Spanish teacher/translator by trade.
I can communicate in French but I'm quite embarrassed by how much my French ability has deteriorated, due to my previous focus on Spanish, so the reason for me being here is to vastly improve my French (as well as get over a broken heart lol).
How do I meet people? I've been to the gym, and generally out and about, but due to my general lack of confidence in speaking French I find it quite hard to initiate conversation and make friends in the normal way.
I'm naturally quite outgoing and in terms of work, I do Spanish translation online but also need to find some kind of work over here (but I will address that issue via the jobs forum).
Any advice gratefully received and once again I'm sorry for the highly unoriginal topic 
New to Lille...How do I meet people?
Well your way ahead of me as my French is almost non existant.
Now to meet people my suggestion is follow your hobbies as you will already have a common interest even if not a common language. This is what I intend to do once we relocate in a couple of months. I shall be contacting the nearest group of the MG Car Club and MG Owners club once we settle on a place to live. As I also enjoy watching wildlife that is another option for me to look into.
My feelign is that meetign those with common interests will help me to learn and pick up French more quickly then if I just try to learn form a computer programme or lessons alone plus it will allow me to meet others and possibly make new friends.
Good luck with your new life and I hope it is great adventure.
Hi there and welcome to Lille. I've been here for almost a year and it can be tough without knowing a lot of French. Luckily I've had my French girlfriend to guide me.
Do you know the Cafe de Paris event on Wednesday nights? It's organized by the Lille International Friends group on Facebook. Between 8pm and 9pm, people from all over show up at the Cafe de Paris on Rue de Paris. There are a lot of Spanish speakers as I remember and some English, French, German and others.
My girlfriend is studying to be a French teacher and loves speaking Spanish. If you wanted to meet for a drink sometime, I'm sure she'd love to find out about what it's like making it as a language teacher.
Hai am neelesh a guy who's new to Europe and really a stranger hear in this place called Lille so it would be nice if your interested to meet and have a good chat ....sorry am not good a french but I do speak English 😋😋
What has been suggested to me: join a choir, join a community group where you can voluteer to help with events, take language workshops.
I found a great French teacher who knows just about everyone in our area, and she has introduced me to both her English students and her French students. She hosts workshops where we all meet socially.
If you can find the right teacher it might be a great way to start networking while your language skills advance.
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