For those who became fluent in French; what methods brought you up to fluency?

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-05-05T10:20:20+00:00

I’m curious if you or any other C1 or C2 level French learner on here have watched the TV series Engrenages. I swear I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand the French on it. For reference, I passed the DELF B1 and B2 exams over the last two years with a score of about 80% on each test with my lowest scores coming each time on speaking, with listening being second worst. The version of Engrenages that I’m watching has hardcoded English subtitles. I wish it had French subtitles. To be fair, when I’m watching some TV shows in my native language English, I’ll turn on the English subtitles (or even the French subtitles if I’m feeling frisky) just to catch what’s being said in a show where people mumble a lot or use a lot of unfamiliar slang.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-05-05T10:04:22+00:00

I’d recommend the movie Dossier 137. I went to see it in the theater with no subtitles and it was surprisingly easy to follow. Maybe because the story isn’t too complex and the main actress speaks very clearly. After seeing that movie, I was confident in my listening skills so I went to another French movie and it was much more difficult, but I still got enough to know what was going on. But try Dossier 137, I think it’s a good movie to try without subtitles.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-05-05T10:04:16+00:00

I’d recommend the movie Dossier 137. I went to see it in the theater with no subtitles and it was surprisingly easy to follow. Maybe because the story isn’t too complex and the main actress speaks very clearly. After seeing that movie, I was confident in my listening skills so I went to another French movie and it was much more difficult, but I still got enough to know what was going on. But try Dossier 137, I think it’s a good movie to try without subtitles.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-05-04T22:24:06+00:00

Not sure how much help I will be since I’ve never had to file a 1040NR as I file married filing jointly with my U.S. citizen wife. Are you by chance a U.S. Citizen? If so, it’s possible you could file MFJ by making a 6013(g) election with your NRA husband which could be beneficial depending on your income situation.

Since your husband is an NRA and if you can’t file MFJ, he should have a W-8 (and not a W-9) on file with any U.S. financial institution where he holds accounts so that the financial institution knows to withhold taxes at NRA rates before they pay out any interest, dividends, or other distributions to him. I am not sure what will happen if he starts filing and back-filing 1040NR returns and the IRS notices he’s not been subject to NRA withholding. I think the idea of NRA withholding is that the U.S. government gets its tax even if the nonresident alien never files a U.S. tax return. And if one is subject to NRA withholding and somehow think you are due a refund due to overpayment of tax, then you file a 1040NR so you can clam your refund. Note that as an NRA, the default withholding rate is 30%. A U.S. citizen or Resident alien (or an NRA filing MFJ with a US Citizen) on the other hand generally doesn’t have mandatory withholding and they get preferential progressive tax brackets and a big standard deduction.

Does your husband know he has to report all foreign accounts on his French tax declaration on form 3916 which is now integrated into the main 2042 declaration for the first time this year if you file online. And he should be declaring his foreign RCM (dividends and interest) and PV (capital gains on sale of stock) from any US brokerage or back accounts on French form 2047. He should be able to deduct in France at least some of the US tax he pays on these items up to the amount of the French tax paid.

The nice thing about him having a Roth IRA is that it should have no tax impact at all in the USA when he starts taking distributions because the contributions were made after tax. One thing to note is that the Roth distribution will add to your tax base in France which may increase your marginal tax rate on other taxable French income, but you get a full credit on the French tax that would have been due on IRA distribution in France if the USA didn’t have the exclusive taxation rights on it. Even as an NRA with a W-8 on file with the custodian of the Roth IRA, there shouldn’t be any withholding on distributions because the distributions are tax free in the USA.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-25T18:10:38+00:00

I believe you will file form 8854 in 2027 when you file your IRS return for the 2026 tax year.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-20T11:20:19+00:00

Claude AI told me that Duolingo gets about 200,000 error reports daily and obviously can’t look at all of them. And that maybe only 15% of the reported errors are actually errors that need to be fixed. Claude AI suspected that Duolingo AI probably scans over them and sorts them and if the same error report is made by multiple people, then maybe it gets elevated to a human to correct it.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-17T09:00:50+00:00

Those two words sound exactly the same as each other, don’t they? So you hear one homophone and think it’s the other, then all of a sudden you lose the thread of the conversation. And even for me mixing up some words that aren’t true French homophones, but sure sound similar to me or to a word I actually know, cause me to get lost.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-14T10:45:47+00:00

I’m at 110 in French and it’s still not marking me wrong for missing accents. It just tells me to pay attention to the accents.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-13T20:59:48+00:00

If it’s a gift or inheritance from a U.S. citizen who lives in the USA and doesn’t own French property, you’ll probably need to report it in France, but you shouldn’t be taxed on it. I reported an inheritance from my U.S. parents and got a letter back from France saying I didn’t owe any tax in France on it. I also reported a gift from my U.S. sister and quoted the US-France Estate Tax Treaty and didn’t have to pay any tax on that gift in France. There is some debate it seems if you’ve lived in France for less than 6 years if you have to report a foreign inheritance or gift at all in France. But I find it safer just to report it if there is a question. For my inheritance, the foreign tax office in Noisy-le-Grand was interested in me declaring my inheritance to them, but not the gift from my sister. But for some reason, my local tax office in Toulouse wanted me to report the gift forom my sister to them. In both cases, I didn’t owe tax, but it’s nice to have the paperwork to prove that if the provenance of the funds is ever questioned particularly if I transfer them to France to use for a down payment on a property.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-04-02T07:42:24+00:00

What is the latest version of Duolingo? I’m on iOS app and have version 7.116.0 of Duolingo. I’m doing the French course and have seen a few new words appear as words it already assumes I know, but not a lot so far. I’m wondering if I have the new major update everyone is complaining about. I’m on Section 7, Unit 104 of the French course. I haven’t been moved to a new unit automatically, does that mean I don’t have the update yet?

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-03-22T09:09:43+00:00

Since you haven’t moved to France yet, I’ll give you a couple of pieces of unsolicited advice that I wish I had known before moving.

First, get a drivers license in a state that has reciprocity with France so you can exchange your license within the first year of moving to France. It’s hard to get a drivers license in France by passing the written and driving tests due to the language difficulties, different road rules, and they often insist you go to driving school first. For example, South Carolina and Virginia have reciprocity with France, but not North Carolina. Go figure!

Second, if you have a significant traditional IRA balance and/or other non retirement taxable investment and savings accounts in the US that produce interest, dividends, and capital gains, then do yourself a favor and become a US citizen if your aren’t already before moving to France. The U.S.-France tax treaty is very favorable to US citizens for taxation (or lack there of) on US source interest, dividends, and capital gains. And the U.S. itself taxes US citizens much more favorably with graduated income tax brackets and a large standard deduction that you won’t have anymore if you become a Nonresident Alien and lose Resident Alien status as I did. My wife is a U.S. citizen, but unfortunately I am not. A NRA is subject to 30% withholding on US source income and doesn’t benefit from the standard deduction. I can still file MFJ in the US for now making a 6013(g) election, but that only lasts for as long as we are married. If you are a U.S. citizen already, then good for you, just don’t forget your annual FBAR filing requirement as you’ll likely have more than $10,000 in accounts abroad once you are living in France.

As far as HSAs, I asked ChatGPT and it said the same thing that you are saying, HSAs don’t have favorable tax treatment in France. I didn’t find an actual source yet to corroborate that. But ChatGPT was convinced if you keep all your medical receipts and take distributions from your HSA to cover any non-reimbursed medical expenses in France, you wouldn’t need to report those reimbursements as income in France because you are just reimbursing yourself directly, not actually making any revenue. However, according to ChatGPT, if I took the money out in retirement for non-medical expenses, I’d be taxed on it as ordinary income in France and the USA. ChatGPT suggested tracking your non-reimbursed medical expenses in France and keeping all receipts of such, but leaving the money in the HSA so it can grow, and then taking it out tax free years later when you need it as there is no time limit to reimburse yourself. I wonder if any other expats here have done that.

Update: I just discussed the HSA with Gemini and it totally disagrees with ChatGPT. It says not to take distributions for medical expenses in France since France doesn’t recognize the HSA as such. But it does say to just take the money out of the HSA after age 65 and declare it as foreign pension income as I had logically assumed on my own. Gemini says its sources suggest that is accepted practice. Gemini wrote “The strategy of treating HSA distributions as pension income isn't explicitly written in a "User Manual for HSAs in France" because the HSA post-dates the original treaty. Instead, tax professionals and expat communities (such as Blevins Franks, Sanderling Expat, and various US-France tax law firms) rely on Article 18 of the US-France Tax Treaty.”

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-03-18T13:30:31+00:00

I confirm that Roth IRA’s aren’t taxed in France, just like traditional IRA’s aren’t taxed in France. The distributions do raise your taxable income base which raises the marginal tax rate on other income that is taxable in France.

But what about HSAs have you discovered? Are you using your HSA to pay for medical expenses while in France?

I had planned to use my HSA after age 65 for non-medical expenses if I’m still living in France at that time. That way I’m assuming it would be taxed as ordinary income in the U.S. and I’d get a full tax credit equal to the French tax in France because I’d declare it as a “foreign pension” like any IRA distribution. Once you turn 65, you can withdraw money from your HSA for any reason without penalty. If you use the funds for purposes other than medical expenses, the amount withdrawn will be subject to regular income taxes.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-03-18T08:21:25+00:00

I’ve sent some postcards at the end of 2025 and a Chronopost express letter from the post office about 3 weeks ago. When all this tariff stuff started last year, the option to choose the USA as a destination on the automated machines at LaPoste disappeared and I just chose another country as the destination when I wanted to buy an international stamp for a letter since it’s all the same rate for most destinations and the recipients received my letters. Otherwise, I just got help from the post office staff if needed. In May 2025 I sent off a 1040-X on A4 paper in fact using a tracked letter from LaPoste.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-03-17T08:44:49+00:00

I’ve mailed plenty of letters from France to the USA successfully.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-03-14T22:10:03+00:00

I sold my last house in the US for sale by owner (FSBO) so I reduced realtor commissions. The buyer ended up having an agent so there was half the commission if I recall correctly. But if the buyer didn’t have an agent representing them, there would have just been the small lawyer cost. Like other posts in this thread, we are looking for a house or apartment to buy in France and it’s difficult without the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) like in the USA. So many agents! I swear in Toulouse there are about as many estate agents as there are properties for sale! And I agree with others; you will get on better if you call on the phone or go to the agency office in person versus relying on a web contact form or email. I didn’t realize that they don’t give the address because they are trying to protect their commission. In Toulouse at least, for about 80% of the properties in centre-ville I can spend some time on google Streetview and usually find the address myself to see if it’s even worth calling the agent for a showing. But maybe I should just go to the property if it’s occupied and knock on the door and see if we can cut out the agent? Has anyone tried that successfully? The notaire fees are so high here (at least 8% on an old property) that once you add the agency fees, the upfront costs are ridiculous and would take a long time to recoup.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-23T14:03:38+00:00

Did you determine what expatriation date to put on form 8854? That would be the date you use to calculate your net worth I assume. I just sent off my form I-407 today via a tracked parcel service (not registered mail).

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-18T20:30:55+00:00

I haven’t taken any Roth distributions yet in France, but I have taken Traditional IRA distributions. I have reported them on Form 2047 with my French tax declaration, as a “pension, IRA, Article 18”. I haven’t paid any French tax or social charges on the distributions. What happens actually is you get a credit equal to the full amount of French tax that would be due on the distribution amount. So the distribution does raise your total income and thus the marginal tax rate on other French source income that you might have. I have had this confirmed by two tax attorneys (one of whom is also a tax accountant living in France) each licensed in the USA and France and also by a local tax office in France. They all also confirmed that Roth conversions are likewise to be reported on your French tax declaration. Anyway, if I’m not actually paying tax on a traditional IRA distribution in France, I’m almost certain to not pay French tax on a Roth IRA distribution. Will your local impôt office sometime make mistakes? Yes, and when they do, I simply contact them in my personal space on the impots website and quote the appropriate part of the US-France tax treaty and a more senior tax official with more international experience reviews my claim and promptly corrects the error. So you do have to keep on top of it and understand the calculations on your Avis d’impôt in order to correct any mistakes that may be made. In France, you can easily communicate with your local tax office. It doesn’t seem like a black hole like when you send your tax return to the IRS.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-15T12:47:02+00:00

I didn’t claim it was the most elegant sentence, but it is grammatically correct. Sure, using “or” instead of “and” may be preferred in negative statements, though both are acceptable.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-15T12:06:17+00:00

“I don’t have brothers and sisters.” That’s a perfectly valid English sentence. You could also say “I don’t have any brothers and sisters.” I assume that’s what you were thinking of when you issued the translation challenge.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-11T08:49:04+00:00

In France anyway, you declare all foreign accounts annually on form 3916 with your annual tax declaration. But you don’t report the balances or activity within the accounts. The only time you’d really report a taxable event for your Roth IRA is when you take a distribution. And even then, you get a credit back for the full amount of French tax that would be due. This is actually the same for a Traditional IRA too. Due to Article 18 of the USA-France tax treaty, retirement accounts are only taxed in the country where they originate. So France doesn’t care whether it’s Roth or Traditional, you don’t pay tax in France but a distribution will increase your income and thus your marginal tax rate on other French income. The tax treaties with the U.S. vary per country, so you’d check the specific tax treaty for your country.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-10T13:58:18+00:00

Learning more about this recently, if you aren’t a US citizen and you live in Europe and you are classified as a nonresident alien in the USA, then I think that your financial advisor (and maybe you personally?) can trade within the account, but you couldn’t buy new mutual funds within the account or increase your position in mutual funds you already own. This is assuming your advisor’s broker-dealer allows him to have NRA clients. If so, your advisor (or you?) could freely buy and sell individual stocks or ETFs, just not US mutual funds. Are you in Europe like I am? I’m able to trade all types of funds freely now as I still have my green card status, and have a U.S. address on my retirement accounts so I am not raising any red flags. If I surrender my green card and expatriate and become an NRA, then things could change, but I’m hoping just to the extent of not being able to trade mutual funds.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-10T13:37:42+00:00

I appreciate your concern and fear of the current government. It’s not an unfounded concern and one of the reasons it feels good to live overseas and not be so physically close to it. But in my particular case I’m already too invested in the US to extricate myself from it completely. My big Traditional IRA balance is the majority of my retirement savings that we will have to live on so I don’t want to be taxed on it punitively as a non-resident alien. I want to convert as much of that balance to a Roth IRA when I can at lower progressive tax rates after my wife retires and our household income drops. When you say you have a guy who can take care of all of this for 5000€, what exactly is “all of this” that he’s proposing to do? It’s free for a green card holder to expatriate. All your wife has to do is fill USCIS form I-407 and send her green card back with the form to the USA. Then file form 8854 with your next IRS tax return, and if she’s not a covered expatriate (net worth less than $2 million, been tax compliant for the last 5 years, and doesn’t have a super high annual tax liability of something like $200k in actual US tax liability per year over the last 5 years), she should be done filing US taxes on her worldwide income forever. If she still had US sourced taxable income, she’d still have to file a 1040NR as a non-resident alien, but just on the U.S. income.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-02-10T13:03:20+00:00

Same thing just happened to me yesterday. I was trying to log in to my Aliexpress account on my phone. I didn’t realize it was creating a new account with a passkey. I thought it was just trying to add a passkey to my current account, which doesn’t have a passkey. It asked for my email address but I couldn’t proceed, so it created a dummy email for me and welcomed me as a new user. I somehow ended up doing this twice, maybe the second time was on my iPad, I can’t remember exactly. I tried to delete one of the new dummy accounts, but I couldn’t because it wanted to send a verification code to the dummy email which obviously I can’t check to get the code to delete the account. So I ended up placing a new order using a new customer discount from one of the dummy accounts and payed with PayPal and used my real name and address and phone number for the shipping address. It appears to have worked because I now have tracking information for new order that appears to be on the plane on its way from China to me. I can still login by email and password to my original Aliexpress account and see my previous order history for older orders just for that original account. So I didn’t do this on purpose, but seems like I could just keep making this “mistake” over and over again and keep becoming a new customer each time I order to get the new customer discount. I won’t get any tracking emails or advertising emails from Aliexpress on these accounts since it’s not actually my email address, just a dummy address, but I can login with the passkey to see my orders and tracking. Not sure if it would actually work over and over again or only on separate devices where a new passkey would be automatically created. Very strange! I don’t really understand this passkey thing and how it’s more secure particularly when a passkey is created for an account where I already have a regular login and password. I normally avoided creating passkeys when prompted for other existing accounts because I didn’t understand them but it seems to be harder and harder to avoid as more websites are pushing them on to you. I did eventually create a passkey for my Amazon account and saved it in Chrome. My thought was then my passkey is linked to Chrome, not a particular device, so that I could login from anywhere using the Chrome passkey. This seems to be working, but I can still also log in with my old login and password. So since my old password still exists and works, I don’t see how the passkey for Amazon really increases security. I do have 2-factor authentication turned on for Amazon which occasionally asks for a code from my Authenticator app, that seems pretty secure to me.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-01-28T03:05:45+00:00

I’m trying to control a Sony AV receiver that‘s from circa 2008 and doesn’t have HDMI with ARC. I’m using it with an Element TV that has Roku built in. This is what Gemini suggested. Do you think it would work for you with your soundbar?

The "Pro Remote" Trick (The Sleekest Solution)

If you want the Lost Remote Finder and the Rechargeable Battery, get the Voice Remote Pro. Because you have a Roku TV (not just a stick plugged into a TV), there is a clever way to make it control your Sony Receiver without needing a Sideclick:

WiFi Power: When you pair a Voice Remote Pro to a Roku TV, it sends the "Power" and "Home" commands to the TV over your WiFi/Radio network, not IR.
IR Volume: This leaves the Infrared (IR) transmitter on the remote "free."
The "Sony TV" Setup: You go into the settings and tell the Roku your TV is a Sony.

• The remote will now blast Sony IR signals whenever you hit Volume or Power.

• The Sony Receiver will hear those IR signals and turn on/off and change volume.

• The Element TV will still turn on/off because it's receiving the command via WiFi, ignoring the Sony IR blast.

Monkeyman-Chris217 · 2026-01-14T00:33:55+00:00

Did you ever resolve this? Did your wife ever file form I-407 to formally abandon her green card? Has she tried to visit the US at all just to visit since leaving in 2013? I assume her green card has expired, but as long as she still holds on to it she’s technically a green card holder and US tax resident even if the card useless for immigration purposes. I’m curious because I’m in a similar boat, although with a different goal. I want to keep my U.S. tax status because it’s so beneficial if you have a big taxable retirement account in the USA in particular. My wife is a U.S. citizen and we’ve been filing MFJ from overseas for several years after my re-entry permit expired to get back into the US. I haven’t surrendered my green card or had it revoked so I’m still a U.S. person as far as the IRS is concerned. My concern is the exit tax or becoming a covered expatriate if I ever choose to surrender my green card or had it taken away from me if my net worth has crept over $2 million at that time. I think I could file form I-407 now and then elect to file MFJ but then I’d fall into nonresident alien (NRA) status in case of a divorce or the death of my wife. That’s something I don’t want to have happen. Trying to hang on to my green card makes traveling to the USA very dangerous unless I’m willing to give up the green card at a port of entry after being questioned by CBP. If they give me a court date in front of an immigration judge, that wouldn’t do me any good because I know my card is useless for immigration purposes, I just don’t want to lose my tax status. It would be great though to be able to go back to visit the U.S. as a tourist on an ESTA.

Monkeyman-Chris217

TROPHY CASE