Good Morning French

We started out our morning with the planned two hours of French.  Well, I think it was probably an hour and a half (which is where the boys seemed to max out) and I admit, there was a fair bit of English.  But it was very positive, encouraging, stimulating, and fun!  After a breakfast of encouraging the kids to use as much French as possible and Mimo and I communicating as much as possible in French, Mimo donned the clown wig and cowboy hat to teach us this song.  If only I thought to take a picture!  (Actually, I did think of it, but I didn’t want to interrupt the momentum.)  Zach was our only unwilling participant, but after a discussion about whether or not he wants to learn (he does) and why he wasn’t trying (he felt embarrassed about saying things wrong and felt like it slowed down communication too much) his attitude turned around and he enjoyed the song.  He has agreed to give it his all tomorrow and the following days and weeks.  I hope he does.  His command of his native language is incredible.  I have little doubt that he will pick up on French and surpass me in a short period of time.  Anyway, Mimoza was great!  

I read a children’s story to Ben and Mimoza (Petit cochon est coincé – from Usborne’s Petit contes de la ferme , Volume 1).  I think I will make this a regular part of our morning routine.  

At first I was worried that my Canadian French was going to be vastly different from her Parisian French.  But that is not the case.  Definitely, there is a different in her accent, which can be heard even while she is speaking English.  But she has said my pronunciation is very good and when I listen to her speak I have no problem understanding her (that is, with the words I actually understand!  And they are very limited!)  I think the biggest Canadian/Parisian differences are found in the expressions – the figures of speech.

After we do this for a while we’ll probably mix things up and have our two hour allotment of French at  a different time of day.  That will give us a chance to learn other words, phrases, expressions that repeatedly happen at some other time than morning.  It will also ensure that Mimo gets to learn all of the English breakfast stuff.

Exciting times!

Live-in Language Tutor

We’ll have another French-speaking au pair soon  (in January)!  The plan is for two hours a day of French only. We have au pairs lined up now until August. If all goes as planned we’ll be ready to start working on Arabic with an Arabic-speaking au pair by September.

Forvo – All the Words in the World. Pronounced

I found Forvo over on Southpaugh Homeschool and I think it’s a GREAT idea!  Get over to it now and add some words in your language.  

 

What is Forvo?

Forvo is the place where you´ll find words pronounced in their original languages.Ever wondered how a word is pronounced? Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can also help others recording your pronunciations in your own language.

Join Forvo for free

Join us whatever your language is and help the world to communicate better. Enjoy listening and collaborating.

New to Forvo?

Use the “play icon”  next to words through the web to listen pronunciations.

So come on… what are you waiting for? Get over there and help make this site as great as it could be!

Farm French

For two days now everyone has been involved in drawing and labeling farm items in French!  They are going to cover the walls soon at this rate.

 

This is one of my personal favorites – by Ben. 

 

(More photos on Flickr)

 

Language Update

We’re still working away at our French.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t pursue it at a level meeting my own expectations without help.  However, we continue to persist as consistently as possible.  Everyone (including me) has been doing their Rosetta Stone French lessons.  We have the French radio station tuned in. Ben, in particular, likes to watch Youtube videos of how to say the alphabet and numbers.  I like all the ones posted by imagiers. They all love the Pigloo videos.  My personal favorite is Moi J’aime Skier.  (Think “YMCA”) The tunes are catchy and as soon as I get a few spare moments I’m going to figure out and translate the lyrics.  We’ll learn them and we’ll sing them.

The single most helpful thing for my French learning was having Annie live with us.  So now, for that reason primarily and a host of others, we are considering getting another au pair.  The trick right now is figuring out where we can sleep someone.  If we can free up a bedroom it will work.  I won’t put all the boys in one room again because of their waking patterns.  Some are early risers and some are not and I don’t want the late risers grumpy because of the early risers waking them.  Alternatively, we can’t put an au pair in the basement where the kids play and all the craft stuff is set up.  No privacy!  Anyway, I’m hoping to find a solution that everyone is happy with.  Then I’ll be looking for an au pair who will speak only French to us for the first two hours of every day.  I’d also like the pre-supper hour to be a French hour focused on Noah and Ben while I prepare the meal.  I don’t want any sort of “program”.  Just conversation.  ”Oh, look, you found your stuffed puppy!  He’s brown.  Is he soft? Nice dog.  Can you pet him? Don’t play with the garbage can.”  All in French of course.  

We went to a drop-in French program at the library.  The group that does it is funded through the Ontario government (it is an Ontario Early Years Program).  It was fabulous!  The young girls that did it were dressed up kind of “Big Comfy Couch” style, but less clownish.  I can’t think of a better example since we don’t have television.  I’m out of touch.  Anyway, they were very animated, lively, and used lots of actions and visuals to reenforce the language (which was entirely French).  They kept the kids engaged for the entire hour.  

Unfortunately, this program only runs for a few weeks.  But I have been given some dates and times for other programs they are running.

Alright… so there is our little French update.  Oh, next week’s theme for the library program is “farms” so we are going to focus on that throughout the week.  Gabe is very eager.  I think he was inspired by the program too.  When we got home he drew a scene using Tux Paint and then asked me the French spelling of various things and labeled his picture.

Radio and News

I’m looking for more things like RadioJunior.   I’d love to find a good folky French radio station that I can listen to online.  I just haven’t really had the chance to look yet, but I will.  In the meantime, if you know of anything….. let me know!

I like listening to the French news because I can pick out stuff just by knowing what is going on in the world.  For example this morning I understood “Barack Obama”.  What? Not French?  Ok… so I did understand a lot of the context as well!  I think that just listening to the rhythms and inflections is helpful, even when I don’t have a clue what they are talking about.

More Neglect

This blog will be ignored for at least a couple more weeks.

Constant Reminders

Specific to the area that they are posted in, these lists of phrases are around the house.  Soon I’ll be taking them down and reposting them in the new place…… perhaps with a few additional lines.

Something Familiar

The latest thing we have been doing for my French lessons is reading this book – L’Agneau.   Although it is advanced for my ability it is a familiar story, which helps.  Not only is the story familiar, but I have the English version of the book!  But just to be able to read this book, to understand it, to not need too many pronunciation corrections, is a testament to how much Annie has helped me with my French over the summer!  It is very exciting.  I love language learning!

The book also comes with a CD so I will be able to listen to that to continue hearing the proper pronunciation even after Annie is gone.  This will also help with oral comprehension.

Over a Month!?

Wow! This blog is terribly neglected.  It’s been over a month since I’ve posted.  Well, for now I will just say that I am extremely happy with the progression of my French.  I have a long, LONG way to go, but there is definite improvement. My fridge-magnet-sentences require fewer corrections, there are fewer stops for pronunciation correction while I’m reading, and a few grammatical things that I could never wrap my head around have finally clicked!  Annie is only here for two more weeks and we are maximizing the time for French lessons.  I think I mentioned it before, but I really wanted to go at my pace (as opposed to the kids’ pace).  I figure that the more I can improve during this time of having a native French speaker in the house, the more I will be able to teach the kids when she is gone.

More to come soon……..