Coucou les French learners,

I am back this week with some great news!

Despite the fact it is extremely cold over here, il fait un froid de canard, a duck’s cold (don’t ask why we say that in French ?! C’est très bizarre !). And despite the fact I feel like I cannot keep up on top of things (not to mention I suffer from the pink eye disease!), I thoroughly enjoy the online lessons with my learners from all the over the world. Whether it is Story Listening or co-creating stories, it is truly enlightening to watch learners “get deeply but effortlessly involved in a story”.

My last Story Listening enjoyment was the Queen Bee tale from the Grimm Brothers. My learners loved listening to this story and so I decided to share it with the world. It is the longest story I have recorded so far!

We we co-create stories, I usually have a few ideas in mind so that we have a storyline but I also want to let my learner’s imagination flow. The goal is to focus on the content and not the form. I want my learners to be captivated by the stories, so that they forget that they are learning another language.

Language is after all a tool to communicate ideas!

Here are the latest stories my creative learners made up:

• Sophie adore la viande – Sophie is a billionaire living in Brazil. She needs to eat beef everyday but one day, there is no more beef in Brazil! What is Sophie going to do?
• Olivia habite au Brésil – Another story in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Olivia’s boyfriend thinks he is funny. He plays pranks but Olivia doesn’t like his pranks. So she decides to play a prank on him!
• Alishia ne fait pas attention – Alishia works in the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant in Paris. But she does not pay attention and instead of cooking, she starts singing in the kitchen. The chef is furious! Will Alishia stop?
• Junko et la licorne – Junko is a Japanese nun who sees a unicorn one day. The unicorn can grant a wish, what will it be?

La chose suivante

A few weeks ago, I was reading this interesting blog post by language coach, Justin Slocum Bailey about having the next thing ready to go before getting to the end of the current thing.

To be honest, I am not such an organized person especially when it comes to maintaining good habits! As I mentioned above, I find it hard to keep on top of things at the moment. On the other hand, I have a zillion ideas about how to help my language learners become fluent and proficient.

Just last weekend, one of my dear learners, Alina Filipescu who wrote an excellent blog post about her French journey, told me she really enjoys watching youtubers to acquire Portuguese (as well as French, Alina is also acquiring Portuguese!) and she then persuaded me to make new videos about my life. She told me it would be so interesting that it would not feel like a language learning video.

Although I don’t think my life is that intriguing, I watched this Romanian youtuber who lives in Italy and who talks in Portuguese about the word tulip in different languages. I just loved this video so much! it was so interesting because I could understand what I was hearing (I think because I know Spanish and French, it is easier to understand Portuguese) and also as Alina said, it did not feel like learning Portuguese, I was captivated by the content, not the form! And then I thought: “Maybe Alina is right! I should do it! I don’t have to talk about the nitty-gritty of my life but I could talk about my interests, French culture, the fact I live in Germany and how it compares with France.”

And SO… Despite the fact my right eye is all red and swollen, I could not wait to make a video about the last French film I saw and which my family and I loved. The format is different because it is not Story Listening but I do hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it!

What do you think? Do you like this new format? I plan to do other videos in this format about bits and bobs that I think are worth sharing. My story listening videos are still on every Tuesday and these new videos called “Les choses de la vie”, things of life will be posted on the weekend.

I love hearing from you so let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Happy French acquisition!

P.S. Got friends, family, colleagues or clients who want to become fluent in French? Share this with them, they’ll thank you for it 🙂