Coucou les French learners,
As I am writing to you, I have finished teaching my weekly one hour session with my Intermediate Kids group. I love it. I get to tell many STORIES. My learners BOOST their French because I give them rich and compelling input.
Story Listening in action: La légende de la pastèque.
STORIES are the SUPER FOOD your brain needs to acquire another language EFFECTIVELY.
Connais ton cerveau
Rachel Paling who is the Creator and Director of Neurolanguage Coaching® wrote about the brain and what neuroscientists have discovered lately. Did you know that…?
- The brain has the ability to learn (make new neural connections) right up until the day we die
- Once brain cells are destroyed they cannot be replaced is absolutely not true
- Learning a language is an excellent way of getting the brain to make new neural connections and pathways
The brain needs real and personal situations or context to relate to. If a learner acquires new information that’s unrelated to anything already stored in his/her brain, it’s tough for the new information to get into those networks because it has no scaffolding to cling to. Studies published in the journals Nature; Science; and Mind, Brain, and Education support this idea, and a solid amount of research also links personal relevance and emotional engagement to memory storage.
That is why STORIES are the BEST way to acquire new words. Stories give you a CONTEXT. They give the new information those connections they need to “cling to”.
TIP OF THE WEEK
TRY to listen to one French story a day. Go through the weekly suggestions.
When you listen to French or when you read French, your only GOAL is to try to understand. You don’t need to understand every single word, you need to understand the gist of what you hear or read.
The more you listen, the more you read, the more you will understand, the more your brain stores the new words forever.
QUOI DE NEUF ?
My Dear Man and I have just released a NEW PDF Book about 20 REAL LIFE French speaking famous people who changed the world. These are the 20 scripts from the series Culture francophone : Qui est ? on my YouTube channel.
(as well as all the other books!!!) SO JOIN us NOW!
One necessary condition to acquire French naturally is to be RELAXED. When you are stress-free, your brain is opened to NEW information. Your brain is also FOCUSED. That is why I have compiled exclusive videos to help you relax and BREATHE before acquiring French. These videos are a few minutes breathing exercises in COMPREHENSIBLE French. They are perfect to start your French journey!
AND there are many new stories and videos on the membership!
- Le Passe-Muraille, a popular short story written by Marcel Aymé. It comes with an exclusive video!
- Le grand-père qui faisait fleurir les arbres, a Japanese tale about a faithful dog and a jealous neighbor;
- Le monstre du lac de Banyoles, did you know there was a monster by a lake in the Pyrenees?
- Les deux pigeons, another fable by Jean de La Fontaine about friendship;
- Hermès et le bûcheron, a Greek myth about a lumberjack who has lost his ax in the river.
REVIEW OF THE WEEK
Will who has finished the Baby Stage (YEAH!) says: ” Thank you for these wonderful stories. I am going to listen to the baby stage stories, repeatedly, because they help form the images in my mind. Also, many thanks for providing a dyslexic font.”
Shout out to Members! SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE. SHARE YOUR JOURNEY.
Tell us about YOU, how you feel, your favorite session, your favorite story, word and/or expression in a short video on Flipgrid. IT IS SUPER DUPER EASY! AND It helps build a CARING COMMUNITY of French learners.
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!