Coucou les French learners,
L’automne est bien là, fall is here. Last year, My Dear Man and I published a sweet poem about this special season entitled Jour pluvieux d’automne, written by Michel Beau. Our community members met last Saturday to read and comment the poem together. It is such a wonderful feeling when you feel you are not alone in your French journey!
Effet d’automne à Argenteuil, Claude Monet 1873
With the Intermediate class, I am about to go trough another beautiful poem by Victor Hugo entitled Voici la saison qui décline.
Stories, poems and songs are rooted in language acquisition.
Remember when you were a child? You would sing songs, recite poems, listen to bedtime stories. That is how you acquired your mother tongue. No grammar explanations, no spelling tests. But stories, poems, songs and games.
The process is the same with any other languages. Watch my 8 videos explaining how language acquisition takes place.
Find your inner child
During the Advanced Beginner class on Monday, I was telling the story Pourquoi le chat et le chien sont ennemis . A motivated learner wanted to know why we use the preposition ” en ” before the verb in French. The sentence was ” J’en ai besoin “. It is a fair and interesting question.
Of course, I tried to explain the grammar rule. This common sentence means “I need it”. Although it comes out as natural to me, I looked for a logical explanation. To me, as a native French speaker, I didn’t learned the rule first. When I was a little girl, I heard this sentence a zillion times. I got to understand what it meant and then it came out of my mouth naturally, without me thinking about a rule.
Even as an adult, you can experience the same process as a child. Tap into your inner child!
According to oncology nurse, Suzanne Robin in her article “Why Is It Easier for a Child to Learn a New Language Than An Adult”:
For a child, learning a language is part of their brain chemistry. They are literally built to absorb information; they do this in an unconscious state of mind.
When you learn at a young age, you usually only learn to associate words with their meanings. When you’re an adult, you have to do that as well as learn all of the grammatical rules thus making a second language harder to learn.
Children aren’t afraid to sound like idiots and learn from their mistakes. They take pride in practicing out loud, even if they sound dumb.
Keep an open mind. ENJOY.
#trusttheprocess
QUOI DE NEUF ?
Le club de lecture
To turn into an eager French reader, JOIN THE BOOK CLUB!
This coming Saturday October, 16
6pm UK / 7pm France / 1pm EST / 10am PST
We will be talking about Theresa Marrama’s delicious book, La leçon de chocolat. This French reader is perfect for beginners. It is written in the present tense and the vocabulary and structures are simple and comprehensible.
School… It’s the one thing Claude truly hates. Why? Because it’s difficult for him and some of the boys are mean. Surprisingly, through his class research on Belgian chocolate, Claude learns that chocolate and people have a lot in common.
When you are a member, listen to the audiobook. And on Saturday, get ready to talk about chocolate! Miam !
Increase your vocabulary and comprehension #readingispower
Reduce your stress #relax
Communicate with real people in French #youcandothis
Le livre – Où est Médor ?
Following Marie & Médor adventures, I am so excited to let you know about our new eBook!
Marie and her dog, Médor are inseparable until one morning Marie wakes up but cannot find Médor. Where is Médor ? Marie sets out on a quest in Montmartre, Paris to find her beloved dog. Will she finally find Médor ?
It is a comprehensible story written in the present tense with unique characters and exciting twists to keep you wanting more! Rich vocabulary and structures are repeated throughout the stories to provide optimal input. They will help you acquire French the natural way.
Mike says:
Great mystery, rich with vocabulary, structure and highlights of the area where the story takes place. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to it all the way through. What an enjoyable way to acquire the language.
When you are a member, download the eBook for free.
REVIEW OF THE WEEK
The Infant Stage has now 20 sessions with videos, scripts and audio!
The Infant Stage is for advanced beginners who have completed the Baby Stage. This stage continues to make you acquire the most common structures as well as how to tell the time or how to talk about the weather. Each session includes A STORY to help you become fluent in French joyfully without having all the pain to learn grammar rules nor word lists.
STORIES make you ABSORB the French language the JOYFUL way!
Lauren says:
After watching you so much on video, I feel as though you are my “French language Maman”. You have such a calming manner when you teach that is very soothing and relaxing, and because you are such a caring and devoted teacher, you have created a truly supportive and kind community of other learners as is evidenced by how encouraging you and the learners seem to be toward each other both in the chat and in your book club videos. I am also so impressed with how attentive and responsive you are to questions from learners on your website and how you continue to provide such exceptional content!I am currently going through the Baby Stage (to get back my foundation in French) and I love the amazing and creative stories you produce using your white board drawing method. I will look forward to enjoying all of the next successive “stages.” In addition, the content of the reading materials on your website is so rich and wonderful, and I very much appreciate the fact that you and your husband have taken the time to record the stories so that one can hear the French being spoken properly as it is being read, which is so important.
What are you waiting for? Join us now for as little as 5 Euros/month (so the same as getting a nice drink)!
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!
P.P.S Don’t miss our videos on YouTube every weekend! Listen to this fascinating conversation with my childhood friend, Aurore Callias who illustrates books.