French the natural way: top Christmas stories

Coucou les French learners,

When I was living and teaching in England, I used to sing in a choir. Yesterday my amazing conductor, Hannah Brine posted an inspiring quote:

I hear so many people around me saying things like “I am not an expert in languages”

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acquire french11 advent20171 amateur1 autonomous reader42 avent20172 bed time stories4 calendrieravent2 choir2 christmas25 christmas spirit14 christmascountdown17 christmaspreparation7 christmastales1 communicate9 compelling input31 comprehensible100 comprehension250 compteàrebours3 contes4 contesdenoel1 countdowntochristmas6 fêtedeslumières1 fle269 free voluntary reading32 french acquisition12 french love6 french lover3 french songs6 frenchculture295 frenchsong14 frenchstorytime26 frenchtradition49 frenchvocabulaire113 Great Story Reading Project11 input47 laminutefrançaise2 language acquisition229 learnfrench20 lefrançaisnaturellement92 legend78 legends2 love81 lyon5 mother tongue2 natural approach59 nikolaus1 noël20 noelenfrance5 noelenpreparation3 pureci43 saintnicolas2 self french205 singing7 sla123 song29 spirit6 stories40 tales4 TCI74 tools14 TPRS71 weekly french33 weekly videos55

French the natural way: countdown to Christmas!

Coucou les French learners,

Aujourd’hui, today c’est le premier décembre, it is the first of December! French children have opened la première porte, the first door of le calendrier de l’Avent, Advent calendar. C’est excitant,

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French the natural way: listen to stories!

Coucou les French learners,

Last week, I mentioned a story I co-created with a learner to help her remember a list of words she had to memorize. I strongly believe in the power of stories because when your mind listens to a story, it generates multiple connections.

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French the natural way: the only cure is more input!

Coucou les French learners,

Last night, I was tutoring a 12 years old French student and she had to learn a list of vocabulary about all the different rooms in a school: la cantine, le gymnase, la salle des profs, le laboratoire… Instead of having the learner memorize each word and repeat them after me,

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French the natural way: l’armistice

Coucou les French learners,

Novembre, November is un mois sombre, a dark month. Last week I mentioned La Toussaint when the French commemorate the dead. Tomorrow the French commemorate the end of la Première Guerre Mondiale,

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French the natural way: la Toussaint

Coucou les French learners,

This week was special in France. Not because of Halloween, but because of La Toussaint which literally means All Saints Day. France being traditionally and historically a Catholic country, the French celebrate all the saints, known and unknown. In the Western Christian practice,

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French the natural way: watch TV series

Coucou les French learners,

My Dad shared with me this interesting article about Tomi Mester, who is a data analyst and researcher who wants to learn Swedish because he moved to Sweden six months ago. I thought this article was interesting because Tomi mentions that he watched two popular TV shows in Swedish with Swedish subtitles.

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