The French legend meant for today (we didn’t plan it!)

Dear French Story Listeners,

I have a little confession. This week’s story has been sitting quietly in our files for a while… we simply forgot to publish it.

And yet, here it is, arriving today, November 2nd, le jour des Morts, the day after la Toussaint.

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Have you ever tasted a chouquette?

Dear French Story Listeners,

Last week I told you about Vladimir, and how we are building his spoken French one small step at a time with the progymnasmata.

We started with a simple fable and kept going from there.

Nothing rushed and nothing forced.

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ActiveAging7 AdultLanguageLearning3 ApprendreLeFrançais9 Béarn1 boulangerie7 charlottemason130 CharlotteMasonHomeschool7 Chouquettes1 CommonplaceBook2 comprehensibleinput303 FrenchBakery1 FrenchImmersion20 FrenchLanguage10 frenchlearning8 FrenchLifestyle1 FrenchListening7 FrenchPastry2 frenchstories17 frenchstory8 FrenchVocabulary4 homeschool108 homeschoolfrench46 HomeschoolLanguages3 ImmersionWeekend1 learnfrench41 LearningAtAnyAge4 LeVoleurDeChouquettes1 LivingBooks8 narration126 NeverTooLate9 Over501 pau20 PauFrance6 RetirementGoals6 SeniorLearners4 SlowTravel1 storylistening194 TravelFrance1

Speak French more freely: start with a fable

Dear French Story Listeners,

This week I began a new adventure with Vladimir, whom I’m coaching to speak French with more ease and spontaneity. Maybe that sounds familiar? 😊

We started with an exercise that has shaped good speakers for over two thousand years: the Mythos,

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The French word that means both “suspicion” and “a pinch of salt”

Dear French Story Listeners,

Let’s begin with one small French word, un soupçon.

It means a suspicion, that little feeling that something isn’t quite what it seems.

It also means a tiny bit, as in un soupçon de sel (a pinch of salt).

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“Put It Away”: Freshened Wits for Your French Journey

Dear French Story Listeners,

Have you ever noticed that around the fifteen-minute mark of anything — a lesson, a podcast, a task you’re not thrilled about — your mind quietly starts to wander?

You’re not doing it wrong. Your brain is just doing what brains do.

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Telling It Back: A Gentle Way Into French

Dear French Story Listeners,

Think about the last time you told someone about a movie you loved.

You didn’t recite it word for word. You told it, in your own way, and in doing so, you understood it a little more deeply. You made it yours.

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Can Your Brain Learn French While You Sleep? (It Can.)

Dear French Story Listeners,

What if the most powerful moment for learning French wasn’t at your desk with a textbook, but in those quiet minutes just before you close your eyes?

It sounds almost too good to be true.

But it isn’t.

[read more…]

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