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 LifelongLearning15 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,

[read more…]

AdultLearners1 ApprendreLeFrançais9 BrainHealth5 charlottemason130 ClassicalEducation2 ClassicalRhetoric1 CMHomeschool2 comprehensibleinput303 fables22 fle307 frenchfluency20 frenchlearning8 FrenchListening7 frenchstories17 homeschoolfrench46 homeschooling113 lafontaine17 learnfrench41 LearningAfter502 LeCoqEtLaPerle1 LifelongLearning15 narration126 NeverTooLateToLearn8 Progymnasmata1 retelling5 SeniorLearners4 speakfrench214 storytelling40

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).

[read more…]

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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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Your Memory Is Not Fading — It Is Filtering

Dear French Story Listeners,

Let me ask you something.

Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten why you went in? Set your glasses down and spent ten minutes looking for them?

These little moments can feel alarming, but they are in fact completely normal,

[read more…]

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You Don’t Need a Good Memory to Learn French

Dear French Story Listeners,

I’ve been a little quiet lately, and I’ve missed you.

After more than a month away from YouTube, My Dear Man (behind the stage) & I are  back!

Not with a story this time, but with something I felt called to share.

[read more…]

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The Secret Ingredient That Makes French Actually Stick

Dear French Story Listeners,

Here’s something I want you to sit with for a moment:

You don’t acquire a language by studying it.

Léandre et Héro – Jean-Joseph Taillasson (1745-1809) You acquire it by living inside it, even briefly,

[read more…]

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