Anyone french, or fluent?

[dweymer]

I am homeschooling my 6yo and want to teach her french. I know enough to sound stupid. I am looking for suggestions on good resources or any other pertinant info.


BTW: please don't turn this into a homeschooling is terible thread, and no I am not some crazy zealot, or anti-government goof.



TIA
D

[K. Roman]

Originally Posted by dweymer

BTW: please don't turn this into a homeschooling is terible thread, and no I am not some crazy zealot, or anti-government goof.

Wrong forum, we still call french fries, Freedom Fries around here.

But, I would check out the French in Action series. I always enjoyed those, plus the hot girl in it was tres bien.

[Tishabet]

Why not get her a French tutor? Then, after a year or two, family vacation for a couple of weeks in France.

[notfarnow]

I went to french immersion, then went to an all-french school in HS. I'm fluent, and about 20% of my work is in french. I'll check and see what I can find for you.

I have friends who teach grades 1-4 french. I could find some elementary school textbooks for you, or even get some curriculum outlines for the immersion program if that interests you.

PS: a neighbor (who is also not a wacko-type) homeschooled their kids. They are in their teens now, the kind of kids everyone hopes their kids grow up to be. Smart, considerate and very well-rounded.

[Dottore]

I second the suggestion to take her to France (or Quebec) for a holiday to get her into the sound and feel.

Then, there are some great interactive French language course on CD. My wife became fairly fluent just working off one of these sets.

Kids at that age learn languages incredibly easy. I'd also get her started on Mandarin. That's the language of the future.

[dweymer]

Originally Posted by notfarnow

I have friends who teach grades 1-4 french. I could find some elementary school textbooks for you, or even get some curriculum outlines for the immersion program if that interests you.

I would really appreciate that.

She is going to a formal class once a week but I want to supplement at home, and learn myself. A 2 week trip to france is in the planning stages for next fall.

D

[rattlsnak]

Rosetta Stone?

http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/languages/french

[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by dweymer

I would really appreciate that.

She is going to a formal class once a week but I want to supplement at home, and learn myself. A 2 week trip to france is in the planning stages for next fall.

D

Sounds good, I'll fire off a couple emails today. Could be a week or two before I hear back, most teachers are still tearing up the summer before school starts again.

Learning a 2nd language is a great idea... makes picking up additional languages much easier, because it makes you more aware of how words are assembled and how language works. I recently started learning Spanish... it's a breeze.

Once she gets the basics, some french TV is a great way to build language skills because you can generally follow along even if you're struggling with some of the words. When I taught English to adults in Quebec, I'd get them to pick a TV show to watch a couple times a week. I'd watch it too then we'd discuss it in our tutoring sessions. TV was much easier to follow than radio, especially when you're first starting.

[old man neri]

Download some french cartoons for her?

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Rosetta Stone?

http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/languages/french

+1

I used rosetta stone to learn some basic Hindi, and I was very pleased. If I remember correctly, you can simply pay a monthly subscription, and use their services online. The combination of audio associated with the photos really stuck.

[jyl]

Great topic.

Look into satellite TV which has good international programming.

Subscribe to French kids' comics like J'Aime Lire, maybe can get the French-Canadian equivalent for cheaper.

Take a vacation in Quebec (much cheaper than going to France), find used bookstores/thrift shops, load up on kids' French-language books and videos.

Maybe there are French-speaking groups, classes, after-school programs, activities in your area. For adults there is the Alliance Francaise, not sure about kids.

There are some French immersion schools in NC. Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro. Maybe they can suggest something?

Most DVDs can be switched to French audio track.

Also, I think the home-school community is pretty active, isn't it? Maybe other home-schooling parents have wlked down this path before and could advise.

Similar ideas would apply to Mandarin Chinese.

[Rick Lee]

You may want to consider having her learn Mandarin instead.

I don't think a short vacation anywhere is gonna do much for a young kid's language abilities. FWIW, I aced German in prep school, was probably the best and still had a tough adjustment when I went there to be an exchange student at 16. A few mos. there made a world of difference. But a week or two would have made none. With the Internet now, it's a lot easier to immerse oneself. My wife watches Chinese sitcoms on Youtube every day. Back when I was a teenager, all I had for that stuff was a short wave radio. In college we had a pretty serious language lab and that helped a lot with my Russian. I was still pretty lost when I ended up in the Ukraine and had to get around on my own.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

You may want to consider having her learn Mandarin instead.

I don't think a short vacation anywhere is gonna do much for a young kid's language abilities. .

Agree on the first point. Disagree on the second

We had a week in Germany with a 7 year old niece who had no exposure to German. We made a point of explaining everything to her in German.

By the end of one week she was stringing complete sentences together in German, and had even developed an ear for sentence structure in German.

We were in a food market in Bavaria and she suddenly says in perfect German "Warum haben die huehner hier alle koepfe? Bei uns haben sie keine koepfe." We couldn't believe it.

Really quite phenomenal what kids can absorb at that age.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Dottore

We were in a food market in Bavaria and she suddenly says in perfect German "Warum haben die huehner hier alle koepfe? Bei uns haben sie keine koepfe." We couldn't believe it.

Bavarian is whole different kind of German. I love it, but I wouldn't want to start out learning in one of the dialect areas like Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland or eastern Germany. I'm thankful I was an exchange student in NR-Westfalen, when they speak just the way I was taught in school. But I still had a hard time with it back then.

[Rikao4]

My wife stayed with my german relatives during a deployment...
month later she spoke it somewhat well..understood it VERY well.
Kid's learn this stuff fast, as they are not afraid to TRY & don't really care if they mess up.
Adult's want to speak like a native after 30 minutes of tapes,
or why don't they speak 'American' here.

Rika

[dweymer]

The vacation is more of a cultural thing, not to learn the language but the people, and give exposure to other ideas and ways of living. I hope to rent an appartment out in a town.

[HardDrive]

I just checked the Rosetta Stone website. Its $50 a month!!! Thats crazy. I used them just a few years ago and they were $10 a month. WTF? High fuel prices making the internet more expensive? What baloney.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I'm thankful I was an exchange student in NR-Westfalen, when they speak just the way I was taught in school. But I still had a hard time with it back then.

Where in NR-Westfalen? My dad is from there...

[Rick Lee]

A tiny company town called Harsewinkel, school was in Versmold, Kreis Guetersloh.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

A tiny company town called Harsewinkel, school was in Versmold, Kreis Guetersloh.

Guetersloh. Home to the world's largest media group. Bertelsmann AG. BMG.