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We want to learn French
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We are using Duolingo to supplement Rosetta Stone. RS does not teach grammar, you learn to say the phrases, but you don’t learn WHY the phrases change. Duolingo is excellent for grammar and it is free!
I know I sound like a broken record with this, but really try learning French using the method CM used and Google Translate. Decide on a place to start – we chose kitchen/foods/eating. Create your series of 3 or 4 sentences. Say the sentences aloud in English several times until each child remembers them. For younger ones, having them actually act out the action is helpful. After this, I type the whole series into the Google Translate box and we listen to the whole series. It is spoken at regular speed, so we listen to the whole bit a couple of times, then I go through one sentence at a time in the box and listen to the translation until both my daughter and I can say it without the translation. I then say the sentence in English, and dd says it is the target language. I have one learning French and one learning German.
Here is a sample series:
I pour the water.
I pick up the water.
I drink the water.Once done those are learned, I subbed milk for water. Then we subbed in lemonade, tea, etc.
I do not let either of my girls see the spelling of the words at this point. I do keep a list of words we have learned; writing each series down as we go through them has helped.
Are you worried about slight mistranslations from Goolge Translate, or the computer voice messing up your accent etc?
Thanks all. I’ll look into all of them. I think the most important thing for me to find in the beginning is someone or something to teach basic vocabulary and conversation who is a native speaker. I also know that most of language study is never cemented until it has to be used in that country. Every exchange student we’ve ever had (6 of them) no matter where they were from had had years of English but could not function when they got here. It wasn’t until they were completely immersed in it that it became natural to them. It’s funny…our French boys would often have folks come up to them and speak French because they were “fluent”. Most of the time, my boys could hardly understand a word past bonjour. 🙂 So I know that all the work we will do will mean little until we are actually there.
The accent seems to be fine. We have had questions as to why one word was used over another, and for some things there is a list from which you can chhose if you highlight a word or phrase. We have noted that if we pay attention, as was my hope, that we begin to understand that some words are use to denote gender or some are used in place of others when multiple subjects are used or multiple objects etc. With only a little searching I have been able to satisfy unanswered questions.
ETA: I think of this as the higher tech version of Nathaniel Bowditch’s method as recorded in *Carry On, Mr. Bowditch*. 🙂
I have to tell you—-there are SERIOUS SERIOUS SERIOUS problems with Google Translate. It might be OK for very, very very basic vocab, but the second you get past that to words that might have more than one meaning, you are LOST. My dh’s boss wrote a long, complex legal letter to a client in English, and then Google Translated it. Then he asked me to proof it to see if it said what he wanted to say. I thought I was going to die. Seriously. Not only were there WRONG words, there were actual really, really bad things. Like some things came out in French which intimated that my dh’s boss wanted to have a romance with this man, not represent him legally. It was so bad I couldn’t even begin to fix it. Also, my son in Romania often writes part of his letters in Romanian and sometimes forgets to translate them. So we run them through Google Translate—-which helps some, but when we send the translations to my son in our next letter, he always has to write back and tell us THAT IS NOT WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID.
If you want a very real demonstration of this, pick a poem or something with fairly simple but partly figurative language. Run it through Google Translate five or six times, into a different language each time, and then back into English, and see what you get. I can almost guarantee it’ll amuse your children mightily.
There really isn’t any magic way to learn a language. Charlotte recommended the Gouin series BUT SHE ALSO HAD TEACHERS that spoke the languages. You aren’t going to get very far that way. You’ll be able to say a few things. But that is a long, long way from conversational fluency!!!!! If you want to learn a language, you have to study and SPEAK AND SPEAK AND SPEAK. You have to learn vocabulary and grammar and then practice it with a speaker. A LOT. No shortcuts. No magic. You can learn to read one with less trouble, but also with less ultimate utility. My son is using some of the best language materials developed, and had a great deal of class time in a short time span, but even so when he arrived in his field of labor, he had quite an adjustment period and although he has made great progress, he tells us all the time there are no shortcuts and there is no substitute for getting out there and speaking and messing up and making mistakes and speaking some more.
Michele, any suggestions for a good online French teacher? Our currclick class isn’t working out so well.
Absolutely, Bookworm. All six of our exchange students experienced this. After years of English instruction, they could barely communicate when they came. I remember Francois shaking his head one day and wailing, “too much English!” We’re going to start with some basic vocabulary to begin. After we get that and some basic phrases under our belt we will move into some grammar. I just want us have some familiarity with the language if we should get to go.
Good idea to keep the grammar for later. French grammar is insane! And there are a lot of verbs that you will never ever use even if you become fluent.
Actually, I’ll happily take French grammar over most of the other languages I’ve tried to learn or have learned! 🙂 Maybe it’s because it was my “first” foreign language. But I think it’ll always be my favorite!
JUST for pure fun, here is Emily Dickinson’s There Is No Frigate Like a Book, run through Google Translate several times, including Finnish, Igbo, Mongolian, Chinese, Basque and several other languages. LOL We love doing this. It’s almost as much fun as Youtube captions. 🙂
This book bearing. new Or as a sheet, Not damaged. This is the beginning of a Death. How to keep the car The human soul.
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