I’ve picked up the pace on doing French with the kids. We had previously focused on German, in large part because we had a lovely German Saturday school, but COVID put an end to that, at least for our family. Regular school is more than enough risk for us, without adding another indoor activity, even fully masked.
But on a more emotional level, and language learning is all about emotional levels, my paternal Grandpa died in the beginning of the year, and my need to feel connected to my paternal family eased somewhat. (In a good way! Grandpa passing was an end of an era, and I can focus more on my own family in the here and now.) It was his father, my great-grandpa, whose family came over from Prussia, and gave me my German last name. Also I had a fascinating conversation after my grandpa’s funeral with my dad’s cousin about how she tried to speak her school German with my great-grandpa, and how he refused to speak it with her, so great was his disgust with Germany after the war. I had never heard *that* one before. And here I had been a German major in college partially to seek connection with my heritage… I have absolutely no regrets studying German and I even like it a bit more than French, but my kids have French heritage, and I think it will be easier for my kids to reach a higher level in French than German. (English having borrowed almost all its academic vocabulary from French!) So French is the focus for now.
Massive input is the name of the game with kids, and we are doing read alouds and they are watching gobs of YouTube cartoons, but I’ve discovered an amazing new resource for actually teaching French, The ULAT. https://www.theulat.com/
It’s web-based, and like FSI for kids: replacement drills using only pictographs, with hyperlinked audio. I’m thrilled to avoid written French, at least at the start. The instructor, Steve Nesbit, is a gem. He has decades of experience as a language instructor, and has clearly put his heart and soul this project. It’s the real deal. The entire course is meant to be the equivalent of three years of high school language, and I believe it. The first fifteen lessons are available free, and are worth checking out, if only to experience a novel language learning approach. The course is also available in Spanish.
Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
My dictionary says borrow is a German word, so perhaps the latin absorbed would be a more appropriate choiceLawyer&Mom wrote: (English having borrowed almost all its academic vocabulary from French!)
borrow - ORIGIN
Old English borgian ‘borrow against security’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German borgen.
absorb - ORIGIN
late Middle English: from Latin absorbere, from ab- ‘from’ + sorbere ‘suck in’.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
Lawyer&Mom wrote:But on a more emotional level, and language learning is all about emotional levels, my paternal Grandpa died in the beginning of the year, and my need to feel connected to my paternal family eased somewhat. (In a good way! Grandpa passing was an end of an era, and I can focus more on my own family in the here and now.) It was his father, my great-grandpa, whose family came over from Prussia, and gave me my German last name. Also I had a fascinating conversation after my grandpa’s funeral with my dad’s cousin about how she tried to speak her school German with my great-grandpa, and how he refused to speak it with her, so great was his disgust with Germany after the war. I had never heard *that* one before.
My condolences. That always feels like the end of an era.
I actually recognise the thing you relate. My maternal grandfather (and grandmother) was from Austria and it was almost 4 decades before he could be persuaded to set foot in either Germany, though he did go to Austria sometime in the 50s. For years after the war they lived in Belgium (where my mother was born) and he would only go to the French part of Switzerland! They lived in Malmedy where some people do actually speak German, though it is quite a different dialect. He seemed content with even speaking French at home and this is the reason my mother ended up a French speaker.
Later on when my grandmother started showing signs of dementia she lapsed constantly into German and he spoke it with her. So they came full circle.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
I’ve decided to read all the French books proscribed for the 2022 French baccalaureate. The books are all readily available in inexpensive student editions with built in supports. (Extra vocabulary help! Context and explanations!) Plus I just like the idea of being as well read as a reasonably well educated French teenager. That seems a worthy yet manageable goal. Plus it’s only 12 books. Even if it ends up being rough sledding, I can make myself read 12 books!
https://www.letudiant.fr/bac/on-vous-de ... 022-1.html
https://www.letudiant.fr/bac/on-vous-de ... 022-1.html
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
Interesting list. I've read only two of those, so I would fail the Bac! Gargantua et de Pantagruel (abridged at that) because it is an inspiration source book for so much of Erik Satie's music. The other is Alcools. Perhaps I should get busy.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
Le Baron wrote:Interesting list. I've read only two of those, so I would fail the Bac! Gargantua et de Pantagruel (abridged at that) because it is an inspiration source book for so much of Erik Satie's music. The other is Alcools. Perhaps I should get busy.
While I recognize several of the authors, I hadn’t even heard of most of these books. You are way ahead of me!
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
So is like binging Pimsleur a thing? I’ve borrowed the first volume on Libby and it’s 17 hours but I only have it for 21 days, so I’m feeling a bit of pressure and doing two lessons a day on 1.25 speed, and the jolt of adrenaline I get when I think about a new lesson is very, very familiar… There are certainly worse vices to have!
(The 1.25 speed thing is partly masochism, and partly having B2+ listening comprehension at the start. I can understand the speakers just fine, I do pause occasionally when I need more time to respond.)
(The 1.25 speed thing is partly masochism, and partly having B2+ listening comprehension at the start. I can understand the speakers just fine, I do pause occasionally when I need more time to respond.)
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
Lawyer&Mom wrote:So is like binging Pimsleur a thing? I’ve borrowed the first volume on Libby and it’s 17 hours but I only have it for 21 days, so I’m feeling a bit of pressure and doing two lessons a day on 1.25 speed, and the jolt of adrenaline I get when I think about a new lesson is very, very familiar… There are certainly worse vices to have!
(The 1.25 speed thing is partly masochism, and partly having B2+ listening comprehension at the start. I can understand the speakers just fine, I do pause occasionally when I need more time to respond.)
It's definitely a thing. I've done it and I felt it was a nice consolidation for pronunciation practice and basic structures. It's nothing I'd do while at an advanced level, but when I was swimming in the vast ocean of intermediate French i found binging pimsleur to be nice. The worst that will happen is you'll become bored of it and move on to something else, c'est la vie.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
My kids are watching the French dub of Legend Of The Three Caballeros on Disney+. The voice actor for José Carioca, the Brazilian parrot, is speaking French with what sounds like (at least to me) a heavy Spanish accent. French with a Spanish accent is messing with my head. I keep hearing Spanish and my brain doesn’t believe I can understand it. It’s bizarre.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)
Hold up Pimsleur. You think I’m going to show up at a bar in France and expect to be able to pay in dollars? What kind of ugly American do you think I am? (The easily offended kind, obviously.)
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