If you are like me, you want to learn French more easily! I took French for a few years in high school and perhaps one more in college. I retained lots of vocabulary, but zero ability to use it. Three year old French babies watching American Sesame Street come out of pre-school more bi-lingual than I fear I ever will become but it’s not my fault…I blame my ancestors for this. My maternal grandmother was of French decent whose family emigrated to the US from Canada and can trace their roots to France. When they left the Montreal area they left the language behind. Quel dommage…Hindsight is 20/20!
Some of us are visual learners, some auditory, some tactile but if you are like me, you need multi-sensory stimulation to imprint anything into your brain, never mind a foreign language. Taking a multi-sensory approach, here are the strategies I have been using to learn how to be able to communicate on my annual trips to Paris:
Un café crème
Une fleur violette
Play French music, new and old classics in the car, during dinner and while exercising. It’s amazing how tuning your ear into the language helps train your ear to listen to the language better.
Remember that you retain more when you love what you are doing so always make it fun. Take a break when you get frustrated and reward yourself when you do well and before you know it, you will be on your way to becoming fluent!
Bon chance,
Priscilla