Working French into our daily lives

[songsparrow]

My daughter has begun learning French using Rosetta Stone this year. I took French in high school and college, so I can remember a lot when I take a moment to refresh my memory.

 

I'd like to begin using French more often in our daily lives. I suppose the answer is to just start doing it. But since it's not habit, I tend to forget.

 

Is there any particular place in the daily routine where it would be easy to begin adding in French phrases? Is it helpful to put labels in French on things around the house? Basically, I'm looking for any advice or suggestions to gradually build up our use of French in our everyday conversation.

 

Thanks!

[bibiche]

Why not start with mealtimes? Maybe you can even plan some meals around French food at first to have some fun with it.

[Lucy in Australia]

I was coming on to say "mealtimes", too :) It's a natural place for everyone to be together and you can repeat the names of foods and utensils often. The other thing I did was to make a list (in English) of common phrases we use often throughout the day and I started saying those in French. Once we got a good handle on the basics I added bits and pieces gradually.

[enviromommy]

I guess your daughter may be too old for this, but with the littles I do bath time in French - it's a great way to learn the parts of the body, as well as phrases like "lève-toi" and "assieds-toi."

 

Also bedtime reading in French. I posted a while back that we are having luck with children's books that they already know, translated into French. Again, I forgot to check your siggy to see how old your daughter is, but even my older kids listen in. We have Dr. Seuss translations, and books like "I'll love you forever," "Where the wild things are," "Goodnight Moon." Also, of course, books originally written in French, like Babar.

 

Finally, I do French conversation and practice time in the car on the way to activities. I'll go around and have them count (one kid, then the next) by ones, twos, fives or tens. I ask them simple questions. We drill verbs, etc.

[Shifra]

You may want to refer to a phrase book to give you some stock phrases to use in everyday contexts like At Home Abroad French: Practical Phrases for Conversation by Helen and Nigel Harrison (it was published in Europe as Your French Exchange). Therese Pirz wrote child-specific phrase books in French; her most recent one is Kids Stuff French; an earlier version was called Speak French To Your Baby.

[anabelneri]

One of the best things I've found to get us talking in French is doing a little French myself early in the day. Someone on these boards suggested the Michael Thomas course so I've tried that. While his accent is terrible, he does a great job getting the student to put sentences together using vocabulary they already know. Just listening to a little bit of those CDs is enough to get me using what little French I know with the kids. (There's a free sample in the Apps store if you have an iPod touch, iPhone, or probably iPad. Handy dandy.)

 

Have fun!

[Nan in Mass]

I found it easier to speak French at home if the book I was reading was in French. Somehow, the French came more easily and I was more likely to remember. I second those two book recommendations. They were great for helping me figure out how to speak household French.

Nan

[Ester Maria]

First and foremost, start reintroducing French into your life, apart from kids: start reading regularly in French, find a way to communicate actively in French again, etc. You need this to "be in shape", so to speak, because then you will not have recall issues as the language will constantly be somewhere on your mind.

 

Watch documentaries (or similar content, films or whatnot) with your daughter on the things she is interested in. You can find a lot of them online. They are typically a good way to get exposed to the language while working on the subjects of your interest, even if you do not understand everything.

 

Can you read French works with her while providing for her a simultaneous translation (and then with time have HER figure out things and translate most of it, or quit translating formulations she understands)? That typically helps a ton and is a great aid if you do it with somebody who speaks the language.

 

Music. My daughters pretty much learned French via music, googling lyrics they were interested in and trying to translate them, etc. (Though they have a "discount" having another Romance language for a native language and having overheard a lot of French as children during travel, etc., so they are not exactly in the same situation as most learners - but I still think the music can do wonders for anyone.)

 

If you wish to actively speak to her French, find a *situation* that will be a French situation (others were suggesting meal times or such, whatever you find applicable to your lifestyle, but the point is that the child identifies the situation with the language) and start doing it. In the beginning you may have to explain yourself more or start small, but with time it progresses.

[Julie Smith]

One thing we did for awhile was set our TomTom (GPS system) to talk in French.

 

We have at one point posted phrases in French beside places we would use them. ie. beside the shoe spot phrases such as "Put your shoes on".

 

We are currently reading picture books in french. I'm getting a lot out of these. I am really into. :p one that says "for 2 year olds" on it. (ie. a trip to the farm for 2 year olds) I enjoy listening to my husband read it since I can understand the whole book.

[enviromommy]

One thing we did for awhile was set our TomTom (GPS system) to talk in French.

 

Yes, that reminds me - my DD signs into Club Penguin in French and learns from the signs and instructions, since she knows them in English. She gets into a little trouble when people want to chat, though. She is 11, and no longer interested in Club Penguin except for doing it in French.

 

I have my facebook in French (the background stuff - "like", "comment," etc., and the kids learn by reading over my shoulder. When I go to the ATM, if there's a French option I use it and the kids read the instructions in French.

 

My older kids are learning the most by the fact that I speak to my one year-old exclusively in French. They pick it up as he does. They are constantly asking him, "Où est ton nez?" to see him grab his nose and giggle.

[Mabelen]

One thing we did for awhile was set our TomTom (GPS system) to talk in French.

 

I am a native Spanish speaker so I was very happy when I noticed that our GPS had 2 Spanish language options, including European Spanish, my own! I set it to European Spanish but then it drove me nuts because the street names were pronounced the Spanish Way, and of course it couldn't handle abreviations like Rd etc. I just couldn't function this way! I settled by toggling between British English, Australian English and American English, hehe! But now that we are in a state with a big Spanish heritage and history, may be it would be a great idea since so many street names are Spanish anyway!

[songsparrow]

I just wanted to say many thanks for all the suggestions! Many of them I would never have thought of on my own! Merci!

[Nan in Mass]

Yup! I am taking Spanish this year, and it was thrilling, so much that I had to tell everyone about it, to be able to read and understand I Am A Peach. It would bore anybody but my 1 year old nephew to tears. I loved reading the toddler books about daily life in French, too, when I was trying to learn it. Sigh.

Nan

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

When I first studied abroad in France in college, one thing I did to try to get more French into my brain was to read intermediate children's fiction. I read several of the Lemony Snicket books in French. It was easy enough to read fluently, and the story was cute, even for a college student. :-) Since moving to Switzerland and marrying a Francophone and becoming fluent, I still find myself reaching for "young adult" books like the Eragon dragon series if I'm going to read for fun in French.

 

These would be good read-alouds for you and your daughter, and then for each passage, you could choose a sentence and parse it out- what tense is the verb, where are the nouns, adjectives, etc, etc...

[Julie Smith]

We seedling something similar here, but I'm not doing the readinmy dh is. He reads French books to all of us almost every evening.

 

The ones at a good level for us have titles such as, "where is the duck", or "a day at the farm". He doesrread Robert Munsch books one page at a time. He reads a page in French, I read the same page in english from a different book.

[Nan in Mass]

I just ordered a set of bilingual Spanish books from alibris. They are fairy tales, very very simply retold, so simply that with my French and knowing the story to help, even with only a few weeks of Spanish I can understand about half of each book. I picked the fairy tales because they are something I am willing to read over and over and over grin. Not that I didn't enjoy I Am a Peach and read it a dozen times happily... I just think these will be easier to read for a year. I got my prof to read one of them aloud into my recorder. Now if I can just get her to do the others... They are much much harder to understand aloud because I don't have the clues of the root word being identical in French.

Nan

[Julie Smith]

I just ordered a set of bilingual Spanish books from alibris. They are fairy tales, very very simply retold, so simply that with my French and knowing the story to help, even with only a few weeks of Spanish I can understand about half of each book. I picked the fairy tales because they are something I am willing to read over and over and over grin. Not that I didn't enjoy I Am a Peach and read it a dozen times happily... I just think these will be easier to read for a year. I got my prof to read one of them aloud into my recorder. Now if I can just get her to do the others... They are much much harder to understand aloud because I don't have the clues of the root word being identical in French.

Nan

 

You might be interested in these children fairy tales for Slangman publishing. They are also available in e-books for Spanish.

http://www.slangmanpub.com/index.php?cPath=61_64_22