Sally Day Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 We are using Rosetta Stone French. The boys have super accents as a result but I'd like them to get more confident speaking to actual real people as I've found that when I do drop a bit of French into the conversation they don't do so well. Wondering what other folks do. Speak French at the breakfast table? Use other programs?..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 We don't use Rosetta Stone, we are doing Spanish with Middlebury Interactive, but we do supplement with conversation here and there. My goal is to have a couple of hours every afternoon where we only speak Spanish, but we are not there yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 We do Spanish with Duolingo/Song School Spanish. I like that Duolingo offers translation pieces (and is totally free), but yes, we do use the languages sprinkled in conversation and will sometimes watch videos in that language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BooksandBoys Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 I speak Spanish to my children occasionally. My current goal is to do so a bit (five minutes) every day. My kids are young, so we study informally with Salsa Spanish, labels around our house, and children's books. My kids are learning quickly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted December 5, 2015 Share Posted December 5, 2015 We don't use Rosetta Stone, we are doing Spanish with Middlebury Interactive, but we do supplement with conversation here and there. My goal is to have a couple of hours every afternoon where we only speak Spanish, but we are not there yet! Sorry to derail, but how are you liking the Middlebury courses? I just looked at the website and they look very interesting. Unfortunately, they only have German through high school year two, but that's still two years I wouldn't need to worry about... :-D To the OP, the more "real life" your kids can spend in the second language, the better they will be for thinking on their feet. Our brains tend to organize information so that it is accessible when we need it. When your kids sit down to Rosetta Stone, their brains say, "Ok, let's get out our French vocabulary!" but when they are doing other things, that part of the brain basically goes into sleep mode. You want to wake it up as often as possible! Make them watch cartoons in French- there are lots of youtube like "Dora en francais" for example, there is a great kids science show called "C'est pas Sorcier" available on youtube... lots of options! Passive language is always easier than active- it's always easier to hear and understand than to formulate a thought and then speak it, so give that time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sally Day Posted December 5, 2015 Author Share Posted December 5, 2015 [quote name="Monica_in_Switzerland" post="6713739" timestamp= To the OP, the more "real life" your kids can spend in the second language, the better they will be for thinking on their feet. Our brains tend to organize information so that it is accessible when we need it. When your kids sit down to Rosetta Stone, their brains say, "Ok, let's get out our French vocabulary!" but when they are doing other things, that part of the brain basically goes into sleep mode. You want to wake it up as often as possible! Make them watch cartoons in French- there are lots of youtube like "Dora en francais" for example, there is a great kids science show called "C'est pas Sorcier" available on youtube... lots of options! Passive language is always easier than active- it's always easier to hear and understand than to formulate a thought and then speak it, so give that time! Thanks. This is just whatIve been finding. They are zooming away with RS and have cracking accents but when I speak to them I get the 'rabbit in the headlights' look. I will look into the cartoons and schedule some regular French-only times at home. I've discovered that our local French Institute in Edinburgh has immersion courses for kids in school holidays as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4KookieKids Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Yup, I agree! As much as possible, I'd give them LOTS of times outside of RS to hear/speak/be exposed to French. Just make it part of your day. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kasien7 Posted August 1, 2016 Share Posted August 1, 2016 My 4th grader has done Middlebury Interactive, and has developed a great accent. I do have my kids watch educational French videos on Youtube because it really helps their "ear." There is also a French Disney channel on Youtube, but I find that the screechy cartoony voices are hard to understand and do not give them a feel for the true language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted August 1, 2016 Share Posted August 1, 2016 OP, what level/unit are your kids at? We do RS Dutch, and yes, the kids get some exposure outside of RS. However, they're only in level 1 unit 3 (youngest) and level 1 unit 2 (oldest - youngest is ahead because he likes RS), so they're not really far enough to understand much. I did all 5 levels of RS Spanish, and I don't remember exactly at what point it became possible to watch, say, a Spanish TV series, but iirc level 4 or 5, certainly not sooner. Which doesn't mean they shouldn't watch French TV or speak French to you (or whomever) before that point, but realistically, their vocabulary is going to be so limited they won't be able to handle normal conversations before the higher levels (and even after level 5 their vocabulary would still be relatively small, but at least they'll have a basic level of functioning at that point, rather than being lost all the time). So, while they do watch a little Dutch TV on youtube, or I'll talk a bit in Dutch now and then, or we'll look at a book in Dutch, I think I'd increase the amount of outside Dutch as they get into higher levels (unfortunately Dutch only has 3 levels, but, it's better than nothing - I tried teaching them another way for most of last school year and it wasn't really working, and RS is). A couple of weeks ago when I skyped my parents they kids asked them "hello grandma, hello grandpa, how are you?" (youngest) and "how old are you?" (oldest, which of course was *not* what he was supposed to say, but w/e), and then the youngest had a little conversation about what color hair we all had (blond, red, brown, gray). But, lots of translation help needed from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted August 1, 2016 Share Posted August 1, 2016 My 4th grader has done Middlebury Interactive, and has developed a great accent. I do have my kids watch educational French videos on Youtube because it really helps their "ear." There is also a French Disney channel on Youtube, but I find that the screechy cartoony voices are hard to understand and do not give them a feel for the true language. I haven't found Disney very helpful for foreign languages (because the screechy voices). But, other cartoons are better. What about, say, Asterix and Obelix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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