May I post a small momma brag?

[8filltheheart]

Dd met with her French teacher today. Her French teacher is a recent immigrant from France who speaks only a little English. Dd turned in an essay in French to her comparing some short stories that they had read and she told dd that she thinks it is equivalent to what her adult children wrote for their classes when they were her age. She kept it b/c she wants to show it to one of the other recent immigrants (they all came over with the same corp) who was a high school French (in France) teacher in order to ask her what she thinks.

 

Then she told dd that she has decided that their summer reading is going to be selections of Hugo's Les Mis (in French.)

 

Can I just say she is beaming from ear to ear??!! She is beyond thrilled that her French teacher thinks her French is that strong! :)

Edited May 6, 2016 by 8FillTheHeart

[madteaparty]

That's no small achievement!! We've been having trouble with French writing here so I am amazed at the feedback your daughter's work is receiving! Very well done!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Writing in French is so difficult!  Well done to your DD!  Luckily, composition skills carry from language to language, so if she is a strong English writer and a strong French grammar student, she's got a winning combo!

[Loesje22000]

Yes you may!

How wonderfull!

 

May I ask, what road resulted in these prestations?

I admit I am very curious to that.

 

If you have already written that over and over again, a link to older posts / threads is absolutely okay!

[Roadrunner]

That's so impressive!!!!

 

For those of us striving for the same mastery of French, can we ask her to jot down all the programs/books she has read/worked through thus far in French? If she has some time during he summer months, of course.

 

So great to hear success stories! Congrats!!!

[8filltheheart]

That's so impressive!!!!

 

For those of us striving for the same mastery of French, can we ask her to jot down all the programs/books she has read/worked through thus far in French? If she has some time during he summer months, of course.

 

So great to hear success stories! Congrats!!!

When she was in early elementary she used 1 yr of French Prep. Then we switched to a combo of Breaking the Barrier and French in Action (the entire program: videos, audios, textbook w/in structor's guide.). She went through all of BtB levels and finished a significant part of FiA.

 

She read the entire Chronicles of Narnia in French (she wanted to read a book that she was familiar with in English so that she could master a larger French vocabulary in context.)

 

She also started watching 1movie per week in French. (She stared off with Disney movies that she was familiar with in English and eventually moved to adult movies she hadn't seen before. Our library has a lot of DVDs and a large number of them have been dubbed in French.)

 

She joined th Alliance Francais in order to get more speaking practice. That is where she met her now tutor.

 

She also spends a lot of time on TV5monde. When she first started watching the flash news, she hardly understood any of it. Now she understand almost all of it. That is where she gets her news from. This link has a post where I link the parts of the site she recommends:

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/605981-teaching-languages-you-dont-speak/?p=6979799

 

But, I think it is really what Monica said. She has an incredibly strong grasp of grammar. She took 5 yrs of Latin and is starting her 4th yr of Russian. Her understanding of language in general is strong. She is also an accomplished writer in English.

 

Fwiw, it is bc her tutor is so amazed that dd mostly taught herself French and just how accomplished dd is that is she is so curious about homeschooling now bc dd is a good witness to the fact that it does work.:) (dd also shared an oral Russian presentation with her that she had recently done and her tutor was equally surprised by that. ;) Love the good days!)

Edited May 9, 2016 by 8FillTheHeart

[Loesje22000]

I contacted the most nearby Alliance Française but their courses are only accessible to adults here.

 

But glad it worked out for your dd!!

[8filltheheart]

I contacted the most nearby Alliance Française but their courses are only accessible to adults here.

 

But glad it worked out for your dd!!

 

Our AF does not offer any courses.  They just have monthly meetings.  She has gone to the meetings to make connections with other French speakers.  

[Loesje22000]

Our AF does not offer any courses. They just have monthly meetings. She has gone to the meetings to make connections with other French speakers.

Typical, how different AF can be!

I have never heard about AF meetings :)

[Roadrunner]

Our local AF meets to drink some wine. 😂 No classes. Apparently here are classes about 1.5 hours north of here, but all during week days when we couldn't make it.

[8filltheheart]

Our local AF meets to drink some wine.

Ours does as well, plus eat food. It has still been a good source of local connections for dd. I'm glad we have made the effort to go bc her French has been greatly blessed by those connections.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm not sure if any of you have read the book Fluent Forever...  it's a very interesting take on learning languages.  In it, he cites some very interesting information about how reading can improve language learning.  I hate to not give the exact passage, but I don't want to pull the book out, so I'll just give it my best guess from memory:  Reading a book (in the target language) adds about 300 vocabulary words to your working vocab PER BOOK.  300 WORDS!  Now, obviously, you can't start out with books, but as soon as you can, it's a great way to add vocab quickly.  

 

 

I feel like there is some anecdote about C.S. Lewis learning French, where he claimed he simply opened a book written in French, and looked up each and every word... and by the end of the book, he had learned French.  But now googling is turning up empty, so maybe I imagined this.  :-D

 

All that to say, reading Narnia in French- awesome idea on your daughter's part.  I've been putting aside Percy Jackson books because I don't like them enough to hand them to ds to read in Enlighs, but they'd probably make a fun read in German someday.  I've also got plans for the original Star Trek series along those lines...

[Roadrunner]

Ours does as well, plus eat food. It has still been a good source of local connections for dd. I'm glad we have made the effort to go bc her French has been greatly blessed by those connections.

Ours is mostly a retired community. My kids are too young still (can't imagine them being thrilled about being invaded by an 11 year old), but it's good to know the that's an option as the boys grow. What is the atmosphere like at those meetings?

[8filltheheart]

I'm not sure if any of you have read the book Fluent Forever... it's a very interesting take on learning languages. In it, he cites some very interesting information about how reading can improve language learning.

 

 

I feel like there is some anecdote about C.S. Lewis learning French, where he claimed he simply opened a book written in French, and looked up each and every word... and by the end of the book, he had learned French. But now googling is turning up empty, so maybe I imagined this. :-D

 

...

I'm going to look into Fluent Forever. It sounds like a book dd might like.

 

I don't know about Lewis, but Immaculee Ilibagiza in her book Left to Tell describes learning English that way. (Powerful book in the Rowandan genocide.)

 

Dd's approach to learning French has been off the beaten path, but it has been successful. Quantifying for college apps, otoh, is not easy. ;)

[8filltheheart]

Ours is mostly a retired community. My kids are too young still (can't imagine them being thrilled about being invaded by an 11 year old), but it's good to know the that's an option as the boys grow. What is the atmosphere like at those meetings?

That is the way ours was until about Sept. When she first started attending it was all elderly people. But they were very excited about a young person wanting to learn French and they would talk to her and encourage her. Over the summer a company brought in several French families. That added young people and 3 teens to the group. So now there are other teens at the meetings and she hangs out with them.

[Tsuga]

Dd met with her French teacher today. Her French teacher is a recent immigrant from France who speaks only a little English. Dd turned in an essay in French to her comparing some short stories that they had read and she told dd that she thinks it is equivalent to what her adult children wrote for their classes when they were her age. She kept it b/c she wants to show it to one of the other recent immigrants (they all came over with the same corp) who was a high school French (in France) teacher in order to ask her what she thinks.

 

Then she told dd that she has decided that their summer reading is going to be selections of Hugo's Les Mis (in French.)

 

Can I just say she is beaming from ear to ear??!! She is beyond thrilled that her French teacher thinks her French is that strong! :)

 

HUGE compliment and HUGE congratulations to you. No small feat indeed. You deserve to brag. Congratulations to her (and to you, mama, it must feel so good).

[8filltheheart]

Just an update.  Dd met with her French tutor again today.  She told dd that the response from the teacher was affirmative--yes, it was definitely on a high school level.  :)  

[Loesje22000]

:party:

 

So glad for you!

[visitor]

Well done congratulations!