Tricky thing for us in the Snowed Inn crew, is that we work hard in the winter to make sure you have a great time and thus miss important time sampling the local watering holes.
parler vou francais
So here we are once again, about a month away from heading back out France, panic sets in as I will soon be conversing with the natives of the mountain community and I still feel thoroughly inadequate to communicate. Arrrrrrrrrrgh why did I do German at school!? I got the measure of it, it makes sense, but a fat lot of good it’s done me with my chosen profession in the French Alps.
So yes’ I’m Struggling with the learning. Repetition, repetition re-pet-ti-on does get it to stick in the cranium , but it’s rather dry. What was so different about learning at school that I am still able to recall phases a recite off German infinitive verbs without a moment’s hesitation………..
And then a distant memory bubbles to the surface “ we uuuuuseed to Siiiiing everythiiiiiiiiing ! ” and if I can still sprechan zie deutch, then there’s no reason it won’t work with French now.
In Fact after a bit of research I discovered there are a lot of positive effects that singing can have on learning.
“Similar areas of the brain are activated when listening to or playing music and speaking or processing language. Language and music are both associated with emotions, the combination makes it a powerful way to learn a second language..”
“Singing can actually help you reduce your foreign-sounding accent”
But most importantly It’s fun!. You can really enjoy yourself, and when you enjoy something learning doesn’t seem like such a chore and you’ll want to learn more.
Still you can imagine that singing about conjunctive and infinitive verbs isn’t terribly exciting I have decide to broaden my vocabulary and pronunciation skills by translating some of my favourite songs into French
So here goes, my first homework assignment. I have chosen the Jungle Books “ I wanna be like you “ Now what could be get more fun than this!!
So yes’ I’m Struggling with the learning. Repetition, repetition re-pet-ti-on does get it to stick in the cranium , but it’s rather dry. What was so different about learning at school that I am still able to recall phases a recite off German infinitive verbs without a moment’s hesitation………..
And then a distant memory bubbles to the surface “ we uuuuuseed to Siiiiing everythiiiiiiiiing ! ” and if I can still sprechan zie deutch, then there’s no reason it won’t work with French now.
In Fact after a bit of research I discovered there are a lot of positive effects that singing can have on learning.
“Similar areas of the brain are activated when listening to or playing music and speaking or processing language. Language and music are both associated with emotions, the combination makes it a powerful way to learn a second language..”
“Singing can actually help you reduce your foreign-sounding accent”
But most importantly It’s fun!. You can really enjoy yourself, and when you enjoy something learning doesn’t seem like such a chore and you’ll want to learn more.
Still you can imagine that singing about conjunctive and infinitive verbs isn’t terribly exciting I have decide to broaden my vocabulary and pronunciation skills by translating some of my favourite songs into French
So here goes, my first homework assignment. I have chosen the Jungle Books “ I wanna be like you “ Now what could be get more fun than this!!