Le Café des flamants roses has a small garden where people can talk English to ask questions about what is being said in French in the café

A lot of missing posts ? Or is it me ? C’est ennuyeux.

Sorry about any spelling errors, I am very tired and have brain fog! Not a great advert for a linguist!

Elderly Person and anyone else who wishes to start learning French, may I offer an additional suggestion about learning French (or any other language).

I taught in an affluent LA, where learning French in schools, from the age four, was compulsory.
My MFL training was very old school, but I soon realised that I had to change my methodology to motivate our reluctant pupils, who unlike the majority of pupils in our LA, came from one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. French was certainly not something that was going to be of great interest to them.

So, at the age of 50+ I took myself off to the University of Lyons, with funding from the British council (one of the scariest things I have ever done) and enrolled in a course on teaching French to primary school age children. What an eye opener, to say the least. I had a ball and by the end of the course was so enthused and that had rediscovered my love of the French language.

What was advocated was that in addition to formal methodology, learning French (or any other language) should be enjoyable and stimulating. To that end we should also be teaching through song, film and animation.

I came back from France, re-wrote the French programme for the local feeder schools and produced materials for both staff and pupils. It was so successful, that by the age of twelve, our more able pupils managed to conjugate être, avoir and faire. Something we had never been able to achieve previously.

What I am trying to say in my usual rambling way, Elderly Person is that, if you want to improve your vocabulary, deevlop a reasonable accent and attune your ear to spoken French, please have a go at listening to songs and watching cartoons and films.

Here are some examples of what we used.
This was my favourite song to teach body parts. My HT thought I was mad, when he found me dancing round the classroom and singing with my pupils. I think I had more fun than the pupils!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siv28wDLf58

This animation was used to teach numbers to the reception pupils.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEz58BblMY

You may find these sites useful:

www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1798&c=22

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETTcskgCv0M

I also second using Duolinguo. At the moment I am using it to try and learn Mandarin. Take it from me, European languages are so much simpler!

Ellianne

To save each person asking everytime, maybe the confused emoji could be used, followed by FR or ENG. Nothing means they are happy to just contribute without being corrected, which is also fine.

A good idea.

In fact there are international codes for languages.

Usually en is used for English.

Originally, two letter codes were used, but there were not enough so some three letter codes were added.

However, it appears that three letter codes for the languages that have two-letter codes have been added, as an option. My thought is that that might be so that in applications a mix of two-letter codes and three-letter codes can be avoided.

Two letter codes are widely used. I have seen en and fr used a lot. I have never seen eng and fra used apart from in that wikipedia article that I mentioned. However I am not one of the people who uses such codes in any depth.

Wikipedia is not always 100% reliable as anyone can edit, but in my experience it is usually very accurate.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2

English is en or eng

French is fr or fra

Usually (always?) lowercase

So by using the international codes, your idea is extendable to other languages.

The use of the confused emoji is a good idea if the person posting is wondering.

Yet what if someone has not flagged simply because he or she had not realised that there is a mistake?

I wondered if a thread where people who are happy for posts to be corrected so as to help his or her learning could leave a note would be good, but the problem is that if hundreds of people leave a note then searching the list could take a time.

So is there a way round that problem?

If people are crippled with fear of making mistakes they can’t possibly progress in a foreign language because they will not have the confidence to try.
I am all for trying it’s how you learn.

Mamie. Communication is everything. I have students who tell me that their teachers say, "if you are not sure it is correct, don't say it". This is nonsense. They make mistakes in English, I make mistakes in French, but we learn from each other. That is what matters
Absolutely this!

Communication is everything. I have students who tell me that their teachers say, "if you are not sure it is correct, don't say it". This is nonsense. They make mistakes in English, I make mistakes in French, but we learn from each other. That is what matters.

I am not looking for perfect fluency, it’s not possible, but am always very interested to learn so thanks fir your comments, and for the star EP.

Ellianne

That's a shame ElderlyPerson that some of your teachers were dismissive. People are trying their best, that's all that matters.

Thank you.

I know what it is like to feel like one is looking up an impossible to climb cliff wall.

It often just needs someone to point you in direction of the long windy path that has been constructed by some people from earlier times and one can then gently get to the top of the cliff.

:18grandMattie. Water is feminine, so I would say”l’eau etait froidE”….
Oui, vous avez raison. Merci!

Well, as they said in a documentary about trying to land aircraft from Yeovilton onto an aircraft carrier in the English Channel "Go round again."

Elianne, not Éliane. Auto correct....sorry

32Ellianne Zut alors .... I've just realised I have corrected Antonia's correction instead of silverlining's original! Apologies
Eliane, I'm very happy to have my corrections corrected! I should have known 'pas de soleil !'

That's a shame ElderlyPerson that some of your teachers were dismissive. People are trying their best, that's all that matters.

Zut alors .... I've just realised I have corrected Antonia's correction instead of silverlining's original! Apologies!

That is an interesting point.

I always appreciate help in improving as long as it is encouraging and not criticising me as a person or predicting my future capability, as, for example "you'll never be any good as a singer".

I am aware that some people regard someone pointing out, even gently, that something is not correct treat it as an insult.

I struggled with some things and some teachers helped and some were dismissive suggesting that what I asked was a silly question and either not answering or replying with "Well what do you think?" leaving me puzzled or needing to guess and maybe getting it wrong, so when in later life I have been able to help someone where I knew the answer I would always answer gently with never any derogatory remarks.

As I have got older I have realised that they were younger then than I am now and that although teachers were built up as being like kings and queens they were just people going to work.

silverlining
il n'y a pas de soleil
pas is nearly always followed by de like beaucoup de
je n'ai pas de café dans le placard
but je n'ai pas d'argent because argent begins with a vowel.

Water is feminine, so I would say”l’eau etait froidE”….

To save each person asking everytime, maybe the confused emoji could be used, followed by FR or ENG. Nothing means they are happy to just contribute without being corrected, which is also fine.

Thank you Antonia. Much appreciated.

*In the café there is the following. Excusez moi je n’avez pas Francais dans l‘ecole .En Mercredi je vais ?‍♀️ dans la Mer en Kent, pas de froid et je etais tres heureuse. Au Jour dui le soleil est ne pas dans evidence. Il vent arrivez et peutetre l‘ete est fini.
Je espere not. A bientot mes ami.*

A good effort, but even with my limited knowledge of French I can note some places where an alteration would improve it. As the café is intended to help people learn, could the teachers advise please?
I'm not a French teacher but my level is reasonable.
I would say:
Excusez-moi, je n'ai pas appris le français à l'école. Mercredi, je suis allée me baigner dans la mer à Kent. L'eau n'était pas froid et j'en était très heureuse. (If it's a woman speaking - if not, then 'heureux.')
Aujourd'hui il n'y a pas du soleil. Le vent arrive et il est possible que l'été soit fini. J'espère que non. Au revoir mes amies.

En Anglais, s’il vous plait

Oh please do Ellianne. .

I have picked up what little I know from holidays etc so many mistakes but if it is even very roughly understandable I am happy. However any correction will be gratefully accepted.
I have a book ..The Franglais Lieutenants Woman, it is very amusing and surprisingly easy to understand even for me a total amateur.
Thank you EP.

Can we have some pointers set please as to whether posters want to be corrected, and
as to whether they want explanations in French or English? Don't want to jump on anyone's attempts and upset them.