Great change is afoot

I do apologize for my long absence. I have been trying to figure out how to get my head around something, what it means to our French learning, our lives in general, and this blog in specific.

I mentioned that my husband was away for three weeks. He was travelling in China. After much discussion since his return, we have decided to move there--possibly very soon.

I have been very preoccupied with researching Mandarin instruction, and generally trying not to be overwhelmed by the thousands of things we have to take care of before we can go. I go from being very excited one minute, to wanting to cry from premature homesickness the next. My husband is laughing at me because I keep thinking of all the very mundane things like how will I find phosphate-free, all natural laundry soap when I'm there? Or, what will I do about finding spelt flour, since that's mostly what I bake with? Oh, yeah, and then there's baking--I understand that few people have ovens in China.

We'll be far from family, so I will definitely be blogging, at the very least, as a way of letting family in on what we're doing from day to day. And I've recently received encouragement from Marie at Le Francais Facile that since Mandarin is radically different from French and English, and because children's ears are so open to languages, there shouldn't be a problem with studying both French and Mandarin at the same time. My initial thoughts are that I will find very different resources for learning Mandarin than I'm using for French. I'm thinking of Rosetta Stone (mostly for myself, although my son, who turned 6 this week, enjoyed the demo) and possibly some private tutoring. In addition, found a really interesting program called Active Chinese and a very intriguing homeschooling option at Little Linguists Academy.

Trying to look that resource up a second time, I stumbled on some interesting resources at Little Linguist.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of others. I promise I will continue the series of posts on resources, in particular, my experiences with Pimsleur and Michel Thomas.

French for mommies: Pimsleur versus Michel Thomas II

In a continuation from what I mentioned yesterday (or the day before--Blogger doesn't let you fudge your posting times, and I forgot to publish before midnight), I would like to suggest Michel Thomas over Pimsleur for the following reasons:

1. It is better for the absolute beginner. With Pimsleur, I think a large part of my success was having some previous background in French. Much of what I learned at the beginning I already knew, making me feel an immediate sense of confidence. However, if I'd little or no exposure, I think it would have felt much more intimidating. Michel Thomas, however, starts by showing similarities between French and English, and words one may already know in French from phrases that are familiar in English, such as C'est la vie, building the absolute beginner's sense of confidence in the language.
   
   
2. Michel Thomas focuses on finding patterns in the language, making the language "make sense" early on. For example, in French (unlike English), all syllables have equal weight, but the last syllable always carries the accent.
   
   
3. Michel Thomas doesn't start with the "Hello, how are you?" kinds of phrases in typical language programs. Instead, the focus is on the most commonly used words in French, and encourages guessing--a skill necessary for effective second-language learning. By the beginning of the second CD, you are able to say, "What impression do you have of the political and economic situation in France at the present time?" Impressive, non? Eventually, you get to the ability to greet, but after you've already mastered a lot of other, more sophisticated language.

More tomorrow.

French for mommies: Pimsleur versus Michel Thomas

I have harboured a lifelong desire to learn French. I loved French at first contact, but had an unfortunate series of bad teachers in high school and felt forced to quit.

Since then, life, it seems, has gotten in the way of any meaningful pursuit of French. I've considered classes numerous times, but was kept away, probably in part due to my bad experience in a classroom, partly because I'm picky--I taught English as a second language and figured I knew the "right" methodologies--partly because of expense, and partly because of convenience. I'm a mother of three children. When would I get out?

But when it was apparent to me that the right method for teaching my children wasn't going to creep up and hit me over the head, I decided to take matters into my own hands whatever way I could find. I started digging around at the library and fell in love with Pimsleur. Having said that, I think Pimsleur was working for me because I had some French background already--half the stuff in the first eight or so lessons, I already knew or knew parts of, so I had a good framework to assume the new stuff into.

However, more recently, I've come across Michel Thomas, and for me--so far at least--I'm only partway through both methods--it far exceeds what Pimsleur does.

This is adding up to a fairly lengthy post, and I have a lot more to say about both methods, so I'll continue this tomorrow.