Sometimes I utter a phrase in French, which, as it leaves my mouth, I know to be utter garbage. Some recognisable words in there but strung together in an ugly melange of tenses that must sound horrible, with perhaps a hopeful colloquialism thrown in for good measure...
language
French in a tangle
We are down the mountain. It's a bank holiday. The shops are shut. "Les magasins sont fermés" my brain tells me in French. NO NO NO! That's the passé composé. I've just said "The shops were shut." I think. How are the shops shut? So how do I say 'The shops are shut"? Because 'are' … Continue reading French in a tangle
French School – Language by immersion
'Language by immersion' isn't the half of it. It's culture by immersion too. And change on a deep level. How one family coped, and some strategies they can share...
And we’re still moving…
Clearly I'm not in the mood, this year, to write a dull old tale in chronological order. I've plunged here and I've plunged there and I'm blaming my summer bump on the head for an inconsistent rush of odd memories I've had a sudden urge to document. My current subject here on Jumping Off Books … Continue reading And we’re still moving…
French
I've read, or heard, that when immersed in a new language children absorb it amazingly quickly. By the time the girls had been in school for a month I was expecting to hear the odd French word pop out. Rien. I cajoled them. Some of the French children were practicing their English on my girls, … Continue reading French
The Wild
Suddenly it was May and very nearly the end of the ski season and it felt like we'd barely arrived. I hadn't ski'd enough. Or eaten enough patisserie - the shop was going to shut soon... Plus we were heading towards the start of our third month and the girls weren't speaking French, much to … Continue reading The Wild
Jumping Off Books 