Speak Frog

The French are bad at English

The French are notoriously bad at English and Slate.fr has tried to understand why. It seems to boil down to a lack of oral practice, students learn by writing and reading and are then left to figure out how to pronounce it all. And to a limited contact with English. Every foreign film or TV series is dubbed, therefore French ears never really get exposed to the language they are trying to learn. Baring this in mind, Speak Frog teaches French with an oral method and provides the student with real-life…read more

Sep.18

It’s Back-to-School time!

Posted by Admin in Blog

C’est la rentrée! If you’ve been meaning to learn French for a while or if you would like to re-inject some confidence into your speaking, now is the time to do it. Go to French Lessons to find out more. Book before September 30th: get a FREE trial class and a fresh start!

Never too old to learn!

Posted by Admin in Blog, Language

We often are told that children pick up languages more easily than adults. Having a more elastic brain and less inhibitions must definitely help. But be reassured that your adult intelligence may yet be a greater asset to your successful learning. Recent research suggests that adults may in fact be ‘better’ at languages. ‘Researchers think that, given the right study methods, adults may be as able to learn a language as children. The differences are how the language is studied, immersion versus memorization, and how the person continues to learn’. I am…read more

Jul.05

How to fake French

Posted by Admin in Blog, Humorous

You can fake French or you can speak French. See video below for the first option, come to me if you want to learn! http://youtu.be/edYHlnhxyOI

May.30

Language Forgetting

Posted by Admin in Blog, Language

Bilingual people always have a ‘dominant’ language. It is nearly impossible to perfectly master several languages at 100%. We always sacrifice a little bit of a language to gain in ease in another language. According to Psycholinguistics Professor François Grosjean ‘language forgetting is simply the flip side of language acquisition and (…) it is just as interesting linguistically’. In a paper published in Psychology Today, he also explains how bilingual children may learn and forget several languages in a life-time. This is interesting and echoes with my own experience. As…read more

Dec.13

Animal stories

Posted by Admin in Blog, Humorous

This little girl is a great improvisor and story-teller. It starts with Tiger (Winny the Pooh’s friend) and then a whole lot of other animals get involved and things get a bit complicated. However, all is well in the end! Here is some vocabulary to help you follow. Le matin: the morning Bébé singe: baby monkey Grenouilles: frogs Les arbres: the trees Et après qu’est-ce qui s’est passé? : And then, what happened? Giraffes: Giraffes Chauves souris: (literally ‘bald mice’) bats Un long voyage: A long trip Chemin: path Les animaux: the…read more

Dec.11

Dec.08

Should we defend French?

Posted by Admin in Blog, Language

‘Ne craignons pas d’être un peu puristes‘ keeps saying TV5’s Professor Cerquiglini.’Let’s not fear being purists’. In this video for example, he has a little rant about the word ‘frontière‘. Although he has interesting things to teach us about language, his criticisms of ‘anglicismes‘ or ‘americanismes‘ (= words or meanings directly imported into French from English or American English) he is very representative of the reactionary attitude of some 60+ people. Does it really matter to use the word French word ‘frontière‘ with its amercican meaning? The members of the ‘Défense de la langue…read more

JE T’AAAAAIME!

Posted by Admin in Blog, Music

I often teach in café Evin (115 Kingsland Highstreet, Dalston, London) and I don’t know if the person responsible for the music selection there is a particular lover of French music or if they just happen to have found a ‘French pop’ cd in a dusty drawer…. I had noticed that they were playing the odd French song every now and again and thought nothing of it but last evening got a bit out of hand… As I was doing an hour of French with a student the speakers started…read more

Dec.06

Dec.05

He had been eating oysters

Posted by Admin in Blog, Humorous, Language

Despite the high unlikeliness of you ever being in a situation where this sentence would make sense, please note that, as my 16-year old cousin’s English paper indicates: “He had been eating oysters for 30 minutes when a bear arrived” is translated by “Il mangeait des huîtres depuis une demi-heure quand un ours est arrivé”. After all, we don’t just learn a language to communicate in a practical way! Expressing crazy scenarios where bears interrupt oyster orgies can provide poetic pleasure… or in my cousin’s case, also knock a few…read more

To give one’s tongue to the cat?

Posted by Admin in Blog, Language

To give one’s tongue to the cat (donner sa langue au chat). Sounds painful… And means that you give up on finding the answer to a question, which could be a painful sort of ‘letting go’. Je donne ma langue au chat… I give up! Now, what could these other expressions mean? Check them out on TV5 Monde’s website!

Dec.01