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Helping My Sister Appreciate French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5444 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 9 30 April 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everyone,
my sister (14) started learning French in 2008, but still seems to have no interest in the language. Now, I study German, and she may or may not have a great interest in languages, but I want to at least try. I remember returning from Paris wishing so much I could speak French. I have tried showing her French films and telling her about our French ancestors, but alas, I see little interest. I brought her home a Le Monde the other day and she treated it with total disinterest, as if it were a mug that should have been put in the dishwasher the night before and didn't belong in the living room. o what would you do to help her love French? I don't want to try and force her, absolutely not, but I think she could learn to like the language a lot. Thanks in advance, Brian, 18 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 9 30 April 2010 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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It would be good if you could connect French to her current interests. For example, if she likes snowboarding, maybe you could sneak into the living room a French snowboarding magazine. Or go on a snowboarding trip in a French speaking area. That kind of thing. If you want to have a really large impact on her though, the best thing you could do is make friends with a handsome French boy and bring him over to your house. lol
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| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5444 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 3 of 9 30 April 2010 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, she loves Avril Lavigne, so maybe I could get one of her CDs in French! I think she's from Ontario, so maybe.
:D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 4 of 9 30 April 2010 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
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Some people just don't have interest in languages.
If she ever gets a French boyfriend, I think that'd change her mind. But it'd probably also make you go neurotic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luhmann Senior Member Brazil Joined 5333 days ago 156 posts - 271 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: Mandarin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic (classical) | Message 5 of 9 30 April 2010 at 7:20pm | IP Logged |
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Her mind is too centred on her own culture and environment, and that probably won't change. Learning a language is just study and hard work for people like that. Your best chance would be her on a trip to France.
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| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6368 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 30 April 2010 at 9:09pm | IP Logged |
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If you want her to have an interest in languages in general, don't force it on her. She may grow to disdain any notion of foreign languages. If you want her to be interested in specifically French, you could invite her to watch movies about France, French movies with English subtitles, listen to French music - pretty much anything dealing with media.
I used to trick friends into learning languages by using the idea of a "secret language" as an incentive. Unfortunately, their interest rarely lasted. :( 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5352 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 9 01 May 2010 at 5:41am | IP Logged |
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As a few others have mentioned, I would look at her interests, and then pick something, whether a magazine, music, cute French guy friend, whatever, that would allow her to make a positive connection with French. Otherwise it will just be a struggle, and as others have said, she will just learn to hate all languages.
Something else that I have done to create a bit of interest with the German language in my community is that I perform some songs on guitar at an open mic. I sometimes perform German songs, and other times I translate popular English songs into German, and sing them this way, and everyone seems to enjoy it, since it is something "different." Although none of the audience has began to study German yet, there is definitely a peaked interest, so it is only a matter of time, I think. Maybe you could create some interest in this way too? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5373 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 8 of 9 01 May 2010 at 5:51am | IP Logged |
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To be honest, I wouldn't force anything onto her at that age. I didn't have any interest in languages when I learnt the petty amount I did at school. It just didn't factor into my life. It was only when I reached 17 or 18 that I began to fully appreciate other cultures and with that came language.
When she's that age, with a brother with a keen interest in languages like yourself, I'm sure she'll desire more to learn or perhaps she'll choose a language that particularly interests *her*. Mum keeps telling me I should try and learn Spanish as well but it's to no avail as I'm not too interested in Romance languages or Spanish culture. Not yet, at least. Above suggestions are great if you do wish to just show her what French culture and language is like, though. Don't take my words the wrong way - exposure to cultures happened from a rather young age for me, I just didn't appreciate it for a while. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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