LuigiG
Hi,
we are a French family looking for a native English speaker (young female) to train our 8 year old boy with conversational sessions in our place, twice a week.
Our son went to International schools so far. His level of English is good. However now that he is going to the French school we don't want him to forget the English language.
Therefore the goal of these sessions will be to maintain (at least) his level of English by speaking as much as possible with him through games or whatever you may find appropriate.
We are located in Umalas - Petitenget.
If you are interested or need more details please contact me.
LG
Markit
Just restrict his television usage to English children's shows - course he may end up talking like Sponge Bob but that will be better than like a "young female" won't it? We know where that leads...
Markit
YPDN all good ideas but clearly from someone with no children or possibly very "hands off" experience?
Kids have their very own ideas about what you are going to do with them and there aint no changing that. Have daughter that when we lived in Germany flatly refused to speak English with her father because she knew I spoke German too. When we all finally got to England to live she started speaking the Queens English within a year. With the plumiest English accent you can imagine - where she got that no clue as mine is American and her mother's German... My money's on the much maligned English school system.
You can lead a horse to English, but you can't make him speak...
Try Sponge Bob OP
Markit
Dude you need to lighten up a bit - disagreements here aren't settled at dawn with flintlocks and are nearly always amicable. I'm not used to dealing with other posters with dire considerations for their feelings so "man-up!" as the daughter would say.
I stopped crying almost immediately after being told off :O)
YPDN
Post #6
You wanna I should send you a couple Kleenexes? :icon_wink:
I for one will be interested in what the OP ends up doing.
YPDN
Post #1
Good overall plan, LG, for your 8-yr old. The world runs on English to a large extent.
There would be many ways to keep English language skills 'current'.
Books are how some friends in Holland did that (and they were adults). One guy asked his traveler friends to get him particular books for this purpose.
The best way is to spend time with good quality English speakers.
Doesn't his school offer English training? I'd be very surprised if the school didn't do that.
And, twice a week with SumYungChik will yield a result but maybe/probably not as good as could be.
You could google this question you have and get quite a lot of possibilities.
And, build more English into his life by getting him to write up a log or diary in English on things around him.
Depending on his type of aptitude he might get very interested in the origins of English words. I love that study myself.
You can show him how French has influenced English over the years.
And common usage - e.g. selfie is now an official word simply due to common usage.
(I am of the view Rembrandt actually [I]invented[/I] the selfie in the 1600s when he was around, because he did 59 self portraits!)
There are quite a few ways to achieve what you want to.
YPDN
Post #4
One of the things I have learned is there are many responses to the one question. I guess that's what makes a horse race. I am not surprised at all my approach is different from yours (and others) but I accept that, with no worries.
Only had the one bambino who is now a TV personality, married and all grown up and a tad of a blabbermouth (like his mother), all in English. We spent time and money giving him the KUMON lessons when he was very young, which did actually make a noticeable difference. And, I am no longer interested in either re-marriage or kids, even though I love to watch the little ones have 'discovery'.
Anyhow, I wanted to contribute here, and did, and that's it. It is not up to you or I, rather, the parents need to make the call. We can merely throw our $0.02c worth in.
Where you say "Kids have their very own ideas about what you are going to do with them and there aint no changing that.", not all are the same. You will find in a family of say 2 kids, one will be one 'way' and the other will differ from that. I haven't heard of any techniques that can predict or pre-ordain that. If your kid is like that then fine, but not all other kids are. Have a good day.
Marine Bohème
Hello, did you find someone to talk with your son?
I am Australian with a French husband. I am also a swimming teacher. Perhaps your son would like swimming lessons in English with extra conversation? Where are you living?
