Weekend in France to encourage DC in learning French??

[AnotherDayOlder]

Eldest DC has started learning French in secondary school this year and is struggling a bit and not enjoying it. I was thinking a long weekend in France might be a nice way to put the language into context a bit and encourage them to learn. But other than getting them to look at menues and order lots of lovely food, are there other language related things we can do? So far they don’t know all that many words so eg seeing a play on French would be far beyond them.
Has anyone done something similar? Would love some ideas.

Strongly recommend Anki for language learning.

Yes. If she’s a complete beginner, the key bit is just being somewhere where French is the normal language, and the realisation you only get from going somewhere that here is an entire society that functions 24/7 in this language, from advertising to TV to road signs to buying food to just overhearing people on the street.

What is your level of French and openness to speaking it? I ask because I’m always a bit taken aback at just how difficult many British people seem to find it to speak a few routine words without stress and embarrassment — I think for this weekend to help, you’re going to have to model speaking French, or openness to speaking French, for her. That French isn’t this magic language spoken only by French people, but something that can be learned and used.

When she’s further along, I find reading children’s books translated into French (ideally aimed at readers a bit younger than your DD) where she already knows the story and characters well, is great for growing vocabulary.

They have to want to, my ds has no interest in learning Spanish, despite us having a holiday home in Spain - we go 4-5 times a year, him winning a prize in Spanish and his closest friend being bilingual - yes English and Spanish, he has dropped it, I am sad about that, but you know you can lead a horse to water...

Ooh, I can’t believe I’d forgotten about Astérix! And Les Visiteurs - we watched that at school!
Agree re signs and seeing the language around her. That’s kind of what I was hoping for with the weekend idea - just a flavour of the language.
I am fluent in French and she knows that; not sure me “modelling” speaking it would help in our case. But it’s an interesting idea.
(We have been to France before and she has seen me speak it, but not since she started studying it.)
Also appreciate it may ultimately not be the language for her (I never got on with German!) but her school rules means she’s got another couple of years before she can drop it, and I’d like to help her enjoy it as much as possible.

If you’re fluent, why didn’t you speak it in the home from when she was a baby? The easiest time to learn a language is as a child, especially if you’re surrounded by it.

I’m British but we spoke 2 languages in the home from my kid’s birth just because we could and they grew up speaking 2 languages.

Oh no, not Amelie for a 12 year old- you've forgotten the bits with orgasms and dildos!! 😆

Do you speak French? DS1 had a massive resistance to actually using his French- I think he had a couple of pidgin conversations with kids on the campsite and I just about managed to coerce him into a transaction in a boulangerie. I think translating bits of street signs/ information boards was less pressure for him, and I also insisted on randomly chucking French phrases at the poor kid.

People always recommend Astérix but actually the language is very complex and punning, quite difficult for a beginner.

Le Petit Nicolas books are much better, witty and funny but an easy read. And, there are films of them, two I think

Intouchables, some swearing but a lovely film based on real people. There is also a YouTube channel called 'ina' which has short films of interviews, but they are fun and quite interesting and look at aspects of French life.
A card game called Mille Bornes might be worth a try.

Unfortunately, language learning can be so boring, it pays so much attention to getting the grammar and accents right it totally sucks out all joy.

If you go to Spain a lot and he has Spanish friends there is not any real need for him to take Spanish at school (unless he wants to be a linguist). You will find he's probably already got a decent grasp of the language.