Recommendations please for help with French and/or German

[IvortheEngine]

Ds is learning French at school. He's Year 7 and started French lessons in Sept. Dd will be starting to learn German at school in Sept in Year 7. Can anyone recommend anything (web pages, DVDs, magazines, whatever) that would help them? I've just read a thread about dyslexia and foreign languages. Ds has difficulty spelling and reading words which have silent letters. I struggled with French because I couldn't spell or read it, whereas I found German much easier, so I understand his difficulty. Any ideas or suggestions welcomed!

For German:
British-German youth portal
magazine for young learners of German - not for absolute beginners though
homepage of the Goethe Institute - has an English version and might be able to help

Thanks very much, foundintranslation. I will put those into a German folder in my Education folder in Favourites ready for when they are needed. What?! Sad?! Me! I wonder if others are like me and find good info on MN and put it in folders (and go back to them time and time again and share with other MN and rl friends)? Thanks again.

Hi Ivortheengine, yes, I'm like you with saving MN info, but less organised - it drives dh mad that I don't put things in folders, just save long lists to Favourites.

Also my ds in Year 7 struggles with French pronunciation, which I think is partly a boy thing, so I'll be watching this thread with interest. He FAR prefers German, partly because he doesn't 'fail' to pronounce it properly. (Actually part of ds' problem with French is that he says his 'r's very softly, almost like Jonathan Ross, so how he can learn to roll his virtually non-existent 'r's I don't know. Any suggestions welcome!)

FIT, thanks for those links, will save them to Faves

Hi Fauve. Yes, I've mentally compared ds to Jonathan Ross before, too! I do have a speech correction list of ds' somewhere. I think I gave it to ds to keep safe some time ago, so I must ask him. If I find it, I'll let you know. He was properly checked once but was deemed insufficiently hampered by poor speech to warrant speech therapy and was given a sheet to use to improve 'r' and others. I'm sure ds would find German easier. Typically, he is doing French and dd will do German as the school do alternate year 7s, one year French, the next German. Ds has the problem and dd hasn't! Oh, well. Ds' next language, if he chooses to do another, will be Italian. I'd rather have him do Spanish as (apparently) it is more widely used throughout the world, but there's no choice in his school.
Now.......how about being good and doing some folders and sub folders - Ivor style!

Folders? Folders???

Yes, Fauve, folders.

The way that I learnt to do a Frence 'r' was actually by not thinking of the letter 'r' at all, but the letter 'h'. Sounds odd, but it works. So when you want to say 'r' in French, you think of it as if it were 'hhhrrr'. Hmmm... I'm not sure that this is totally working written down, but have a go. I have a very clear memory of our French teacher at school making us repeat 'Il ouvre l'autre robinet' over and over again.

So 'le robinet' would be 'le hhhrrrobinet'
and 'la rose' would be 'la hhhrrrose'
and so on.

Can I also add a word in favour of Italian (which is the language I teach)? OK, Spanish is more widely used, but Italian is a beautiful language, which is not too difficult to learn, and is pronounced phonetically so also not too hard to learn to pronounce (though the 'r' sound is different from French - rolled at the front of the mouth with the tongue behind the top teeth, like someone imitating a pneumatic drill). I hope your ds will enjoy it.

Interestingly, at the moment university admissions are down overall in all modern languages except Spanish, which is growing to the point where it looks set to overtake French as the 'main' language learnt in this country. But of the other languages, Italian has suffered the least serious decline.

I do think it would make sense for schools to start offering Spanish - it is far more widely spoken than French and supposedly one of the easiest languages to learn.

Having said that, I agree with you ellbell, Italian is beautiful and easier to pronounce than French or Spanish!

in response to the original question - I sat down with dd (who is doing French at secondary level) and we made post it notes to stick all around the house to help her with vocab, which was useful. I also discovered that even after 2 years of secondary level French, she didn't know how to conjugate a verb so I drilled some verbs into her and she has found that very useful.

Oh, and don't get me started on the literature, the art, the food, the wine...

not to mention the men

Ellbell, thanks for your suggestion with 'r'. I've just tried it and I can understand exactly what you mean. I'm pleased to hear that Italian is a beautiful language and easier to pronounce than some others. We'll see how ds gets on with French and whether he has an aptitute for languages and that will help when we have to decide on maybe adding another language (Italian is the choice in his school) in Year 9 (or whenever it is).

I've studied 8 languages and am master at none. Loved Italian, a beautiful language and one I only came across in my 30s. I advised my nanny to study Spanish if she wanted to be an air hostess, as it would give her travel to Europe and Latin America (she's an Aussie).

Agree with the pronunciation - I always had problems with the French 'r' but never had too many problems with German (apart from Die Kirche - Church, pron sort of Kirrrrke, so sort of with a french 'r' anyway). Also had problems with Dutch pronunciation, with the guttural 'ch' - in the war the Dutch used to ask suspected Germans to pronounce 'Scheveningen' - a town on the coast. Only natives can pronounce it, so Germans would always get it wrong and be found out. If I try it comes out 'skay ven ing gnenennenenenen'. The Dutch pronunce it 'Chchchcchchchveneninen' in a very distinct way.

I'm sorry I can't give any more advice about languages and dyslexia, just my personal experience with appalling pronunciation.

In sort of answer to the question, the easiest languages I found to pronounce were Italian and Spanish. Russian to a certain extent, but the grammar is a nightmare.

You're welcome Ivor. I think you have to try it. It looked really mad written down.

[I have a mental image now of loads of MN-ers going 'hhhrrrrrr' at their computers! ]

Ellbell, have only just come back to this thread, but thank you for that little tip, and I have indeed been hhhhrrring over my computer! Will get ds to have a hhhrrr as well

Quite nice games

loads of resouces, updated regularly

CILT - the centre for Language Teaching, loads of stuff, though more aimed at teachers

This site is fantastic (says sad language teacher...) loads of games to learn vocab and grammar, though they now charge in order to search the activities.

More web resources than you can shake a stick at...

Any use?

Thanks very much, Nome. Dd will be very well supported with all those to help her!

Are your two interested in football - the world cup is coming up so they could find out on the net about French & German teams their star players. That might make it more interesting & motivating. Also try getting them to teach you some language. Get them to use techiniques from school - songs, pix, miming etc. Space donkey's suggestion of post-its works really well, especially if you put them in key places: on top of TV, bathrm door, by the choccie biscuits...Mary Glasgow Publications produce magazines for English learners of French, Germas & spanish with articles, puzzles etc. The school may have a subscription or you may be able to find a site online.

and....Zut.com and Bonjour.org are both good websites & I think there should be something on BBC for yr 7&8

And 1 last thing! Despite problems in writing / reading English often children achieve in MFL learning because 50% of marks go on speaking & listening, and the written work that they do is much shorter - sentences & paragraphs, followed by short essays. Sorry to go on - spot the MFL teacher!!