Which foreign language should we do as a family?! Can't decide!

[fillyjonk]

We have no especial links to any language really, except Welsh...and what is putting me off Welsh is the lack of Welsh cinema...

I quite fancy going on holiday to France quite a lot (out of necessity, obv) and I am fond of foreign language arthouse films, obv a lot of these are French.

But there are quite a lot of other languages out there

I like Swedish films and books

I like studio ghibli (japanese)

I know a bit of yiddish. my degree is in dead langauges incl hebrew, egyption and ugaritic. also i have done latin and greek eons ago.

This is what I am working with atm. Thoughts please!

oh ps we are homeschooling, hence am not leaving it to school

and they WILL do welsh, honestly.

I would learn french as the main one, but perhaps include a topic around other languages

The reason being french is one of the universal languages along with english and spanish. ime if you can speak those 3, in 99% of situations you can communicate well enough to get by.

We learn Spanish as a family (albeit sporadically) we holiday there mainly but also in about 50yrs time, it's estimated to be the widest spoken language in the world. Stick to the latin based languages whichever you choose as you've already studied latin, so yo!)u'll have an excellent background for any, but if you switch to something entirely different and then to a latin based one later, the kids will probably find it hard. I studied German and find Spanish and French quite tricky but I'm sure if I'd studied one of those first, the other would be easier iyswim (in a rambling, roundabout way

Italian is nice... but I am a wee bit biased (Italian teacher) .

Seriously, it is pronounced as it's written, which is an advantage, and lots of great films to watch. Plus you could come on here and ask me if you get stuck .

However, it is (I reluctantly admit) less useful on the 'world stage' than French or Spanish.

Polish? Plenty of Poles about now to speak it with. And good Polish cinema.

Italian has great allure but I too would plump for French in your situation filly. (I am of course biased like Ellbell as I have a degree in it and visit the country quite frequently).
We love doing shopping etc with the dcs in France and now ds is eight and has been studying the language at school for a couple of years he is willing to have a go at chatting to people in shops and scans newspaper headlines for words he knows

Not sure how old your dcs are filly, but have just bought dd2 (5... very keen on languages) a sticker book called 'My first 1000 words in French'. It's very good and she is remembering some vocab from it. They do them in other languages too (though I couldn't find Italian ).

And, whatever your views on this global phenomenon, Dora L'Exploratrice et cie are all available in French

god polish would be nice. i like polish cinema

i am very shallow i KNOW...

I am tempted by japanese, arabic etc but have ZILCH chance of affording a holiday any further than france

BUT

I do have 2 x german speaking friends (I am hopeful re lessons) and 0 x french speaking friends, should that matter?

Ahem Califrau... You're meant to back me up on the superiority of Italian!

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hmm pruni do you think i should start with one of the more basic modern languages? like the ones that everyone else learnt in school while i was off doing dead ones?

Califrau...!

french then latin
i have put a list of primay french sites on the site sharing list
there is a latin primary course too mimimus
or just go straight for spanish whcih is more and more popular
usborne dvds are a very basic but good preschool fun
how old are the children

3 and 2.

am inclining t/w french, dp t/w welsh.

can't subject another generation to the travails of caecillius though

lol at frau btw.

here is the thing with french,

it sounds utterly daft but we can afford to actually go there in the future, for say all september. We could go and camp.

this is not true of any other country really.

except wales and the prob with welsh imo is that people won't speak welsh to me, they hear my english accent and my crap stumbling "sut...mae..." and switch quickly to english

French. You can't learn a language/culture to any degree of proficiency unless you actually visit the country reasonably regularly.

French is useful and, if you learn French, Spanish and Italian are easy.

I don't think it's daft to tailor your language learning to a country you can visit filly - I honestly think it is more likely to reinforce the language as something fun and relevant if you do that.
We are going back to my beloved Belle Normandie next summer with the kids and I already cannot wait

OK... I admit defeat!

No, seriously, it sounds sensible to focus on French for the reasons you have given. And spending the whole of September there would be fantastic.

Marina - we'll be in Normandy in a couple of weeks' time (on the Cotentin). Love it!

if you want to start now then the usborne dvd and sticker book 100 wds are perfect mine learnt loads in just a week in france. and pls let me know if any of these sites are any good.

www.poissonrouge.com has a french alphabet puzzle good for 3 yr olds

FRENCH mostly year 5-6 or key stage 1 level but some can be used for aged 3-4

perso.wanadoo.fr/jeux.lulu/index.htm
some fun bits here

auxpetitesmains.free.fr/

www.tomlitoo.com/

www.primaryresources .co.uk/mfl/mfl.htm
go to additional french resources

www.primaryfrench.co.uk/
good ideas but accents are anglicised as it is the kids taking part rather than native speaker

www.french4tots.co.uk/index.html

www.primaryfrench.net/

www. leclubfrancais.co.uk/babelzone/babelzoneland.htm

www.prescot-school.knowsley.sch.uk/presco t-language/mfl-site/primarySchool/FrenchPrimaryMainPage.htm
excellent games but very fast reactions and mouse control required!!

atschool.eduweb.co.uk/rgshiwyc/school/curric/HotPotatoes/FrenchIndex.htm#Primar y
useful once they can read it too