How to get children speaking a language (a bit)
Going on holiday anywhere nice? Anywhere foreign? Hey! That’s a great opportunity to get into languages – for you, or your kids. Nothing too demanding – they’ve just finished school and exams – but at least teach them the compliment of trying to speak to someone in their own language, no matter how awkward they feel. And teach them a couple of super-useful phrases. And I mean stuff like ‘Good morning’, ‘thank you’, ‘have you got any orange juice?’ and ‘that’s a nice shirt you’re wearing’. People underestimate the goodwill this unlocks when speaking to foreigners. It shows respect, warmth, willingness and a wonderful enthusiasm for the culture you are visiting.
My technique is to get a list of some of the most common words (I like this Spanish list http://wordsgalore.com/wordsgalore/languages/spanish/spanish1000.html ) and pick out twenty to remember. Or be simple and memorise five phrases from a phrase book. Doing this will give your children a great sense of achievement and probably draw looks of admiration from others around them. It doesn’t take long and it opens up a positive attitude to learning languages.
Oh yes, and you can’t go wrong with downloading a couple of songs: Girls Aloud ‘Je ne parle pas Français’ or French classic ‘A La Claire Fontaine’ or the Spanish Gipsy King’s hit, ‘Volare’. Gets the ‘rrrr’s’ rolling!
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