Diddy has come home from school today with a page full of French tongue-twisters.

I thought I would share some with you…..you won’t be thanking me!

Now, with your best French accents, say the following, as fast as possible…..

• Six souris roses ont suserre que seize chats siamois ont chuchote cent six secrets chaque soir sans sourciller
• Pepin part pour Pampelune prendre perroquet pour Penelope
• Croc le croco croque la queue de Keke le criquet
• J’ai le houquet bilboquet passe la rue je ne l’ai plus!

This one has to be learnt by heart for Thursday…

• Tas de riz tas de rats, tas de riz tentant tas de rats tentes, tas de riz tentant tenta tas de rats tas de rats tentes tas de rats tentes tata tas de riz tentant

Not sure what they mean, (Google translate hasn’t helped much), so if anyone can throw some light on it….

FYI…in my English/French dictionary there are two translations of ‘tongue-twister’ into French: 1) ‘une phrase difficile a prononcer’ (’a phrase difficult to pronounce’ )….nah…boring!…. and 2) ‘une phrase a decrocher la machoire’ (’a phrase that dislocates/unhooks your jaw’)….much more interesting!

Have fun!

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Check this out!

I never knew it would be so straight forward and simple!

And it is so true…never enter a boulangerie, doctors office, the Mairie, without a ‘Bonjour, tout le monde’.

Admittedly, it doesn’t come easily for us stuffy Brits. Our communities are now so large and ill-defined that we don’t say ‘hello’ to anyone unless we know them personally. We never look people in the eye and live our daily lives, almost oblivious to the rest of society…or is that just me?!

So, bite the bullet, pretend that you know everyone, if that helps and start ‘Bonjouring’……politesse demands it!

And as you leave, don’t forget the ‘Bonjournee’…such a nice bunch, these French!

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I subscribed recently to the About:French Language newsletter.

On a very regular basis, I am sent the latest instalment,which has all sorts of really practical, easy to follow tips and techniques for learning  French. There is the ‘Mot du Jour’,  verb conjugations and such like, all the rules and regulations that most of us last met at school, daily quotes, games and much more.

It includes many practical elements, eg. pronunciation sound bites, translations to work on and even a guide to the various gestures that are so common in French. (Chance to perfect the Gallic Shrug!)

What I like is that many of the new words are quite modern…less ‘La plume de ma tante’ and more ‘mon blog rocks!’.

Take a look, it’s a wealth of information.

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We stayed at Aunty Debs this weekend, in London Town and while we were there, I thought it might be worth a trip to a Waterstones to see what is available in the Learning French section.

We went to the Gower Street shop, which is an amazing experience! Four floors, possibly five, of books, books, books! It was very difficult to walk around without being distracted, so we had to put our blinkers on.

The language section is huge, from French to Mandarin to Arabic and back again. We managed to find a section just for childrens French, where we found Serge the Cheeky Monkey!

The pack consists of a DVD, CD, parents’ guide, workbook and flash cards and at £25, I thought it was worth a try. So armed with our new French is Fun! activity box and a couple of French childrens’ dictionarys, we left very pleased with our efforts.

So far, the DVD has proved very popular, with both children enjoying the antics and songs of Serge and his friend Pascale, the parrot. The format is the same for all of the programmes, Serge and Pascale deal with basic language ’sets’…Je m’appelle, le temps, la famille etc. There is a cartoon of the Coco football team and slots where Serge visits France to meet real French children. In each the recently acquired French is repeated throughout.

I am hoping that the enthusiasm for learning French is not short lived and that both Diddy and The Boy have a smattering of the language before we leave. If they keep up with Serge, as they are doing, I don’t see why not!

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I had a little chat with Diddy the other day about her concerns on moving to France. At that point she wasn’t at all keen on the idea, so I thought a discussion on the pros and cons of the idea may be of benefit to her.

It would appear that her major concerns are:

1. Missing Daddy
2. Missing her friends
3. Not being able to understand French

All reasonable fears!

Which brings me on to Muzzy. I have seen the adverts and always thought the character Muzzy looked and sounded a bit odd. I never took it any further. It was Diddys father who suggested it the other day and so I checked out the website.

It offers a free months trial, with only posting and packaging to pay for and then monthly instalments up to a total of £150. It seems quite expensive, but if the claims are true, she will wake up one morning, after having watched a few cartoons and be speaking French. Wow! Maybe it is worth it! 

My theory is that even with just a smattering of the basics, Diddy may be a little more relaxed and confident in her abilities to understand and make friends. She is doing a bit of French at school already and I am pleasantly surprised at how much she is picking up on only half an hour a week. Maybe a bit of Muzzying is all she needs to help her on her way!

Does anyone have any experience of the course? If so, please let me know what you thought of it.

I am pleased to say that after our little chat she is now much more keen on the idea and wants to sell the house now, take the Bilbao boat and move over.

Do you know anyone who wants to buy a house?

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