This summer I was living in Seattle and learned there are several bilingual/immersion pre-schools and after school programs in the city. This got me thinking: if Leigh and I wind up living in the US permanently we should really pony up and pay the tuition for these programs (usually about $20,000 per year!). The students I taught in France were very impressive: they spoke two or three languages very well and were studying topics in high school that were never even available to me, such as philosophy, theater and music. All signs indicate that the European teenagers of today are going to take over the world in about 10 years. The US won't know what hit us and we will hardly be able to compete. So the least I can do is plan to give my kids a great education and see how it goes from there.
Then the Wall Street Journal posted an article today in their New York Section discussing whether bilingual preschools make kids smarter. The argument is that, by learning a second language at an early age (any language) the brain learns to solve problems from multiple angles. By knowing how to create sentences and express yourself in different ways, the brain is simply firing on more cylinders. A study at Penn State also indicates that being multilingual may even prevent dimentia later in life. Not to mention the more immediate benefits like being able to study and find work internationally, travel with greater ease, etc. Plus the video of the three year olds playing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in French is downright adorable.
Sounds great, right?
This only gives me more encouragement to promote language learning for my kids in the future (when I have them!), and it encourages me to make more time for languages in my daily life. The more effort I put into learning languages and practicing speaking the more capable I will be with problem solving, the more hireable I will be in various firms, and hopefully the longer I will have my wits about me as an old lady.
That being said, I'm taking suggestions for good books written in French. Nothing too old fashioned, please, just something that is an easy read and a good story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
um...Maybe try Eric Emmanuel-Schmitt. You could start with something like Oscar et la dame rose (but be prepared...it's sad!) or Monsieur Ibrahim. Not sure what level of reading you are looking for, but I remember his language being very straightforward.
ReplyDeleteIf you try these, let me know what you think!
Thanks Heather! I will order one of these from Amazon ASAP and give it a shot. I'm sure these books will be challenging for me with my limited French, but hopefully I will learn a lot of new vocabulary! Nothing wrong with reading a book while also reading a French-English dictionary!
ReplyDeleteoooh...I had another thought! What about reading something you're familiar with in English? Like Harry Potter (if you read those) or something? They could be fun to read in French too!
ReplyDeleteThat was my original plan for learning vocabulary. I still really want the Harry Potter set in French, but it's listed at about $200 on Amazon right now so I think it'll have to wait. A friend of mine read Twilight in French and found a lot of the translations to be hilarious, so I thought maybe a new story that is meant to be read in French might be good. I've asked for a few books from Eric Emmanuel-Scott for Christmas :-)
ReplyDelete