It is a constant amazement to us how few people from the UK who profess to speak French can actually speak French to a French person, which certainly suggests some kind of problem with the education system.

As an aside, at lunchtime today we went to a restaurant where some English were discussing (loudly) whether the French for beef was pronounced ‘boof’ – but that’s tomorrow’s blog so I shouldn’t mention it…

Thanks again for taking the time to comment on your experiences.

I found the ‘mummification process in Ancient Egypt’ extremely difficult to help with in French two years ago, and am now dealing with electrical circuits in Physics!

Our eldest daughter is still in contact with her best friend from England and comparing their school timetables:
England – studying for 4 a’levels (including French): 8 hours of classes in total each week. Set topics
only are introduced for ‘conversation’ in class so finds actually talking to people when she visits us, impossible.
France – studying for an MPI (Maths, Physics and IT) BAC (still includes French, German and English languages as well): 34.5 hours of classes a week, monday to saturday.

In these last four years, both our daughters have received a thorough grounding in the rules of grammar, and have both found it far easier learning subsequent languages because of this. Even in the earliest class (age six) the children immediately learn French plus a second language, with equal emphasise on grammar and contemporary spoken conversation (rather than stilted theoretically correct sentences).

Unfortunately our youngest is officially a ‘chatterbox’ in three languages because even though she only learns two languages at school, her best friend speaks Spanish fluently as well – so with her group of best friends, she has spent playtime learning Spanish as well! Our eldest is convinced that because their brains had to cope with learning French by being thrown in at the deep end – their brains are ‘open’ to learning other languages as easily. She also finds that the rules of grammar of one language, are directly transferrable to another – therefore making it easier.

We hear a lot in the English news about not testing children too much because it puts too much pressure on them. Here however the children are ‘tested’ regularly each week on all they have covered so far in their different subjects. The children are so used to this that they take it in their stride, and find that the regular revision does make it stick in the mind!

I recognise that the structured teaching methods (some call them old fashioned) that are standard here, would not suit every child. However I am thankful because our two girls are thriving here – they love school, work hard because they do not see it as ‘work’ and are comfortable switching between 2 or 3 languages without thinking! It wasn’t such a bad move…..!

PS sorry this is such an essay!