Je suis heureuse!!

Since we moved back to the UK in 2014, this is the first time that we have experienced 'real' snow! We had so much fun this weekend. It snowed heavily on Saturday night and we woke up to 20cm of crunchy sparkling snow. We have been snowed in for the past 2 days. Although our friendly neighbourhood farmer kindly cleared the roads, it was impossible to get the car off the drive as the slope was like an ice rink.
In this situation, nobody could resist the urge to build a snowman!  ;o)

I had alot of fun this morning chatting with Mark Cummings from BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
If you haven't heard of the "Phone with no home", it's a phone that the radio have sent out into the public. Each morning, Mark Cummings calls the mobile phone and a different person in the county answers and has a chat with him. My brother had the phone yesterday and passed it on to me for this morning. Tonight I will be passing the phone on to one of my students.
If you fancy listening to the program, here is the link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05m1290 I'm chatting with Mark at 2:50:36

We've just got back from a two week holiday in France visiting family near Annecy. It's lovely to go back and recharge our batteries after 3 years living in England where the sun keeps playing 'cache-cache'. We did manage to play tourist one day in Andilly which is very close to Annecy. When we lived in France we would often go to Andilly in May for the medieval show but had never visited the scarecrows. We took our little grandaughter and she loved every minute of it. If you are travelling in the area, make sure to pop in and see them ;)
http://www.lepetitpays.com/le-parc-des-epouvantails

My friend Laurence and her son Alexis came over from France to stay with us last week. We organised a BBQ and invited a few of my students to come and join us to practice their conversation. It was fun and rewarding to listen to them speaking French and I think they enjoyed the French conversation in a real life situation. It's very important to use new vocabulary that you learn in class as research has proven that if you do not use it within 24 hours you lose over 70% of it.... so "parlez, parlez, parlez"!!

Tonight, we spent the evening trying to find a fun way to use the game "Kloo" in our French classes in Cheltenham next term. I really believe that if we bring the fun back into learning, we will learn the language twice as quick ;o)

Pronunciation is so important in French. They have so many words that sound almost the same but one slip of the tongue can make it mean something completely different... A sure way to make a fool of yourself or on the positive side make you the life and soul of the party.

For example, we all know the phrase "Répétez s'il vous plaît" which correctly pronounced means "Please repeat what you have just said". However... if you pronounce it wrong, you could be asking the person to "Fart again"!!!  (oops)

The "E" in French is mainly pronounced"Euh". This is why it is very important to notice the accent above the first two "E"s in "Répétez" whichare pronounced "Eh" as in "Pet" -  "R eh P eh T ay"

So, whether you need to know what the person is saying or want to be the life and soul of the party, it's up to you to pronounce it however it's needed  ;o)

One of the things that pushed me to create 'Funtastic French' is that I believe that if people are having fun and exploring new things, they will learn French without realising it. I will be inviting people to come on walks and discover the cotswolds while speaking in French, but one other thing that I would love to do is take groups across to France to discover how the locals live and make lots of memories to bring home. I discovered 'Paris a Dream' a while back on Facebook and have spoken a few times with Isa through social network. I am hoping that as 'Funtastic French' grows we will be able to go on a few adventures together. Until then, have a look at Isa's website for some inspiration ;)
http://www.paris-a-dream.com