My New Adventure

Je n'ai pas vu le temps passer... I can't believe it has been 'presque une année' since I last posted in my blog. I have discovered Instagram and Twitter! I am still drowning 'un petit peu' with the 'monde de Twitter' but hopefully will start understanding it 'bientôt'. 'je n'ai pas d'idée' how people manage to 'vivre leurs vies' and keep up to date with the 'monde virtuel'... I guess I better start learning 'si je ne veux pas répéter' this message 'dans une année' 😂 The 'meilleur moment' of the past year was 'la naissance' of my second granddaughter, Amy. She is now 8 months old and I am officially on Nanny Duty 'trois fois par semaine' 🥰

I am so excited to start my walks again. It has taken me a while to pull my socks up and organise a walk this year. The main reason being that I've been arguing with the 'little voice' in my head that's always questioning and criticizing my decisions. Do you know the one I mean? It's the same 'little voice' that pipes up every time you make a mistake and starts telling you what an idiot you are! Funnily enough, I spend my time helping others recognise and acknowledge their 'little voice' so that it becomes a kind supporting friend who encourages them on their journey to learning French. But I was still being dictated to by mine. When I decided to organise these walks a year ago I came up with the price of £5 per person. This was because the 'little voice' in my head was telling me that "all work deserves payment" and "everyone expects to pay". Well, I've since befriended my 'little voice' and these days it is encouraging me to behave in a way that I would like others to behave towards me. So, I have decided to make these walks 'free of charge' to encourage anyone who would like to chat in French to come along and join me. Alors, n'attendez plus et promonons-nous!

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

Our new term started last week and it is so good to be back at work. It's uplifting to spend time with fun and interesting people sharing the 'art of learning French'. Not only do I feel that I am accomplishing something when I see the lightbulb go on in their eyes but I also feel that all of these people are participating in making my life an enjoyable journey! A big Thank You to all of my students

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" which are 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)