Learning Languages

Fun To Learn Spanish - John Grisewood, Kingfisher Publications

I studied Spanish on an evening course for 4 years before Eve came along. Needless to say, after the past couple of years I feel that I've forgotten most of it. 

I was an au pair to three young children in Spain one summer during university holidays. I barely knew a word of Spanish when I went out to Barcelona. By the end of my visit I had learnt enough to 'get by.' I had learnt mainly from the kids, the tv and from the children's picture books. So, when I saw this Spanish picture book in a charity shop I thought it would be helpful not only for my course, but also as I had hoped for many years that Sam and I would one day have a baby.

 Image from Not On The High Street

It would be great if we learnt languages from a young age in Britain. When travelling through Europe I always feel inferior to everyone else, who often speak a number of languages, or at least the base of a couple. In Britain we don't start learning languages until we go to secondary school at the age of 11, I think this is far too late to start learning. The kids I looked after in Spain were 2, 4 and 5 years, and after a summer holiday spent with me they had learnt more English than I had learnt Spanish (but maybe that's just me being slow...) 

It's true isn't it, children really do suck everything up like sponges. Eve repeats everything we say and is always asking us what particular items are. She noticed this Spanish book on the shelf in her room a couple of weeks ago and asked me to read it. Each double page is a theme, like, at the swimming pool, in the park, at the beach or in the house. She absolutely loves it, and repeats the words after me as we look at the various scenes. As we go through the book together the beauty of the Spanish language is coming back to me.

Image from Not On The High Street

I am quite surprised at how much she enjoys looking at this book, as it's not a story, but it just goes to show how inquisitive children are. My dear friend Laura's girls go to a French pre-school in Bristol and she has spoken both English and French to her daughters at home since birth. I would love Eve to have more opportunity with foreign languages.

I love the Spanish language because words are spoken how they are written, my brain understands this. I'm afraid that I find French quite difficult to follow. Sam and I learnt some basic Italian when we travelled to Italy for our honeymoon, and we've also learnt some Greek. Embarrassingly, my husband speaks better Greek than I do, and I'm half Greek. He travels to Greece often for djing and has more opportunity to speak with Greek people. However, I'm sure that between us we can teach Eve some basic Greek.

The Fun to Learn Spanish children's book by John Grisewood, Kingfisher publications is available on Amazon for less than a quid, or you'll probably find something similar in a second hand book shop.

http://www.michelthomas.com/

Michel Thomas is the don when it comes to learning a language. Sam and I have studied languages like this over the past decade. My mother-in-law gave me the Spanish 8 cd box set years ago when I was laid up in bed for a few weeks. Now of course, Michel's lessons can be downloaded with ease. Sam and I also learnt Italian and Greek from Michel. It's life changing stuff when you realise that you can learn a language without writing or studying from books. It doesn't feel like hard work; it really is fun.

I don't think that the Michel Thomas method aims a course specifically at children, but I'm guessing that if you played the audio in the car your kids would join in with you. We don't go on long drives very often, but the next time we do I think we'll definitely try this with Eve.

Michel Thomas explaining his language method to Sofia Loren.