Vendredi Francaise (French Fridays)

We have been working hard to improve our French language skills through various methods since the fall, in preparation for our future move to New Brunswick and Quebec.  We are using an online free program called Duolingo which has proven to be the most effective.  It prompts you every day to go online and practice and refreshes you on your weaker words and phrases.

We are also taking classes from a business called French For Life.  There are 9 of us in the class (when everyone shows up) and the teacher is a university student who went to a French immersion school and did her degree at Memorial University in French.  The classes have now ended, so we will have to figure out if we want to supplement Duolingo with some other instruction. 

We have also checked out a few childrens’ books in French from the library and worked through the stories.  One thing that is curious – the whole reason French is an official language in Canada is because of Quebec, but Quebecois is a different dialect from standard French, which is what is taught in schools in other provinces as well as at French For Life, is what books are written in and what Duolingo teaches us.  So even if we become semi-fluent in French, are we going to be lost in Quebec?

Not only that, we are told that the Acadian French that is spoken in Nova Scotia is somewhat different from the French spoken in New Brunswick and both are different than what is spoken in Quebec!  It will be an interesting learning curve!

In the meantime, in January we will start with one day each week on which we will try to communicate with each other only in French.  What better day than Fridays!