Discover an interest: A Language

Discovering a language: French

It’s said that learning a language is a great way to keep your brain active.

I’ve always loved studying French – I did A level at night school and have a fond memory of the 12 of us all looking at the clock which was right behind our teacher’s head. She stopped mid-flow – it was about 9:17 at night as I recall – and said, “Why are you all looking at the clock?” We were all aghast that she’d noticed and we'd been caught, and apologised profusely but explained that we’d had busy working weeks and were all absolutely worn out. Night school was a great way to make new friends and develop a skill – or learn a new one!

Anyway, that was about 30 years ago. Last year, in an attempt to work my brain and give it exercise, I decided to start studying simple French poems.

I quickly decided they would need to be simple and short (remember the acronym, KISS? Keep it short and simple) and mine were. I found a Belgian poet, Maurice Carême. He was born in Belgium in 1899 and he grew up in the countryside. Consequently, many of his poems were about nature, wildlife, the countryside and the weather, right up my street. I started to study his works – a couple of poems a week, having bought a couple of books off Amazon, Nonante-neuf poèmes and L'oiseleur et autres poèmes. I read them aloud, write them out and make a note of new vocabulary I'm learning. And it was a great way to learn new vocabulary and put my brain to work! It's been fun; I just flick through the books until I find a poem I want to read.

Studying French poetry has been a very different way to pick up new vocab and practice my French -
especially because I love the subjects the poet has written about!

From there, I borrowed an old school text book from a teaching friend and I work my way through the exercises, both written and oral – I say it all to myself aloud. Well, the cat listens a bit.

I don’t work through them every day – I’ve started to volunteer at a secondary school to help students with their French so I don’t study at home on those days. But the next thing I want to add into the mix is reading about French geography and history in French. I reckon it should be a good way to improve my French without getting too caught up in attending regular classes – I can fit it in as and when.

I can feel my French improving in all sorts of ways and it gives me a feeling of achievement and competency. I want to learn more and up my skill level. This morning, I practiced reading French paragraphs while I was on a helpline, waiting for help at the other end. Whether I was waiting 5, 10 or 15 minutes, I felt good that I wasn't wasting my time while I was waiting. I was improving my brain... or trying to!

It's become a very enjoyable hobby, and frankly it's cost very little. I have an exercise book to try the grammar exercises in, and the poetry books and so far that's been it. But you can also push the boat out a bit more with different ways to learn a language...

So there are different ways you can learn a language:

Going to adult education classes - check your local colleges to see what's on offer
Using an online facility such as Duolingo. My other half uses it to learn French every day - even when he's on holiday. He's really stuck with it.
Enlisting a private tutor, which could be a good idea for conversation - I know someone who does this for her Spanish, and they have an hour every week. And they do it on the phone or online.
Teaching yourself, like I'm doing.
Using videos online from You Tube