During one of my first jobs here in France, one of my colleagues challenged me to learn these French tongue twisters. I found this crumpled piece of paper in a pile of forgotten souvenirs under the bed the other day. I was compelled to go through the papers as my …

In the past, most language classes followed a similar scholastic approach, typically involving the memorisation of verbs, tenses and sentence structures. The process is the same whether students were attempting to conquer one of the romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian or Catalan), a Germanic tongue, a Slavic dialect or …

‘L’art d’apprendre le francais’ and ‘l’art de vivre en Provence’ are combined for those signing up for courses with Destination Francais. It’s an Aix-based company started by two French teachers, tired of the classroom-based teaching methods they’d been tied to in the traditional system. They felt that learners need more …

The past two weeks the Barefoot Blogger has spent a lot of time with new French friends. Admitting that I live in France and that I can barely put together a sentence in French is getting embarrassing. Currently I have Rosetta Stone and another online language program on my computer. …

The Barefoot Blogger is still not learning French. Although I have at least three online courses and two books on French open at any time, it’s just not sinking it. Well, maybe a little. Now I’m beginning to think that, perhaps, I understand some of the French words that are …

The Barefoot Blogger is learning French! For all those ‘doubters’ out there who think the Barefoot Blogger will never learn French, here’s news. After two years living in France, and during a short visit to family in the States, I’m taking French lessons seriously. Seriously. The Rosetta Stone CDs, levels …