Learning a New Language


Ever since I was a little girl taking fourth grade French, I have been interested in languages. I took French from 4th-12th grade and even tried to do a correspondence course on top of my college work – I went to an itty bitty school that did not offer languages. After all that, I am still not fluent in French. I was a good student, my school’s program just was not set up to allow for students to become fluent speakers of the language. :-( That’s the sad part. I was always told that total immersion was the best way to learn a new language. In that line of thought our tenth grade class went on a Quebec trip to “learn” French. Imagine my disappointment (and others) while trying to speak the language to the locals they spoke back in English! That’s right they could tell we were not French speaking and probably didn’t want us butchering their lovely language. It defeated the purpose of our whole trip though. I did have a friend who went on what was called a French Immersion trip, which was longer than the week we took to go to Quebec, as I believe it was a 6-week long course. She was not suppose to speak English at all during that whole time so she learned a lot more French that way.

The plus side to all of that is that I can pick out words in print or understand some of what is being said when people are speaking French, if they are not speaking too rapidly. And I do remember enough that I can toss out a phrase or question and have my family look at me blankly because they have no idea what I just said. My husband being the goof ball that he is will usually come back with, “Donde es la bano?” (“Where is the bathroom?”) in Spanish because that’s about the only thing he knows. ;)

Now that I have children, I really try to encourage their interests. My oldest daughter has long been interested in learning Spanish. We have tried kids vocabulary books, a small little Spanish program on cassette and asking our Spanish speaking neighbors how to say certain words. But nothing has been consistent or easy, as those of you who have studied another language know. It takes a lot of discipline and a real interest to learn a new language. So much of what we have done has been things that were done when my daughter was younger, as I have never wanted to spend a lot of money on Rosetta Stone type programs in case they sat and collected dust. “O me of little faith” I know, but I’ve been there and had that happen.

More recently though when my daughters expressed an interest in another Spanish learning resource, Lightning Fast Spanish, I was willing to give it a try. As the title denotes, it sets children and adults up for success to learn every day words in it’s easy to follow activities. My daughters have only looked at it, as have I. We have not been consistently trying to work at memorizing any words or phrases.

Each lesson is broken down into:
Concept
Preparation
Conversation
Vocabulary

The lessons cover topics like: different pieces of clothing, colors names of places or places to go timing of events, getting dressed, brushing hair, packing lunch, comparison words, toys, food, items you see walking around the block, games sports, playground equipment, body parts, school activities, dinner time vocabulary, household items etc. are covered in these 15-lesson book. Plus there is 20 pages of fun activities and games for additional practice – bingo, scavenger hunts, the Hokey Pokey (remember doing that song in Music class? I do!) twister and more.

What is great about this 63-page book is that each of the activities and lessons are stand alone so you can start anywhere. Other advantages is that the book is short, as are the lessons and it’s every easy to understand. Best of all it is very budget friendly – $14.95 for a paperback version or $9.99 for the ebook. It may be purchased on Amazon.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.


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30 comments

  1. Stefanie says:

    I took French when I was in school and I can’t remember a thing other than Bonjour…It would come in handy because I’m going to France for the first time next month!

  2. HilLesha says:

    I’d love to learn another language, especially Spanish.

  3. Oh, what fun, Stefanie! Have fun in France!

    Did you know that French is different in France than it is in Quebec?

    Then there is Acadian French which my grandfather spoke but never around us. Now that I am older, I wish he had. I don’t think he spoke it in their home growing up either for none of my mom’s five sisters nor her speak it. So sad!

  4. Rachel says:

    I love learning languages too. 5 years of Spanish, 3 semesters of French, and 2 semesters of Ancient Greek. And, yeah, I can read all of it, but that’s about it. Sigh ….

    Love how inexpensive that is!

  5. Stefani says:

    I took 3 years of Spanish in high school. I forgot most of it, but would love to learn it again.

  6. I took 2 years of French in high school and would love to learn more as well as learn to speak fluent Italian.

  7. Courtney says:

    I wish I knew another language.

  8. I took 2 years of Italian in high school…and remember not a word of it! LOL

  9. I speak French and it’s come in VERY handy (since I go to Paris every year). I’d love to study Spanish as well.

  10. Lolo says:

    I took French in High School, but really wish I knew Spanish.

  11. My daughter is fluent in both Spanish and French! I would love to learn Spanish, maybe one day she’ll teach me.

  12. I took french from grade 4 to grade 10 and I don’t know very much either. I would love to learn another language.

  13. Jenn says:

    Sounds like a great resource. I’d love to learn Spanish too!

  14. Marcie W. says:

    My husband and I really wanted to learn Italian before we visit Italy.

  15. Billie says:

    I wanted to take French, but got talked into Spanish throughout high school. I can follow what people are saying, but have forgotten a lot.

  16. I took too many years of Spanish and still can’t speak much more than the basics!

  17. Colleen says:

    I would love to learn Spanish especially since so many people speak it in South Florida.

  18. Donna says:

    I can barely remember any Spanish I learned from high school. Always wanted to be bilingual, though.

  19. I took two years of Spanish and don’t remember much. I can recognize maybe 20 or so words.

  20. Honey I took two years of Spanish in high school and barely made in addition to the two required in college and still barely made it. LOL!

  21. Cool! I speak three languages. It’s unquantifiable.

  22. debra says:

    I love languages. My mom is a language teacher and I speak French, Spanish, Italian and some Greek, a bit of Russian.

  23. 1stopmom says:

    I regret that I did not learn Spanish when I was younger.

  24. my daughter would love to learn Spanish what a great tool

  25. Mel S says:

    Same thing happened when we went to Quebec to. However, I did find some people that would humor me. If you go to the markets, there are more people that only speak French. I speak French and my daughter has been learning for two years (she is 7). When I was pregnant, I was determined she would learn a second language young. I try to expose her to the language as much as possible. We have met a few French speakers in the area who will speak French with her. I don’t know if she realizes how important this is now but she will thank me a few years down the road!

  26. I took Spanish in high school but am not even close to being fluent. I’d love to learn to speak the language, it would be very helpful living in Florida!

  27. Kathleen says:

    I would love to learn a new language, but never can find the time to do it.

  28. Tammy says:

    I wish I could remember the Spanish I learned in high school.

  29. Jennifer says:

    I’m nowhere close to knowing another language. It’s pretty laughable at how little spanish I know.

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