Foreign Language Fun

Learn Mandarin Chinese for the Beijing Olympics: Hello and Goodbye

Published on July 31, 2008 by Diane in Beijing Olympics, Chinese, Foreign Language Fun, Foreign Language Greetings

Aren’t you excited? In a little over a week, the world’s eyes will be on Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games. Take advantage of this incredible opportunity to introduce kids to the country, culture, people, and languages of China. I’ll be dedicating several upcoming posts to Olympic themes and Chinese for kids. I’d love for

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Chocolate Croissants: A Recipe for Learning French Shapes

Published on July 29, 2008 by Diane in Cooking, Foreign Language Fun, French, Recipes

If you’re ever having trouble exciting your kids about a new language or culture, just sugar them up and you’re good to go! My seventh grade French teacher just happened to have a culinary arts degree under her belt. Who knew that signing up for her class for the goodies would lead me down

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Learning Spanish Fruits With the Wiggles: Fruit Salad

Published on July 28, 2008 by Diane in Foreign Language Fun, Songs, Spanish, Wiggles, YouTube

If you have a preschooler, you surely know all about The Wiggles. This wildly famous kiddie band from Australia became an obsession for one of my boys. I remember the magical moment when it all began. I innocently popped in a Wiggles video for my then 11 month old son. He went crazy dancing and

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Languages of the Olympic Games

Published on July 25, 2008 by Diane in Beijing Olympics, Foreign Language Fun, French

A French teacher by trade, you can only imagine how much I love foreign languages. So, naturally, I look forward to the Olympics when they roll around. Sure, the sporting events are great. But for me, the real magic is in the flags, the cultures, and especially the languages. In just a few more weeks,

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Kids Are Sponges: Natural Foreign Language Acquisition in Children

Published on July 24, 2008 by Diane in Foreign Language Acquisition, Foreign Language Fun, French, Swahili

While playing at the park this evening, my five year old surprised me by spontaneously counting the numbers 15-19 in French: quinze, seize, dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf! He’s had the numbers 1-10 mastered for quite some time. Since I always seem to be teaching him along with other children who are French newbies, he hears those

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Counting in Swahili: We All Went on Safari

Published on July 22, 2008 by Diane in Children's Books, Foreign Language Fun, Swahili

Jambo! Introduce your kids to Swahili with We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania (Barefoot Books, 2003). This little treasure of a picture book is written by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Julia Cairns. If you have a 3 to 8 year old, this book belongs on your bookshelf. I must admit,

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Hit the Beach! Foreign Language Learning in the Summertime

Published on July 21, 2008 by Diane in Foreign Language Fun, French, Italian, Spanish

I took a much needed break from the computer screen this afternoon–packed up the kids and headed out to the beach for a little sandcastle-building. Here in my little corner of Michigan, “the beach” is a metro park with gravely sand and lawn by an inland lake. It may not be the Riviera, but I

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Spanish Colors of Colombia: Printables, Coloring Pages, and a Little Culture

Published on July 17, 2008 by Diane in Colombia, Coloring Pages, Foreign Language Fun, Holiday, Songs, Spanish

This July 20, speak some Spanish in honor of Colombia’s Independence Day, or as the locals say–Dia de la Independencia. This festive occasion celebrates the day Colombia declared its independence from Spain in 1810. Colombia, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus, is located in the northern part of South America. It boasts coastlines along both

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Preschool Foreign Language Counting Game: One Elephant Went Out to Play

Published on July 16, 2008 by Diane in Chinese, English/ESL/EFL, Foreign Language Fun, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Songs, Spanish

I’ve got a fun preschool/kindergarten activity that’s perfect for counting in English, French, Spanish, German, and more. Do you know the classic preschool elephant song? It goes like this: One elephant went out to play, Upon a spider’s web one day, He had such enormous fun, That he called for another elephant to come. The

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Funny Videos From Language Schools: Learn a Language

Published on July 15, 2008 by Diane in Foreign Language Fun, YouTube

I’ve been hanging out on YouTube, collecting a few funny language learning videos for your viewing enjoyment. Have a chuckle, but reflect on the truth behind the humor: learn a foreign language. Which one do you like the best? Do you have other YouTube recommendations for language learning? Leave a comment and let me know!