French Lessons/Classes for Non-Native French Speakers?

[SymIsAGuru]

Hi  all,

I am new here and i am a bit paranoid mother,i may ask a lot questions (warning) :-)

My husband and i are planning to move to France (Metz Area) from Germany with our 4yrs 10 months old son.

While we both speak three languages fluently (not French,unfortunately) our son is fluent in 4 languages (Italian,Turkish,English and German) with a little grammar mistakes +he can also understand Spanish a bit.

Anyway,that was not a commercial :-) just to give better information to ask my question.

Well..Of course my concern is about  my son ! I am wondering,if there are any French lessons/classes for new arrival pupils.Even i know he will learn very fast,it would be still better if there are actually some extra classes for non-native French Speakers.

Thanks in advance..

[Kitty]

I have been educating four children in France and none of them had much extra help.  Each primary school has a budget for 'soutien' (not sure of spelling).  One of my children gets reading in French for 30 mins (there is a special time for soutien in primary schools 30 mins before lunchtime).  This is not 1:1 but is with a few other children.

Based upon my experience of my children and others (bearing in mind he will not speak French at home), your son will take:

* One year to understand virtually everything said in the classroom (but not in the playground)

* A second year to speak fluently

* A third year to be on a par - more or less - with native children

I am not convinced that you can speed this process up.  I did arrange some extra private lessons for some of my children but I am not sure that it helped.

There are several threads on this Forum about schooling in France, so I would sit yourself down for a few hours and read through them.  You will find them enlightening.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/206/ShowForum.aspx

[SymIsAGuru]

[quote user="Cathy"]I have been educating four children in France and none of them had much extra help.  Each primary school has a budget for 'soutien' (not sure of spelling).  One of my children gets reading in French for 30 mins (there is a special time for soutien in primary schools 30 mins before lunchtime).  This is not 1:1 but is with a few other children.

Based upon my experience of my children and others (bearing in mind he will not speak French at home), your son will take:

* One year to understand virtually everything said in the classroom (but not in the playground)

* A second year to speak fluently

* A third year to be on a par - more or less - with native children

I am not convinced that you can speed this process up.  I did arrange some extra private lessons for some of my children but I am not sure that it helped.

There are several threads on this Forum about schooling in France, so I would sit yourself down for a few hours and read through them.  You will find them enlightening.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/206/ShowForum.aspx

[/quote]

i also have some concerns about "speed " issue. I don't think i can make him caught up learning french on time, since he must start to primary school when he will turn to 6 . : - (

i am going to read the threads,thank you a lot.

Rgds,

[Sprogster]

To be honest, with a four year old you don't have an issue, because at that age children soak up new languages like a sponge. Most previous threads that have involved an element of controversy on this subject involved much older children.

 

[SymIsAGuru]

Yes,you are right but  i am still worrying not because of learning .The main reason is :how is going to communicate while he is learning.

You know,sometimes little kids can be cruel to each other as far as making fun...but thats possible anywhere .