One of the best ways to learn any language is through immersions.  Recently, I went to Quebec City to do some celebrating with friends and family and enjoying of winter festivities.

I attended the Festival d’Hiver for a couple of days in Quebec City.  It was a wonderful trip whereby I was immersed in the Quebecois culture and French language.

I made many, many mistakes when speaking (in French).  Friends laughed, but the conversation continued and I learned a lot.  It was a great review of words and phrases I used to use all of the time.  I only wish everyone could have the same sort of experience.

If you have lost a job recently or are “under-employed,”  I would recommend trying to network with people in your area who speak French so that you can improve your skills.

If you speak perfectly and you teach French, I would recommend trying to create an immersion experience for your students outside of the norm.  Recreate a Parisian cafe or the Plains of Abraham.  Your students will make mistakes, you will laugh, but you will find that everyone will find a lot of meaning in the exercise.

Well, I have been listening to a variety of podcasts for about two weeks now and I think my opinions have changed a little bit.

First, I still think the “Walk, Talk and Learn French” is great, but I decided not to continue with it because it was really basic. However, if I wasn’t working on becoming truly fluent, then I would continue to watch/listen to it because I enjoy seeing the Parisian scenery and the host is very entertaining.

I started listening to “Learn French by Podcast.” I really enjoy it because it is more advanced and they repeat the French conversation a couple of times highlighting answers to questions. I also love that they use many  verb tenses including the Subjunctive. If you’re not ready for the Subjunctive yet, this podcast has many previous beginner lessons that are as basic as introducing yourself.

As well, I started listening to “Learn French with Daily Podcasts” because as the name suggests they produce daily podcasts. I like being able to get new dose daily. The instruction is fairly explicit and the speaker spends a fair amount of time on pronunciation.

Finally, I am still listening to “CoffeeBreak French.” I really find it entertaining. Actually, it is probably the most entertaining one I’ve found. The teacher and student on the podcast seem to get along really well; they go off on tangents and sometimes they tell jokes - it makes me laugh. It’s produced by the same people that make “Walk, Talk and Learn French” - RadioLingua Network.

I’ll most about some more podcasts that I’m test driving a little later on and let you know which ones are keepers and losers.

I recently heard about a study that was conducted on 1000 people. They were not aware of what characteristics they were being observed, but the researchers were solely monitoring them on the basis of their use of manners. I found the results very interesting: most people didn’t say thank you or hold open doors for others.

Then I had some experiences of my own that made me think - wow, teachers really need to be explicitly teaching respect and manners. I think many do work very hard to instill good values in their students.

Teaching good manners certainly isn’t a new idea. This idea has been around a long time. Did you know that before George Washington was 16 years old he transcribed Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversations? I think even the best of us could read it. It’s a good reminder of how people should behave. Then maybe if all of the teachers read it, we can pass along the ideas to our students.

Yesterday I was talking about the benefits of using two different podcasts to learn French.  Well, my iPod became sentient and went on a rampage.  Well, that’s not true, but it did start acting finicky and I had to reset my settings.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this takes care of the problem and I can begin to listen to the podcasts again.  I wonder how many people have to reset their iPods because they aren’t working properly.

One more note about those two podcasts.  They each have supplemental resources that you can buy from their websites.  They are available when you become a member.

I used to speak French really well, but found myself out of practice after living abroad and what not.  Well this year, I started to upgrade my French and one method that I have found very helpful was through listening to podcasts.  There are a couple which I really like.

The first is called CoffeeBreak French.  It is an audio podcast produced by Radio Lingua.  “Mark” is the teacher and his co-host “Ana” is learning French.  This one is good because it goes over different elements of basic grammar adding new material each week.  Each session is about 15 - 20 min long so it’s not too much of a time commitment and I love being able to listen to it when I’m out and about on my iPod.

The second is called Walk, Talk and Learn French.  It is a new video podcast produced by the same company.  It looks at different advertisements and grammar usage around Paris.  These podcasts are short (only a few minutes in length) and I listen to these when I’m out and about, too.

There’s more podcasts that I like, but I’ll share those another day.

I don’t usually read the Toronto Sun, but today I did. It’s National Hunger Awareness Day today and there was a copy sitting on the table next to me as I was eating my lunch. In it was an article about food banks in Canada and another article about the demand for food worldwide. It said that by 2030 there would need to be a 50% increase in food production. Let’s look at current statictics, as noted from today’s paper in the Toronto Sun;

• Every province has some food bank agencies.
• Newfoundland has the highest number of users of food banks per capita.
• Alberta has the most employed (working poor) users of food banks (27%).
• Ontario has the most users of food banks.

Many Canadians are turning to food banks as a means of helping them when they are underemployed or working at minimally paid jobs.

In the second article, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is reported as saying that food production needs to increase by 50% to meet the increasing needs of the earth’s population. He also argued for opening borders to trade food much more easily between countries (as poorer countries are hit the hardest when food prices rise).

How does hunger affect your students? Well, your students might be coming to school after having no breakfast and may or may not have a lunch.

If your school has a breakfast program and/snack program, it needs to be available for all students. If snack bins are guarded too closely, students who really need the food may miss out on having some. There can being a stigma around being the only student allowed to get something from the snack bin - allow everyone to do it.

It is also very important to teach about hunger.  Students need to have time to discuss living conditions throughout Canada and in other countries.  They need to understand that everyone deserves to have good food, not just people and/or countries that can afford it.

On Sunday the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto will be closed because of a wonderful event taking place - The Ride for Heart and Stroke. Cyclists start at the Exhibition Place, travel across the Gardiner Expressway, go up the Don Valley Parkway and then return back to Exhibition Place. The ride can be 25km for beginners to 75km for more advanced riders. It is a great way to exercise and raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. For late registrants the minimum donation is $60 + $50 for registration. (Your money goes to help prevent and manage high blood pressure, treat and prevent cardiac arrest in children and other things, too) You should be there by 6:45am to pick up your number and get set up to go.

I hope you can make it out to this great event.