Our first two days exhibiting at the 2013 NZPF Conference in Hamilton have underscored the fact that there is a growing need for Mandarin as an in-school language option for all New Zealand students with a genuine interest from school principals across the board. And with a talk on Friday by John McKinnon, executive director of […]
There is an important distinction made by linguists between ‘language acquisition’ and ‘language learning’. “Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.” Stephen Krashen (The Natural Approach) There is an […]
Free offer to all Australasian Primary and Intermediate Schools! An experience of a foreign country without the travelling! Based on 25 years of language teaching experience, LCF Fun Languages is pleased to offer a complimentary culture session (either French, Spanish or Mandarin) for your school. Our fun cultural experience will be 1-2 hours full of […]
It gets their children using the language quickly and naturally “As parents, we know that engaging pre-schoolers in any activity, particularly new activities, is a big challenge but I have found the Spanish group teacher has all the right tricks through song, dance and group activities to bring even the shyest toddler along and engaged […]
We conducted a “mini survey” at the recently held New Zealand Principal’s Federation Conference in Hamilton, NZ to get an idea of how principals felt about the importance of offering a second language at their school. The results confirmed what we already knew and the emerging trends with languages in New Zealand: 89% of principals […]
LCF Fun Languages is delighted to be partnering with Kids Planet in Albany, Auckland, to provide a bilingual program to the lucky children in their new transition room. This brand new area at Kids Planet will provide a perfect linguistic environment for the children to explore our play-based language programs. We were very excited that […]
Time Magazine recently published an article that once again illustrates the plethora of benefits that kids gain by being bilingual and stresses the importance of giving children the opportunity to learn a second language. And starting the langage learning journey as early as possible!! A move by state education officials to introduce an ambitious total […]
For most of you reading this, you will already have first-hand experience of learning at least one other language. So, at what point can one consider oneself “fluent” in another language? Can you call yourself fluent in French if you can make it around a French market or order confidently in a restaurant without too […]
“Is it hard to learn another language? Which is the easiest language to learn? How long will it take to learn another language?” These are questions I am constantly being asked by adults… adults who often regret the fact that they never mastered another language and, for that reason, are now motivated to give […]
Being a speaker of several languages, I often find a foreign word popping into one of my sentences when I am speaking English. Those of you who speak another language may support me in the fact that, just sometimes, there is a so much more succinct way of expressing something in another language, where English […]