'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Tuesday 5 November 2019

Guest Post: Heidi Bryant on How To Learn Languages


Would you like your children to speak French one day?

Why not start when they are toddlers?

I studied languages relatively late in life when I started grammar school – but children, even when they are toddlers can easily pick up another language. Last year I decided to write my first book, which enables parents to help their children learn French. So, here are a few tips to help your child learn French in a fun way! And as a parent you can also learn French too.

Many parents may consider hiring a French tutor, but this may prove ineffective as learning another language would generally take more than one or two hours a week.

Children learn by repetition — constant repetition — and learning a language is no different.

One of my customers who owns the book The Adventures of Vince the Cat – Vince Goesto Paris has told me that he has read the book over 40 times to his daughter at her request. He then pleaded with me to write another book!!

A great solution to help your children to learn French would be to hire a French nanny to speak with them all day, or move to France but maybe that wouldn’t be possible for everyone. Although, I really believe that the best tutor to teach a child is someone who is close to them – like you – the parents for example! Now… Fear not! If you don’t speak French yourself – I have just the solution...

How can my child learn French if I don’t speak the language myself?

If you don't speak any French, then you could start by taking a couple of hours of French lessons and learn the basic every day words; numbers, colours, animals to start with. You could also start with resources such as, 
The Adventures of Vince the Cat – Vince Goes to Paris, designed for both parents and children to learn together through entertaining and motivational story lines.

In this book – I have subtly included French words and phrases into the story – so your child may not even realise that she/he is actually learning. You will both get to meet new characters, learn about the famous places in Paris and be able to familiarise yourself with the French Language. Best of all, is you can learn French easily by following the pronunciation tips at the back.

Inspire your child to learn French today!

Heidi Bryant lives and works in the UK. She studied French, German and Spanish at school and has an Honour’s Degree in Modern Languages and a Master’s Degree in Translation.

Heidi had the idea to write
The Adventures of Vince the Cat when she sadly lost her beloved cat Mikki to old age in summer 2018. She was totally devastated and so in order to keep the memories of her beautiful cats past and present alive – she decided to start writing adventure stories with cats as the main characters.

Having travelled extensively throughout her life she has now combined her love of cats, her passion for languages and travel into these stories to inspire children to discover our wonderful world
.