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Can anyone recommend a French (preferably native) teacher who offers 1:1 classes. I've just come back from 2 weeks of intensive French as part of a holiday in Guadeloupe and want to keep up the progress. I'm south of Perpignan near St Cyprien. Many thanks for any recommendations!

I've seen an ad. in the Connexion paper.
www.cours-a-cucugnan

It's in the Aude under Narbonne and do one on one and provide accommodation too.

Correct link: http://www.cours-a-cucugnan.com/

Russell

russell wrote:Correct link: http://www.cours-a-cucugnan.com/

Russell

I note that she is mother-tongue English, though no doubt perfectly fluent in French. And she makes a point of being able to use English to explain French. I have no idea whether that's helpful: I was taught (to the giddy heights of O level) by the "direct" method. It has gone in and out of fashion over the years, but in any event mrsq53 will want to consider if that's what she wants for her €550.

Thank you for the ideas offered. I originally mentioned my location as I am seeking a local French native teacher for regular (probably weekly)1:1 sessions. Having recently completed a two week intensive course I need ongoing support to build on the progress made so far. I should have been more precise!

Dont know anyone in Saint Cyp but there are couple of ladies, both French native speakers, who give lessons in Céret, and would probably come out to you.

One is Nathalie, partner of the owner of the France café and the other is Liz http://anglophone-direct.com/listing/fr ... -in-ceret/.

Someone might be able to fill in the blanks on Nathalie?? Bon courage. C'est une très bonne façon de maintenir un bon niveau.

Kate, do you know if Liz Jarry is a native speaker? I could also benefit from one-to-one tuition. I know from my experiences of language classes back home that native speakers have an advantage over even the best of non-native speakers in terms of subtle nuances etc - though this is probably less important if you're at relatively early stage of learning.

SteveB wrote:Kate, do you know if Liz Jarry is a native speaker? I could also benefit from one-to-one tuition. I know from my experiences of language classes back home that native speakers have an advantage over even the best of non-native speakers in terms of subtle nuances etc - though this is probably less important if you're at relatively early stage of learning.

I remember Mme Jones, who taught me in my early teens, very vividly to this day: the decidedly French wife of the decidedly Welsh husband who used to teach me woodworking (I was making a cross-halving joint under his care when I heard that JFK had been killed). God knows how they ended up together in welshest Wales , but it was one of the things that made me a reflex europhile.

I have a friend in Australia who spent half her life teaching French in secondary schools there before ever coming to Europe: she was mortified to find that she spoke it pretty approximately.

what type of lessons do you want? if it just plain conversations i would say the best practice is to take up a activity ( like painting)s or a sport( there is a gym in the capellans ). I have found it doesn,t matter how many lessons you have, even one to one, the only way to keep the language up is to find french friends. i am bilingual ( probably better at french now than english), was thrown in at the deep end at 14 , schools in the 80s did not accomadate for foreign speaking people. good luck.
ps i am iin Alenya so not far from you.
lisa

[quote="tia"]what type of lessons do you want? if it just plain conversations i would say the best practice is to take up a activity ( like painting)s or a sport( there is a gym in the capellans ). I have found it doesn,t matter how many lessons you have, even one to one, the only way to keep the language up is to find french friends. i am bilingual ( probably better at french now than english), was thrown in at the deep end at 14 , schools in the 80s did not accomadate for foreign speaking people. good luck.
ps i am iin Alenya so not far from you.
lisa[/quote

Perhaps it's a mistake to look for someone local. I have always had most problems communicating over the phone: no body language, no "rescue me, I'm just an anglais" if you are dealing with a call centre in Morocco'. I'm sure there are people who do it over, eg, Skype, if you look. And cheaper, I guess.

Yes, Liz Jarry is definitely native French.
Agree with Tia that getting involved in activities and events where you are obliged to speak French is the best way to go.....but it's not always as easy as that for lots of reasons.

A bit of both would be ideal.

Having spent much of the last few days discussing home improvements with artisans who speak little or no English, I would certainly agree that this is a very good way of improving one's spoken language. I do find it rather disappointing that a lot of people take the easy way out and look for expats or English-speaking locals when they need work done.

On the other hand, formal lessons, preferably with a native speaker, where the focus is on points of language rather than business transactions or social intercourse, have an important place as well, I would suggest.

Thank you for the very interesting comments. I am fortunate that in my village that I am able to do gym douce twice a week with a friendly French crowd(mince pies at Christmas was a great way of connecting). I have an village allotment - with a helpful but Catalan accented villagers and help with the many village fetes we have. I have challenged myself by joining the Perpignan Art Deco association. Through the U3A I attend monthly wine visits where the vigneron usually guides us around in French. We also endeavour to hold occasion dinner parties with our French neighbours and yes, I do watch French television. My comprehension has improve leaps and bounds but the intensive course in Guadeloupe just highlighted how much more I could learn!

[quote="martyn94"]Perhaps it's a mistake to look for someone local. I have always had most problems communicating over the phone: no body language, no "rescue me, I'm just an anglais" if you are dealing with a call centre in Morocco'. I'm sure there are people who do it over, eg, Skype, if you look. And cheaper, I guess.[/quote]

I would entirely agree, and just this morning found myself breaking my usual rule and resorting to Orange's English speaking service (00 33 969 36 39 00 for those not familiar with it), after several failed attempts to penetrate their call centre. It's reassuring to know that the people I eventually got through to were probably North African, so my comprehension of spoken French is't as bad as I thought - I have similar problems with British call centres talking to people from the Indian subcontinent. Incidentally I found the English-speaking service service very helpful, considering Orange's generally abysmal reputation for customer service.