The winner of the Rosetta Stone giveaway!

I want to thank you all for entering the giveaway. This particular giveaway was to kickoff this new blog and to celebrate my blogoversary at Brighton Park!  More than anything, I have enjoyed the friendships I have made through blogging that I have been so blessed to have made these past couple of years.

I hope you will all enjoy the posts I have planned for you in the coming months here at Katie's French Language Cafe and continue to visit me here as we embark on a new year together.


So without further adieu, here is the winner of the ROSETTA STONE giveaway. In all, we had 220 entries for this giveaway between the blog entries and those who earned entries by sharing the giveaway post on facebook! All were listed out on a piece of paper (old school)~~written out by hand by me. I do this so you can know how the winner came to be. There is no doubt that it was random; that it was fair.

#181: Kasey at TFOMplus2~





Entries were numbered, 1-220. Random.org was then used to generate a number to be matched to the entry number. So without further ado, the winner was: 181!

Congratulations Kasey. I hope you enjoy following Katie's Language Cafe and I hope you enjoy learning with your new Rosetta Stone French Level 1! Please email me at homeschoolfam@gmail.com with your full name and mailing information.

Thank you again everyone, for your comments and your friendships!

French Cooking: Cookbook review

I love cooking.


I love eating.


But I digress, le sigh.

I cook alot. And I am always wanting to try new dishes; new cuisines. My husband also loves to cook and is an extremely good cook if I do say so. We have an extensive cookbook collection between us and several are on preparing French cuisine.

But there is only one actually from France...so far.

French Cooking: The Great Traditional Recipes, by Bonechi.

I picked it up at all places, the Arc de Triomphe gift shop on my Paris trip last November. I was looking for a souvenir for my husband. We both love cookbooks that offer bright vivid photos. This one had bright color photos, easy recipes (it seemed) and was paperback--meaning it would travel well back to America with me, and more importantly, travel well that day without being a burden in my pack as I continued my walking tour of Paris.

I purchased the English edition. It is 127 pages.  Recipes are indexed: les entrees, les soupes, les viandes (meat dishes), les poissons (fish) , les lugumes (vegetables/side dishes), and les desserts. Each recipe is labeled three ways: Difficulty (easy, medium difficult), Flavour (mild, medium and strong) and nutritional content (low, medium and high). It also tells which region of France the dish is from.


Recipes are traditional with some bearing traditional ingredients including rabbit, snails, octopus, veal and pig trotters (don't ask) etc. and those are not for the faint of heart. But there are some wonderful more familiar offerings, including: Cheese puffs, savoury cheese tart, onion soup, Normandy potatoes, vegetable soup, ratatouille and crème brûlée


I would consider this a good cookbook for cooks who are new to cooking French cuisine. The photos are helpful and the recipes fairly simple. Additional sidebar tidbits and photos  of the various regions of France are sprinkled throughout.


 It is available from Amazon affiliates here or Barnes and Noble here. For the price (starting as little as .99 on the B & N site), it is a great beginner cookbook for the price for someone wanting to try out French cuisine.

Bon appétit ,

Rosetta Stone Giveaway!

We are starting up with an exciting giveaway here at Katie's French Language Cafe!

You do not have to be a homeschooler to enter or win, but if you ARE a homeschooler, you are going to love this.

I am giving away: Rosetta Stone French, Level 1

Rosetta Stone is the number one foreign language program (and the number one homeschool foreign language program) and is how my own French language journey to fluency (and I am still on that journey) started. I found Rosetta Stone wonderful, but challenging and too hard for my 7 year old daughter. I wanted a way to make it easier for others using it, including families using it to teach French in their homeschool, and that is how I came up with the idea for this new blog

                                                        Photo Credit: KFLC/Eiffel tower morning

Katie's French Language Cafe is a blog where you can find French language lessons, free printables, culture lessons, history lessons, and even cuisine! It is my new "baby" and you are going to love it. I have taken my expertise in speech/language, (specifically language aquisition) and my own previous trials as a foreign language learner and developed my own method for second language aquisition~~ The M-E-R-C-I method! (You can read more about that here.) Developed to be used on its own or as a supplement to Rosetta Stone French, I hope you will find it a welcome addition to your home or homeschool!

So here is how to enter! 

This is a great prize, so there are two mandatory entries!

1. Like Katie's Language Cafe on facebook. (1 entry)--mandatory entry

2. Follow Katie's Language Cafe via GFC, Networked Blogs, RSS or subscribe by email .
 (1 entry)--mandatory entry

You may do any of the following that you like for extra entries. They are not mandatory but will increase your chances!

1. Leave a comment telling me why you want to win/learn French. (1 entry)

2. Share Katie's Language Cafe by sharing any giveaway status you see on the Katie's Language Cafe facebook page on your own page. (3 entries)

3. Place the Katie's language cafe button on your blog's sidebar and (honor system) leave it for one month. (5 entries)

4. SHARE Katie's Language cafe with your followers by writing a short post about the blog and mention/link back to this giveaway. (10 entries).

I will be posting this giveaway on my homeschool blog (Brighton Park) also and entries from both will be combined. So you can leave your comments about your entries on either one (not both) and they will be counted. Good luck and I look forward to you all joining me on my French journey and I hope you are INSPIRED to start your own!

**The giveaway will end next Saturday, Jan. 28th at 11:59pm. A winner will be chosen via random.org from all entries and announced on Sunday Jan. 29th. You must be a US resident to win the prize.  This giveaway is not affiliated with facebook or Rosetta Stone and neither facebook nor Rosetta Stone are liable for prizes. Brighton Park, Katies Language Cafe or any persons associated with this blog, shall not be held liable for any damages incurred through the use of these prizes. Thank you. Previous blogoversary winners not eligible.

French Greetings part 2 Practice Song

In our French lesson #1 we learned 14  French greetings, including

How are you?…..Comment ça va?

We are building on that today with a few more and a song  to help you remember them. If you are learning French in your homeschool or teaching your children, this is a perfect practice song!

The French/English vocabulary for this lesson (plus the included culture lesson and activities) will be available under our Lessons page.

Au Revoir,

.

Photo Friday...

Photo Credit: KFLC/Stained glass windows at St. Chapelle/Paris

Cooking with Herbes de Provence

Photo credit: Katie's language Cafe, lavender buckets, Paris

I love cooking all types of food, including French cuisine. When my husband and I married, our cookbook collections married as well, and I was thrilled to find a large FRENCH COOKING hardback in his collection. In 12 years, I have never cooked something from any of our French cookbooks (there are now 6 in our collection) that wasn't delicious!
One of the things I love to use when I am cooking, is the French spice blend called
herbes de Provence. The standard mixture typically contains  a blend of the following herbs: savory, basil, fennel, and thyme.. Some varieties also include: sage, marjoram, chervil  and/or lavender.

You can add herbes de Provence to grilled meats, white fish, soups, and stews. My husbands favorite is a French Cassoulette with duck and sausage and it would not taste the same without this spice blend added. You can also add it to oil that is warming up (be careful not to burn) in order to infuse the flavor into the oil before preparing other foods.  If you are buying a premade blend in the store, be sure to check the label. Just because it is named Herbes de Provence, does not guarantee it actually came from France. Some store blends can come from other areas including  Europe, Africa or China~~ or this one, from CA: 

photo credit: KFLC/Organic, but not from France...

For that reason, if I am unable to find a French one at my local specialty grocer, I like to make my own with the following recipe: (Dried fresh herbs are best, but use organic store bought in a pinch!)


1 tbsp. Lavender
1 tbsp. Savory (if you cant find, substitute 1 tsp sage)
1 tbsp. Rosemary1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
1/2 tbsp. Oregano
1 tbsp. Basil
1 tbsp. Thyme

I have read that typical French dishes do not include Lavender as an ingredient in Herbes de Provence, with that being more of an Americanized version. I personally like the lavender added. When I can find it fresh, I dry my own and add it. I love the aroma and floral undertone the lavender gives to the mix.  Some people like to go heavier on the fennel seed. As fennel seed is similiar to anise and I am NOT a fan of anything licorice related, my own blend decreases that amount so that it is not overpowering to my overly sensitive licorice detecting pallette. Feel free to play around with the spices and amounts until you have created your own favorite go-to Herbes de Provence blend to use in your French Culinary journey!


Bon appétit!

**This post is linked up to Whatever you want Wednesdays over at Free Pretty Things for You.

Using Movies to gain proficiency

photo credit: Katie's Language Cafe

I lived in Florida for several years back in the 90s. It is where I learned to speak some Spanish. A good friend of mine during those years was a native Spanish speaker who had learned English as an older student in school.  He told me that watching English TV had really helped him to become more fluent. Likewise, a friend who was an English speaker, who had learned to become fluent in Spanish, told me the same thing with a small twist. She said what helped her gain the most ground in her journey to fluent Spanish was watching Spanish Soap Operas! When I followed her advice, in addition to my book study, my Spanish skills improved...by leaps and bounds.

Why is this?

Second languages are not learned in a vacuum. No matter how hard we study from a book, if we only engage in book study, we may become proficient French language readers, but not proficient speakers. French sounds very different from how it looks. Therefore, a student learning French must hear the language often in in order to become proficient. If you are not living in a francophone country or a bi-lingual home, one way you can increase the amount of the language that you hear in context in order to help you build proficiency is to use media~~ whether via, television, movies, or newscasts.

Being a fan of movies, I like to use this resource at least once a week to help build my "ear" for the language. There are two ways you can do this:

1.  Watch your favorite English speaking movies in French. Most DVD's will give you the option to watch the movie in a foreign language (usually Spanish or French). Pop your favorite in the player in French. If it is a movie where you know alot of the lines by heart, all the better. 
   
2. Watch French movies with English subtitles.  Some of my favorites....Amelie,  Joyeux Noel and Paris, Je T'aime .

A third option will help you with being more familiar with the written language...

3. Watch English movies in English with French subtitles.

If you are a French language learner, I encourage you to add this to your study of the language.

À la prochaine (until next time)

French Greetings

photo credit: KFLC/my daughter Audrey at the Louvre, her first trip to Paris.
Can't you just hear her saying "Bonjour"?

Greetings are usually the first things one learns when learning a new language. It seems that even people who don't fluently or even conversationally speak a foreign language will know hi/bye, good morning and good night, (along with a  yes/no and please/thank you).

Even if you do not speak French, greetings are important if you are traveling there. It is considered rude to enter a shop in France without greeting the shopkeeper.

If you are a new language learner, start with these greetings, listed below and commit them to memory (M of our MERCI method, "Master the Vocabulary") and then Practice the pronunciations with this great youtube video by the travellinguist.

You can find a free downloadable PDF file of these French greetings with their English translations on our FREE dowloadables Page here.

Welcome...

photo credit: Katie's Language Cafe/JFK Avenue, Paris

Welcome to the beginning of a journey.

Welcome to Katie's Language Cafe.

 I started KLC so I would have a place to share my passions for traveling, cooking and languages. I am currently on my own journey of learning French...a journey that started 18 months ago with a Rosetta Stone set and now includes classes at the University twice a week and trips to France...it is a journey I am finding rewarding and oh so challenging...and that journey and challenge grows this semester as Italian is added to my course schedule.

I would love it if you were to be inspired to start your own journey....to learn a language, cook a new French dish, teach a French History lesson in your homeschool, or just resolve for one day to wear a scarf and red lipstick, just as chic French women do.

I am the author of the life that I live and this blog is one of my journeys. I hope you will join me.