Little Fidgets Celebrates European Language Day

An article by Claire    Comments Off

Action songs, rhymes and a chocolate hide-and-seek game will give children as young as two a real taste for French and Spanish, in free language sessions taking place in Brighton to celebrate European Languages Day.

The two sessions, one in French and one in Spanish, are led by Lucy Amos, founder of Little Fidgets, a Hurstpierpoint company specialising in language classes for 2-11 year-olds. Lucy works with schools and nurseries across the county and uses the five senses to bring French and Spanish to life , with colourful puppets, food, rhymes and general silliness.

The sessions will take place at Waterstones in Brighton on Saturday 22nd September. Youngsters should expect lively action songs like ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’, the chance to role play a visit to a pretend ice cream shop and a goodbye song which involves eating real chocolate!

As a linguist with five languages under her belt, Lucy feels it’s important to celebrate European Languages Day (26th September). The day was created by the Council of Europe in 2001 to encourage learning across the continent – an area where 200 languages are spoken.

Being a fluent french speaker myself, I have introduced words into my 4 year old’s vocabulary, plus regularly speak to her in French so she gets the feel for the difference in pronunciation and tonation. I was also raised in a francophone household, where we regularly had students to stay plus numerous holidays across the Channel. Understanding a foreign tongue opens up ideas on culture and perceptions on the world, not to mention makes you think about grammatical structure of language. Once you understand the principles of one latin or germanic language, it’s not too difficult in my view, to learn multiple languages. In order to do that, immersion in the culture is an enormous help, not to mention good fun. Little Fidgets taster days promise to do just that!

Lucy says, ‘I want to mark the day because I know that learning a language can be a delight, if you start young enough. When children are having fun – whether it’s watching puppets or singing action songs – they don’t even notice they’re picking up another language. Before you know it, they’re shouting ‘Bonjour!’ and counting to ‘cinq’ on their fingers! If it’s enjoyable to do, it’s easy to learn. So I hope to see you there!’

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net