French tutor for 4 year old
Hi 👋
i wanted to get recommendation from parents on this site if anyone knows of a French tutor who can teach a 4 year old toddler. We both have no French background but we want her to have the opportunity to learn.
Please send me your sources if any.
Thanks
Naveena
Jan 3, 2019
Parent Replies
Dear Naveena,
Try posting on Urbansitter.com. as well as this site. or UC etc. student employment. We have both Spanish and Mandarin sitters coming in to speak only their language to our 7 month grandson. They are all wonderful, but it is important to suggest what you want, including speaking clearly. Will it work for us? We don't know, but the effort is fun for everyone! Good luck.
It is less expensive to hire them as babysitters than as tutors.
Hi Naveena,
my 6 years old son is bilingual french-Italian because I am Italian and his father is French and we always speak both languages at home. He is now learning (very quick!) english in Kindergarten (we moved in the US last August) so I am a fan of multilingualism but I don't think that you can teach a 4 years old. At that age the only way to learn is immersion. So my advice would be to look for an immersion school (there is the francophone school in Oakland or the EBI in Berkeley but I don't know if they are good) or pre-school. Or hire a french au pair. Or (when she is older) sign her up in a summer camp in France. My older daughter attended a camp in the US for 3 weeks and the progress (she only had school english) was incredible! So the next summer I repeated the experiment with Spanish: she attended a 2 week surf camp in Spain and again the progress was spectacular. And both times she had a lot of fun! For younger kids: I learned french as a kid because my parents went every summer on vacation in a french speaking club and I was in the mini club with french kids and counselors. But a tutor once or twice a week is in my opinion a waste of money...
Bonne chance
martina
You can try Anil Fermin (201) 675-5796. I know he has taught kindergarteners, so I think he would probably be able to work with a 4 year old. He is an excellent tutor. Very kind and patient.
You should consider a french speaking preschool. I think children that young need more of an immersion environment to really learn a new language. My 4-year old daughter goes to a bilingual school and although she's a native speaker I noticed a lot of the non-native speakers took at least 1-2 years or more before they started feeling comfortable speaking.
The Alliance Francaise in Berkeley may have a recommendation. I take classes there myself. All native speakers from France with approval of the Academic Francaise.