LingoBugs

Fancy some fun Friday français? Click on the link below then vote for your answer on our LingoCoach page ... or, if you're not sure, share with Francophile friend who might! Amusez-vous bien (enjoy!) x

Voilà ! We are super excited to unveil a new series of mini “test yourself” teasers: “Testez-vous !” Every week🤞we plan to post a quick French language question for your puzzling pleasure. (Well, “f” is for fun as well as français!). Comment below the post with your chosen answer a) b) c) or d) or just a thumbs up emoji if you're too shy to say! Look out for the correct answer a few days later to check if you were right! So, first up then, what is the French for "bank holiday"? 🤔💡🎓

Bonsoir à tous et à toutes! The weather's warming up ... a sure sign that GCSEs are upon us! Our dedicated Tuition and Coaching services at TheLingoCoach have been busily helping students to prepare in the run up to the exams, and it has been wonderful to see their language skills scale new heights - along with their confidence, which really does count - especially for the speaking exam. It's never too early to start reaping the rewards of a bit of extra help ... if you have secondary-school-age children, or if you have friends who do - please share our Tuition offering! Pop over to page and share. We provide tailored face to face or online tuition, so no need to be local! Merci beaucoup tout le monde 🙏

Wishing all our GCSE students the VERY BEST of LUCK with their Listening and Reading exams this week! Not that you really need luck, as you have all ABSOLUTELY got this, each and every one of you!! Brillez de mille feux - shine brightly and brilliantly - you are SUPERSTARS!! 🌟🌟🌟

Bonne Année et Bonne Fête des Rois! Fancy a slice of "galette des rois" with your café? Yes, no sooner have the French celebrated Noël and seen in le Nouvel An (the New Year) they are onto another fabulous celebration: "La Fête des Rois", literally Feast of the (three) Kings, aka Twelfth Night or Epiphany. This represents the culmination of the Christmas festivities and celebrates the Three King's arrival in Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus. It's another opportunity for feasting (!), with the centrepiece being a magnificent "Galette des Rois" - a sweet puff pastry case filled with delicious frangipane, served warm and topped with "une couronne" a (golden paper) crown. In the south of France, a ring of fruity brioche is the tradition. For added fun, hidden somewhere in the galette or brioche is " une fève" (a fava bean) - or these days a small figurine - so make sure to eat your slice very carefully, since if you discover "la fève", you win the privilege of being crowned "le Roi" or " la Reine" (King or Queen) and wearing the golden crown for the day! Some families play again and again each weekend throughout the month of January, and a final thoughtful touch is to keep a slice of galette for un unexpected visitor, or one of lesser means than oneself, for an equal chance of "tirer les rois" (drawing the king) ☺️

This week we are celebrating the 20th European Day of Languages - youpi! And with that comes some extra exciting news! We have chosen this week to unveil our new Coaching and Tuition brand … TheLingoCoach! We have been so privileged recently to have been offering so much individual specialised coaching and tuition for secondary school age language students and adults, that we felt it was high time we launched a unique dedicated brand for this arm of our provision. It’s still us, biensûr, with the same energy and commitment, we’ve just donned a new name and ‘look’ for our successful tuition services, with the grown-up gravitas befitting of our older super-star students.
Please spread the word and the lingo love by hopping on over to our new page, giving it a like and - even better - a share. Merci mille fois tout le monde 😍 xx
https://www.facebook.com/TheLingoCoach

The LingoCoach Fully tailored, professional, friendly foreign language coaching and tuition for KS3, GCSE & A-Level students, adults wishing to learn or refresh their knowledge, or anyone looking to liberate their inner linguist!

Youpi! Hoorah! Nous sommes de retour en PERSONNE ! Démarrons en FANFARE ! (We are back in PERSON and with a FLOURISH!) What's more, we are so excited to be embarking on a brand new course with Senior LingoBugs, “Mon Tour de France”. A linguistic tour of France, biensûr, focussing on our French conversational skills … as well as discovering some enlightening geo-cultural facts along the way. The perfect oil for our language-learning gears! C'EST PARTI (we’re OFF)!

Impressionnant! Impressive! Our Senior LingoBugs have just translated (and without too much difficulty I hasten to add!) this TEN digit number in French: 98,765,432,10 👊 Voluntarily too! They decided to work out the French for the biggest possible number they could make with all the digits. Well, learning a language has been well proven to boost maths skills 👏🌟🎓 Now, can YOU translate it??

Ready for a Summer success story? Voilà! Formidablement "félicitations" (colossal congrats) to our advanced cohort, each and every one of whom achieved a PERFECT SCORE in their end of year French assessment! 100% across the board! 🙌 Super bravo les étudiants 👏 vous êtes tous GÉNIAUX (super well done, students, you are all AMAZING (which in French, rather aptly, is the same word as genius :)) 🎓🌟 🥳

Whoop whoop! French is finally FACE to FACE again! It's fresh air, fair weather, al fresco French, but it’s IN PERSON, not online, at long last ... and we’re absolutely LOVING it! Indeed, the outdoor classroom could become a firm favourite with our fun-loving, footloose Francophiles 😍

La fanfare s’il vous plait! 🎺📯 SUPER excited to share our latest success story…remember our lovely student who we coached earlier this year for the French element of the prestigious Shrewsbury School Entrance Exam? Well, he only went and passed with FLYING COLOURS 🏆🎯🎉! Félicitations (congratulations) young man! 🎓 We just knew you could do it, BRAVO!👏👏👏

Fish ... or Fool? Both! The French version of April Fool is “poisson d’avril” – April fish 🐟 !! Children in France spend le premier avril (April 1st) surreptitiously trying to attach paper fish onto their grown ups’ backs (to catch them out 😂). When the prank is discovered, they shout “poisson d’avril” - amidst much hilarity of course! What's more, Easter chocolates in France often include fishy shaped ones!

Lots of ideas attached for 'crafty' (?!) paper fish – from “la peinture” (painting) to l’origami … why not give one a go! Happy fishing 🐠

Activités poisson d'avril : 9 idées de poissons à fabriquer | La cour des petits Pour le 1er avril quoi de mieux que de bricoler des poissons ? Et si en plus on peut les accrocher dans le dos des copains ou des adultes... Découvrez ces 9 bricolages poissons à suspendre !

Our Juniors are coming on leaps and bounds this term as we glide our way through the syllabus, and this week a bit of light relief as they combined their linguistic knowledge with their artistic talent for the homework activity, which to "dessiner un beau poisson" 🐠 and revise their "couleurs" as they draw. Here are a few of their beautiful fishies to brighten your day! Merci beaucoup les enfants (et les parents pour les photos) 😍

The heat was on last week here at LingoBugs HQ as we were tasked with lending a last minute hand to a charming young chap to brush up his French for his 13+ entrance exam. Lockdown #2 struck mid-task 🤪, but, with a quick about-turn to Zoom-based sessions, on we sailed, a torrent of hard work in our wake. And now we await with bated breath "les résultats" to see if we have sailed through the exam 🤞 Bravo et merci Archie / Lisa Horton-Samuel, totally fabulous work ethic 👏