Language Learning Part 1: Singing with Lingotastic

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing a little about our language learning adventures and reviewing some of our favourite language resources with giveaways too! Learning languages at a young age can apparently boost brain power and increase memory but the main reason I decided to introduce languages to the Mini Reviewers was to promote a deeper understanding and awareness of different countries and cultures, which in today's diverse society seems increasingly important.

Sadly I am not a gifted linguist or an expert in language learning. However what I lack in skills, I make up for in sheer enthusiasm and I thought that by sharing our language learning journey from the start, it may encourage others to have a try. So what are you waiting for? Pick a language and here we go...

Getting started...

I speak a little German, albeit rather badly, so German still seemed the obvious choice of language for us to focus on.  As the Mini Reviewers are still getting to grips with English, the last thing I wanted to do was to confuse them completely, so our language learning journey has been an incredibly slow one with an emphasis on having fun and learning through play.

In my search for German resources, I came across Lingotastic. Lingotastic provide language classes in Bucks and Herts (UK), which is just a bit too far for us to travel but fortunately they also sell a CD of simple songs, which was just what we needed to get us started.

Mostly German CD from Lingotastic

I purchased The Mostly German CD at the beginning of the last school year and it quickly became a school run favourite and brightened up our morning routine. The Mostly German CD features, well you guessed it, songs in mostly German! However there is also some English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and even Esperanto too. Although the song lyrics aren't provided with the CD, these can be easily downloaded from the Lingotastic website.

There are nine surprisingly catchy tunes on the CD. Some of them are extremely familiar, for example Die Raeder am Bus (The wheels on the bus) and Blinke, blinke, kleiner Stern (Twinkle, twinkle little star). But our favourites are definitely Alle meine Entchen (All my little ducklings) and Gruen, gruen, gruen (Green, green, green), which is the perfect song for learning the colours. Bringing the songs to life with puppets or actions is definitely recommended but perhaps not during the school run!

This fun CD has been the perfect starting point for our language learning journey and I am sure it is something we will return to over and over again. The Lingotastic website has lots more tips for language learning and YouTube videos too.

READER DISCOUNT AND GIVEAWAY

The Mostly German CD can be purchased through the Lingotastic website for £10 plus postage and you can receive a 10% DISCOUNT until end of July 2017 by quoting LINGOKate. 

I also have a copy to giveaway below:

Lingotastic Mostly German CD Giveaway

Our next language learning post will focus on 
STORIES

but in the meantime, we would love to hear about your language learning adventures. 

Please share your tips, games or favourite resources below...

Language books from One Third Stories

*This is not a sponsored post and all opinions are, as always our own.