Experiment In French Language Based Learning Of Guitar - French Learning Section

Learning French In Order To Better Play My Guitar...

I met a woman who was translating for a conference, who said she learned to speak French by singing folk-songs.
My process is the reverse.
I want to learn French in order to better play my guitar.

"Stages Of Change" Theory and Its Application To French Language Learning

I had typical French education experience in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The teachers freely admitted they did not know how to speak French (with one exception), and there were no readily available learning resources. The course was primarily a written, grammar based course for 5 years. It was of little use.

In my second year of French I determined to really learn it but when told this was not possible, I turned my attention to other subjects.

For some reason the disappointment lingered. When my French-teacher/language consultant wife went to France for a conference, she returned home with a very precious gift. It was a picture of Mont St. Michael, which had been on the cover of our French text in that second year of High School.

I tried learning a couple of other languages with little real success.

Stage 1 - Pre-Awareness

I continued with my life in Anglophone Manitoba, saw my two boys and two of my grandchildren go through French Immersion, and witnessed the explosion of internet and digital based language resources. Still I had no strong awareness of a desire to learn French.

Stage 2 - Awareness

Then a couple of years ago something happened, and I decided to look seriously into whether it was in fact possible to learn French now. I saw a book Fluent in Three Months by Benny Lewis, and spent some holiday time reading it. That was when everything changed for me.

In his opening chapters, Benny Lewis recommended that I think about why I wanted to learn, because without a strong reason, he doubted I could succeed. My problem was that I knew I had a reason that had lingered since high school, but I could not put my finger on it.

When involved in Art Therapy during Cancer treatment a few years ago we learned that one way to get feelings out where they could be examined was through letting our minds express themselves through various forms of art, and then take a look at the results. I decided to do some free-writing, then looked at the results. It was strange, but I realized that my reason now for learning French was in order to play my guitar better. I knew that whatever that was all about, it was somehow right, and would become clearer as I went forward.

Stage 3 - Information Chasing

At this point I started to look at various suggestions as to process very seriously, and then decided to put my findings up on my website...which I am now doing. I am very definitely in "information gathering" stage in regards to French Language learning...with a certain degree of tentativeness still, and I am now just about to assemble some options to try out.

Stage 4 - Trial Runs

Stage 5 - Implementation

Stage 6 - Transcendence

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