Voices of TA-DA!: The Lycée Français of San Francisco
We’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on one of our international language school partners: the superb Lycée Français de San Francisco, accredited by the French Ministry of Education. Just prior to lockdown, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit their elementary school campus in Sausalito. (Bonus: we took a pretty, foggy drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there!) Our visit to the Lyceé Français was one of several taking place over a 2-day marathon of visiting schools and recording children and staff—a logistical, technical, and linguistic feat!
A delightful, talented group of their native speaking students of French lent their voices to our groundbreaking sound books to help TA-DA! teach French to children around the world. Soon you can hear these voices in two of our upcoming Language Adventures series books, An Awesome Ocean Tale and A Magical Camping Trip.
The school’s founding principles of internationalism and inclusivity were on display everywhere, and we felt blissfully right at home, communing with them, fellow “language nerds” just like us—teachers, administrators and even the students who savored discussing the fantastical intricacies of language (which are often so easy to take for granted!).
Our joyful recording sessions were full of giggles with students (who are already local celebrities—they’re regularly featured on the school’s own in-house radio program). We laughed over how sometimes when you focus on a word too much, it starts sounding ‘weird’. But not to worry—we departed with great recordings of glorious French words!
See these recordings in action, and learn from a young native speaker how to correctly pronounce “sac à dos” (that’s “backpack” for our upcoming camping book) in this great video the school created about our visit there!
We are already looking forward to heading back to the Lycée Français, as soon as we are all able to be together again, to record our French Talking Dictionary - a first-of-its-kind ‘beautiful book’, featuring more than 700 words in French, accessible with the touch of a little finger on normal paper!
‘Merci beaucoup’ to coordinators Fabian Mach and Agnes Hogan, school Principal Elsa Rodriguez, and all the children of Lycée Français de San Francisco for being part of our French language-learning adventure!
À bientôt!
