The Kumon French Correspondence Course has started!

I have tried to learn French many times in the past, but I soon failed.

I’m serious this time!

I should have done it before I completed the beautiful village tour, but I was rather determined to be able to read and write well after that was done.

I thought about it a lot, but in the end, I chose the Kumon Method.

Hmmm, it was very helpful to me as a child. Thanks to this, I had no trouble at all with math and English until I took the university entrance exam.

And at my age, I decided to take care of him again.

Very analog? How to join

So, you can apply from the following site. But you have to request the information first.

公文式フランス語 | 日本公文教育研究会

I don’t know if I can apply only on the web. At any rate, the request for information can be processed on the web, and the material was sent safely in a few days.

Reading this material brought back many memories of the past.

It is true that Kumon is a system in which a classroom is set up properly and the teacher grasps the academic ability of the students properly. It was a system that instructs carefully according to that. This is where Kumon is different from ordinary correspondence courses.

Oh yeah, there was this academic test before we started.

It was polite, but a bit annoying. I think the doctor is a bit stiff, too (sorry).

That’s why it’s a correspondence course, but it’s a very « analog » world. The application is written by hand. The membership fee can be transferred only by postal savings. Moreover, the transfer form is attached.

Because it is a little troublesome to go all the way to the counter of the post office as expected, I called the contact point and asked, « Is it OK to transfer from the net bank? There was no problem because it was said to be okay when I asked.

The purpose of sticking to the « analog Kumon Method

So I was able to manage the transfer, but it’s still very analog.

それでもアナログにこだわったのは、公文式に慣れていること、そして継続するにはやはり手書きの方がいいかなあと思ったからです。

特に（最近滞りがちですが）フランスの最も美しい村の専用情報ウェブサイトを構築する関係で、フランスで書かれた文献を読めるようにしておきたいんです。

Of course, I will probably go to France many times in the future, so I can say that this is a study for that.

Also, I chose German as my language of choice in college, not French. So I’ve never properly learned basic French grammar, or even the very rudimentary things like how to read the alphabet.

In the past, I’ve learned the basics of conversational English easily, but because I didn’t have the basic academic skills, I ended up just memorizing the whole thing, which was inefficient and didn’t help my memory.

従って、公文式を通してしっかりと「基礎力」を身につける事こそ、フランス語向上の近道だと判断しました。

Classroom is decided

In the Kumon correspondence course, students apply to the head office for enrollment, and the head office will introduce an appropriate class for the student, and the student will communicate with the teacher of that class.

Of course, it is possible to find and join a class by yourself. However, I heard that there are not so many classrooms that deal with French. It is true that I have seen Kumon classrooms in town, but I have never seen German or French classrooms.

We were guided by the head office to a classroom that specialized in correspondence courses. Moreover, they said that they mainly offer correspondence courses for working people. The Kumon Method has a strong image of being for children, so I felt more comfortable with a school that had experience with working adults.

The flow of learning

The whole process is as shown on the official website, but in practice, you will carefully discuss the specifics with your classroom teacher and make a study plan.

In my case, I received an email from the teacher who would be in charge of my class right after the head office informed me that the class had been decided. Normally, I would have met the teacher in person, but since the school I was referred to specializes in distance learning, we discussed my future study plan over the phone.

I briefly explained my attributes about French, why I started studying, why I wanted to study, etc. Then the teacher drew up a study plan and sent me study materials.

Start with 4A materials

In my case, I decided to start at the lowest level, Level 4A, because I only knew a few words and a few conversational French words, and I had never acquired any basic academic skills.

However, to be honest, the 4A material is so easy that even kindergarteners can do it, and adults can finish it quickly, so we decided to finish 4A and 3A in the first 20 days.

I got my materials right away!

After the phone interview with the teacher, he sent me the teaching materials as soon as possible and those arrived yesterday. So now it’s time to start.

This is what the set of items I received looks like.

Does it look like a lot? Indeed, there are 2 copies of 4A materials x 200, 2 copies of 3A materials x 200, 2 CDs for teaching materials, and other materials, etc.

でも、ファーストインプレッションは「思ったよりも小さいかな…」でした。特に教材のサイズが。そっか、子供の頃の印象が強いもんなー、これが公文のデフォルトの大きさだと思うのですが、おとなになってみると小さく感じる、というわけなのでしょうね。

Now, each of the materials is accompanied by a description of the study plan, and

In addition, it was accompanied by a policy that was tailored to my learning style by my teacher.

Basically, you should follow this policy to learn.

That unique sense of repetition is still there.

The actual content of the material, I can’t tell you how nostalgic this all sounds!

公文やったことがある方ならお分かりでしょうが、あの独特の「繰り返し感」ほんと懐かしい。そして、この繰り返し感が原因なのか、「もっと先に進みたい」って思っちゃう気持ちも芽生えてきて、まさに子供の頃と同じ感覚。これは大人になっても持ち合わせているものなのでしょうね。

So, it’s a beginner’s text called 4A, but I can still enjoy it even now as an adult. Of course, I don’t even have basic vocabulary, so I’m learning a lot.

The visual effect, the appropriate sense of repetition, and the review that the teacher adjusts as necessary, certainly make me feel as if my understanding of French is improving if I repeat these things continuously.

I thought again that I made a good choice.

Is CD learning more crooked than it seems?

Now, I found two CDs in the enclosed materials.

The first few dozen pages of the 4A materials are just « listen to the number of songs on the CD, and circle them when you hear them ». I’m not sure how to handle it, but it’s hard to grasp the pace.

I try to sing a song, but I can’t sing at all, I should train myself to sing, etc. I tend to think too hard. Maybe this is an adult disorder. If you were a child, you might learn the sound and pronunciation of the song and sing it smoothly after listening to it many times without thinking about it.

In the meantime, I’m going to try to listen to about two songs a day as instructed by my teacher without pushing too hard.