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Medici, the italian merchant family but in french
2026/03/22
Today, our first French lesson... :)
Now we're working! But with a game. I decided to use Medici, a very simple game for this new approach.
Here's what happens: Instead of just asking them stuff in french, I prepare sentences to be spoken at each stage of the game, to describe what we want to do.
For example, "I reveal the first card," "I choose to reveal a second card," "I want to buy the lot for 10 florins." Each player has to say these sentences, and I correct their pronunciation.
So, obviously, it takes a lot of time, since instead of turning over three cards and starting the round, the player has to say four long sentences in French, and repeat them again and again each round. The same goes for the winnings, where each player has to explain in French why they won that amount.
They did really well. We even learned a couple of unusual words like "porcelain" and "dye."
Next time, we'll take on a slightly more complicated game: Tortuga 1499. We probably won't have time to finish it, so I'll develop a simplified version.
Now we're working! But with a game. I decided to use Medici, a very simple game for this new approach.
Here's what happens: Instead of just asking them stuff in french, I prepare sentences to be spoken at each stage of the game, to describe what we want to do.
For example, "I reveal the first card," "I choose to reveal a second card," "I want to buy the lot for 10 florins." Each player has to say these sentences, and I correct their pronunciation.
So, obviously, it takes a lot of time, since instead of turning over three cards and starting the round, the player has to say four long sentences in French, and repeat them again and again each round. The same goes for the winnings, where each player has to explain in French why they won that amount.
They did really well. We even learned a couple of unusual words like "porcelain" and "dye."
Next time, we'll take on a slightly more complicated game: Tortuga 1499. We probably won't have time to finish it, so I'll develop a simplified version.
