French tuition
We find that most primary school students are very eager to learn French when they first start having lessons. However, the classes at this early stage tend to focus mainly on learning vocabulary, rather than looking at grammatical structures or giving students a feel for the language. This can lead to problems later on, especially during a child’s transition to secondary school or the Gymnasium.
Porta mundi courses focus on both language structure and everyday communication skills, while also ensuring the lessons are enjoyable. Our aim is to fully prepare our students for their next school, support them with daily school life and get them ready for their exams.
What is correct?
,,Je suis couru.'' or ,,J’ai couru?'’ ,,Elle ne s’est pas levée.'' oder ,,Elle se n’est pas levé?'’ ,,Qui est-ce qui vient?'' or ,,Qu’est-ce qui vient?'' porta mundi helps you to avoid every possible faux pas!
Quality and satisfaction is our guiding principle
We are happy to let our existing customers speak for themselves. Please have a look for yourself.
"Very competent and friendly tutoring for our daughter at the Gymnasium. She was able to improve her performance in French after just a few tutoring sessions. I can highly recommend the services of porta mundi."
V. Beer, Gockhausen
"Our son really appreciates the the support he receives from the team of porta mundi to get better marks at his French class. Highly recommended."
M. Renner, Herrliberg
FAQ - French Tuition
French is considered one of the most unpopular school languages among children. Some parents can still remember the times when they had to "cram" French on their daily schedule. We often hear from parents that they did not enjoy learning French either and therefore never really warmed up to this school subject. This phenomenon still occurs today. But what does this actually have to do with? This basic attitude has to do, among other things, with the fact that French is defined and learned as a must at our public school institutions. Especially when transferring from primary school to secondary school or grammar school, this strategic approach often leads to problems for pupils. Unfortunately, French lessons in primary school often focus only on inflexible and rigid memorisation of vocabulary, while often no holistic approach to better understanding is conveyed to the children. Stubborn memorisation is no fun, is it?
I think we can all agree with this statement. But what is the solution?
The porta mundi team pursues learning strategies that are holistically structured and therefore promote and convey the joy of the French language. Therefore, we start where primary school ends. We promote comprehension and build long-term success in the area of French tutoring in a holistic context. Experience has shown that the final grades of our students are significantly higher as a result. If the monotony of learning French can be taken away and more joy can be given thanks to everyday use and elements that promote understanding, learning is also really fun and it is no longer a must to "swot up" on French. Each learning session at porta mundi thus contributes step by step to the targeted preparation for grammar school and conveys joy and fun in one of our four Swiss national languages.
Basically, every child is different, but it can be said that progress is made quickly in individual tutoring. The teacher evaluates the needs of the students, develops a concept in compliance with the criteria of the primary schools and adapts the respective method.
In our lessons, we do not only work on one sub-area, but always focus on several topics for learning development. This includes vocabulary, grammar, correct pronunciation and of course reading and writing. As a rule of thumb, after about six months of intensive tutoring with a private tutor, the progression from beginner to advanced level can be achieved. Of course, the human factor must also be taken into account when making this statement. People have always been considered individuals, so it is imperative to look at each case in detail. There are students who make faster progress with one of our tutors and others who are still a little "wobbly" on their feet at the beginning before they become proficient in French. In the end, however, experience has shown that the investment in targeted practice units in such an important Swiss national language as French is more than worthwhile for professional life, even today. Even today, a veritable level of French proficiency is defined as a possible selection criterion for admission to a grammar school or later to one of our numerous colleges or universities in the greater Zurich area.
Through our unique holistic learning strategies, we ensure that the subject of French can be understood in its entirety and that the numerous learning sessions will no longer be a burden, but that our students will discover the joy of the language at an early stage. This creates the perfect conditions for an active preparation phase for the transfer to the Gymi.
Your child's current French level has been classified as insufficient and could possibly lead to the mutually defined goal - transfer to the Gymnasium - being thwarted, thus missing out on possible future career opportunities. Numerous parents know this situation very well. Needless to say, there is a suitable solution for this situation, as there is for almost most things in our lives. Therefore, the team of porta mundi offers the targeted development of French language skills by means of a holistic strategic approach. To learn should not be a must, instead it should be a joy to learn. This is why we offer a holistic approach of learning languages with trained teachers, who take enough time to explain or work on topics that are not yet clear, for the targeted development of your child.
Ongoing private lessons also help your child to improve his or her language level accordingly. Lacking or insufficient understanding of foreign languages, makes it difficult to improve upon a fragile and incomplete foundation. With porta mundi's holistic approach to language tuition, the previously rather non-existent foundation is repaired or rebuilt in order to then build strategically on these successes in the long term.
In this way, French tutoring becomes fun and contributes to increase your child's motivation thanks to numerous successes and "aha" moments.
Often the pronunciation of a foreign language leads to confusion and misunderstanding, although this does not need to be the case. Practising tonality and voice variation together with our teacher helps the child to become accustomed to the pronunciation of the French language. The most important thing is not to train a perfect pronunciation as quickly as possible, but to consolidate the understanding of it. Experience has shown that the longed-for success in the area of correct pronunciation, including the desired French accent, will then follow.
The four building blocks for successfully learning a new language are well-known but not always specifically promoted. In order to successfully build up French knowledge over a long period of time, porta mundi relies on the 4 basic building blocks of learning success. Together with our students, we build up word comprehension and vocabulary in order to then specifically build up and strengthen the two remaining elements of French speaking and the final development of French grammar with all its facets and peculiarities in the long term.