Summer Luncheon

We hope we will see you at the Summer Luncheon and tour at Liberty Memorial World War I Museum on July 14. Guests are welcome. If you can’t make the tour, come join everyone at lunch. It will be fun to get together. Send checks made out to La Causerie, $18 for the lunch and tour, or $10 for the lunch only and mail it to Joan Adam. It needs to be postmarked by July 5^th, or dropped off to Joan at Crestwood Condos (5401 Brookside, #608, Kansas City, MO 64112)  by July 7^th. (Advance notice is required in order to arrange for tour guides.) If you have any questions, email Joan or call her at 816 569-6311.

Calendar Set for 2010 – 2011 Year

The board of directors met on June 20 and set the calendar for the coming school year, determining the opening of classes, holidays and year end. It was decided to begin classes on Friday, September 17, which is a bit earlier than usual. Mark your calendars! La Causerie classes will end on April, 29, 2011, a schedule that encompasses 29 weeks of classes.

The board also decided not to hold an orientation and registration event this year. With most members comfortable with our online enrollment process, the event was not well attended last year. Also, hiring all teachers for that event is an expense that might best be used elsewhere.

For those new members needing assistance to decide what class or level to enroll in, the board is setting up online assessments for each language level. We are also working to make an instructor available by phone in each language for consultations with students about entry level. This mostly applies to new members who have had some language instruction in the past.

Looking for Programs and an Italian Program Chair

We are always looking for cultural programs and are already planning for the year ahead. If you have suggestions, talk to Joan Adam about Spanish programs, or Dalene Bradford about French program ideas. (Italian members see below*) Or share your idea with Amanda Hassett and she’ll get it to the right person. We pay a $50 honorarium to speakers and we take them out to lunch if they have time.

*We need a member of the Italian classes to be the contact person for the Italian cultural programs for the year. We are looking for six programs max, and we have three or four speaker names already. We just need someone to step in and take over. If you’re interested, please call Martha Hogerty at 816-753-8729.

Summer Studies                                                                            

Our California friend (and former member) Barbara Christopher wrote to share a new French resource that she is finding useful. Yabla.com provides videos you can listen to to tune up your ear, and then play games. You can try it without paying to subscribe. Barbara says she’s finding it useful and fun in her French studies. We checked and found that they also have Yabla Spanish (but not Italian, that we could find). Check it out at www.yabla.com

You’ll watch short videos (rated by level of difficulty) featuring native speakers, with subtitles in the language or English (your choice). Click a button to slow down the audio or backtrack to hear phrases again. There’s access to dictionary lookup, right on the screen.

Here’s how the Yabla describes itself: “Only Yabla language immersion sites give you authentic television, music videos, drama, interviews, travel, and Yabla exclusive shoots from throughout the world. Our unique player technology is designed with language learners in mind: Slow Play, Integrated Dictionaries, Listening Game, Dual Language Subtitles, and more.”

For Italian study, here are some sites to explore:

http://www.uni.edu/becker/italiano2.html#games

http://www.abroadlanguages.com/al/la/Italian.asp (for learning in Italy!)

http://www.transparent.com/language-resources/games/

http://www.pocanticohills.org/italy/activities.htm (I think this is an easy level but you may need Java.)

Summer-Fall Calendar

July 5 (postmarked)  Last Day for Reservations for Summer Luncheon

July 7 (delivered)      (Reservations may be dropped off at Joan Adam’s home by July 7.)   

July 14 (Bastille Day)  SUMMER LUNCHEON at the Liberty Memorial World War I Museum

September 17           CLASSES BEGIN

Board Members 2010-2011

President                                       Martha Hogerty 

1^st Vice President (Membership Chair)  Inez Pennington

2^nd Vice President (Social Chair)         Joan Adam

Secretary                                       Gail Clair

Assistant Secretary (Newsletter)        Judy Pearlstein

Treasurer                                      Monaem Elhawari