The month of March will bring the start of Spanish at The Language Learning Institute, and we are very excited to add this language to our offerings. We are starting with Beginning Spanish on March 8th, and are currently taking registrations. If you have experience with the language, don’t hesitate to call us, as we will be forming more advanced courses. We will also for the first time be offering our After School Program in French to Delmar in March. Our After School Beginning French class will be offered on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00pm at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. We are very excited to be offering this to the families of the surrounding area and beyond. Check out our website for more information and to register your child today! March 26th and 27th will be our French Immersion Film Weekend in French. Our immersion weekends are film based and have been very well received. We will be showing the film Ridicule. There will be lots of opportunity for speaking and discussion of the film…en français of course!

So, have you totally stopped writing 200 … every time you write the date, only to go back to change that second “0″ to a “1″? And have you decided if you are going to say “20″ “10″ or “2,010″? We have completed one month of this new decade. What do you think: should we say “2010″ or “2,010?” Let us know! February is a busy month here at The Language Learning Institute and we have a great line up of new courses and classes. Check out our Mommy and Me, Learn French Winter Camp, and After School Programs for Kids. We are in the process of expanding to another Colonie location, so be sure to keep checking throughout the month. We also offer a free Mommy and Me class on Monday evenings if you would like to try it out. On the adult side of language study: our Spanish classes for adults will be launched the last week in February and the first week in March. We are very excited about this since it has been in the planning for a very long time. Beginning Italian for adults is scheduled as well.

Happy New Year! May the best of health and happiness come your way in 2010! We have been working on our January course offerings and have a nice line up in January for adults and for children as well. We are continuing to offer our free Mommy and Me classes for all to try. If you, a friend, or a loved one has children 4 years of age and younger, we encourage them to try this program. Studies have shown that the benefits of early language exposure are many and set the child up for success on many levels.

Welcome and Happy Holidays to all! We would like to give a warm greeting to our new readers and we hope that you will find our newsletter both enjoyable and informative. There are three dates in December scheduled for our FREE Mommy and Me in French demo classes. Come join us on any one of the following dates and times: December 7th at 6pm, December 14th 6:30pm or December 21st at 6pm. We are accepting registrations for these classes to ensure fun for the whole group. So register today! Our Mommy and Me program is for the little ones ages 8 weeks to 5 years of age. Each child is accompanied by an adult or two! Bring the whole family to our free class and experience the program!

Today I am writing to you from Avignon, France where, until the 17th century, people danced “sous le pont”, never “sur le pont”, as the famous song has led us to believe. The weather is a delight so far. It is fall and like our area, the leaves are turning and the trees are shedding these beautiful adornments. Everyone is getting ready for the winter; from the winter truffles which will appear just before Christmas to the mooring of the river boat we are on. We are on the next to last voyage until March; when spring will awaken nature and this vessel will once again set sail. Meanwhile, stateside, we are getting ready for the opening of our Spanish and English as a Second Language Programs, which will be posted on our website towards the end of November. Be sure to check the site for details. We will have a series of free Mommy and Me classes posted as well. Feel free to register for a class and try us out! Also look for details on our 3rd Annual St. Nicolas Day Celebration

This month our newsletter is starting its third year and we are kicking off the year with some pretty exciting articles and news. We are very excited to have on board a guest writer, Kathleen Gates. Kathleen is a certified infant massage instructor who will be educating us on the benefits of infant massage. Welcome back to our staff writers Nouara, who will continue to take us through the Francophone world, Eleonora, who will take us to very interesting and little known spots in Italy, and Amelia, who will keep us up to date with interesting current events from the French speaking world. Our fall classes are underway and our Children’s Program kicks off this month. In addition to our scheduled classes, we offer private classes and lessons as well. Be sure to check out our hot links and call us for details. We are getting ready to launch our ESL and Spanish programs.

I hope that you had a wonderful and restful summer in spite of the weather! Classes will begin soon and we have a new look to our website which will enable you, and prospective new students, to easily find a class that works for you. We have categorized all adult courses as Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced. Within each of the courses, are levels. Each level represents a ten week period of study. Simply find the course in which you are interested, click on it and then you will be given a choice of levels. Each level has a description of what will be covered during that 10 week period. You will now be able to see how that matches your ability. To illustrate this, each of the above sentences is linked to that specific part of the site. Take a look! We would like your feedback on the new design. Please let us know. Our current programs are growing and we are now offering them in Clifton Park, Delmar, and Colonie for your convenience: French and Italian for adults, French for children.

I hope that you are all enjoying the summer, in spite of the rain and wind. Perhaps August will bring with it a real summer, so we can enjoy the great outdoors without getting wet. Bastille Day 2009 brought a new format which opened the occasion to more family fun and activities. This year we had The Amazing Kenno, who delighted all with his magic! Pizzazz the Clown, whose face painting and balloon sculptures added to the celebration. Deanna and her team from Drama Kids International, whose amazing energy, creativity, and enthusiasm created lots of fun for those who attended the event. Our own Nouara gave a mini French lesson, which got our children moving and having fun. Captain Squeeze and the Zydeco Moshers led the parade with about 75 participants…the kids loved it! And last, but not least, the evening ended with the wonderful music and entertainment by Captain Squeeze and the Zydeco Moshers, which, due to rain, ended up inside Proctors Theater’s at Robb Alley. It was a wonderful evening of Zydeco music; lots of fun as people were invited to be “guest” fatoi players and able to dance in the aisles!

We have an action packed month this month and there is still time to register for our summer camp program for Mommy and Me, and Learn French Summer Camp for Children! We are offering, for the first time, an evening program on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Colonie from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. We are still taking registrations. So come join the fun! Our Fourth Annual Bastille Day Celebration is July 11th from 1:00pm to 9:00 pm, and it will be loads of fun!

Hello Everyone! It is hard to believe that we are in the month of June already! This month’s newsletter will feature a special tribute to Father’s Day as it is celebrated in the United States, France and Italy. We are very happy to say that we have managed to clean up our address books for the newsletter and the announcements, so you should not be receiving doubles (or more) of any one e-mailing from us. Thank you for your patience. We have a great line-up for summer classes this year. Our Learn French Summer Camp for Kids will be held in both Clifton Park and Colonie. The Children’s Summer Camp will have two sessions in the morning. If your child, between the ages of 5 and 12, has already studied French, been in our After School Program, or speak French in the home, they will be in one class together. We will have another class for children with little or no exposure to the language. Both classes will be from 9:00AM to 11:00AM, Monday through Friday for four weeks.