French lessons, events & trips
FRENCH LESSONS EVENTS & GIFTS
Some of you may have seen Paul Taylor perform here in Australia a few years ago when he served as the ambassador for Le Festival.
An Englishman who spent part of his childhood in France, he speaks French absolutely flawlessly, but as he explains in cette vidéo*, that comes with its own set of problèmes*.
Attention* - he uses the odd gros mot*, so be careful when and where you press play.
*this video | *problems | *Be careful | *swearwords
“You truly have another language with your hands.”
C’est vrai*! It is said that making yourself understood over the phone in a foreign language is so very difficult because up to 80% of all communication is non-verbal.
This very cute video will have you gesticulating your way to better French in no time.
*It’s true!
Le Président* Emmanuel Macron has changed the colour of the French flag, but malheureusement* no-one seemed to notice…
*unfortunately
I know people are dubitatifs* when we tell them that the French often perceive our pronunciation flaws as adorable, but just try watching this video and not smiling in sympathy.
*doubtful
The rumours started l’année dernière*, but if you’ve been in deep denial, it’s time to affronter la réalité*.
Oui, c’est vrai*, Australia is experiencing a champagne shortage and it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better. If you’re a champagne lover, this news may strike fear into your heart. To get the lowdown, we direct you towards Maud Piovesan’s article on the Emperor website for a detailed analysis.
Again, it was one of our Chouchous* who tipped us off as to this alarming development. Merci d’avoir partagé ces informations, Jillian, et bon courage*!
*last year | *face up to the reality | *Yes, it’s true | *Teacher’s Pets | *Thanks for having shared this information and good luck!
I think most us us would agree that French is a seriously sexy language. We’ve even done an informal study here at Lingua Franca to look at the particular elements that appeal to our English-speaking ears. The letter ‘j’ does some heavy lifting. Thinks of works like janvier, jupe, joli et j’adore*. The letter combination ‘ge’ plays a part, too: visage, montage, bricolage*. Words ending with ‘ette’ are pretty gorgeous, too: allumette, coquette, courgette et silhouette*. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Even when the French speak English we generally find their accent fairly appealing. There is something very sexy about hearing ‘ze’ for ‘the’ and ‘otel’ for ‘hotel’, don’t you think? Without wanting to break the mood, it’s interesting to note that when French people speak English with a French accent like that, they are speaking English ‘badly’ in their eyes. That is, they have not perfected the sounds of English, meaning they’re unable to reproduce the words as exactly as they’re supposed to be pronounced. Sound familiar? I thought so. Embrace your French pronunciation mistakes - trust me, they go over very well with a French audience.
So which languages do the French find to be douces aux oreilles*? And which language tops the list as the sexiest language in the world? Lastly, who on earth finds an Australian accent super sexy*? Take a look. You may be surprised…
From Australia to Costa Rica and from Sweden to the USA, it seems a French accent has extremely broad appeal.
*January, skirt, pretty and I adore | *face, montage, DIY | *match, a flirtatious woman, zucchini and silhouette | *music to the ears | *extremely sexy
Finalement*! An article on language that tells the truth.
There’s a whole swathe of companies in the language learning cadre* who claim you can learn a language ‘easily!’, ‘in five minutes a day!’ or in ‘only three months!” (and yes, they usually are followed by des points d’exclamation* to drive home the idea that it’s ‘easy!’ to learn a language and that you’re a bit of a fool if you find it harder than that).
Learning a language is an undertaking and depending on what you want to achieve, it can take a few hours (phrases for an upcoming trip) or a whole lifetime (if you love French, this is a thrilling idea, not a depressing one).
C’est un long article*, but if you have the time, I recommend you read the whole article because it’s quite inspiring. Most of our keenest students already complement their learning with other methods such as apps, language exchanges and TV shows. This article has a host of great ideas for embedding more French in your life, and that is always a great thing.
*Finally! | *arena | *exclamation marks | *It’s a long article
When we feature celebrities speaking French it has a demotivating effect on some of our Chouchous* (désolée!*). Rather than inspiring them, some report feeling exasperated that Bradley Cooper and Jodie Foster, par exemple*, are not only genetically blessed, talented, wealthy, creative and charismatic, but also happen to speak French beautifully.
This clip of Emma Stone may make such Chouchous take heart. Watch as Emma tries to express her thoughts in French and gets herself all tangled up to the point where she starts trying to communicate by way of gestures - it’s a little bit cringey because we’ve all been there. You know that feeling when you know exactly what you want to say and you know you know the words but they just won’t come out? That’s Emma (and all of us) in this clip. Then listen to how eloquent she is in her native language. The difference is striking and leads me on to a petit conseil* (see below).
When you’re taking your first steps into speaking French, remember you have nowhere near the pool of words to choose from that you do in English. That is completely normal as you’ve likely spent your life immersed in your native language. What we tend to try to do is express ourselves with the same sophistication as we do in English and that gets us into trouble. We start on a thought and then a few words in we realise we have no idea how to finish that sentence so we get stuck, and that’s often when the arms start flailing and we feel our faces going red. An alternative technique is to pause before you speak and think of a way to say what you mean in very, very simple language, then go from there.
Case in point: Emma tries to say that she doesn’t speak very well but that she understands better. Halfway through she realises she doesn’t know the word for ‘better’. Luckily, the French journalist helps her out, but she could have said: Je ne parle pas très bien mais je comprends bien*. See what I mean?
Try it next time you find yourself being interviewed by a French journalist to promote your smash hit movie. You’ll thank me.
*Teacher’s Pets | *sorry | *for example | little tip | *I don’t speak very well but I understand well
See if you’re able to find and correct the mistakes in the following sentences. The first Chouchou* to contact us with the answers below will take home a Lingua Franca grammar cheat sheet. Bon courage!*
*Teacher’s Pet | *Good luck!
Many months ago, we included a post in a newsletter with a link to a well-known person speaking French. Vous, les Chouchous*, really seemed to like it, though we suspect the interest was somewhat amplified by the fact it was Bradley Cooper who was doing the talking.
We feel an une étude de marché* is in order, so here we are, another video for you enjoy with Matt le Blanc, Tom Hiddleston, Audrey Hepburn, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Serena Williams all speaking en français* (and with just a snippet of Bradley this time au tout début*, for the true fans).
*You, the Teacher’s Pets | *a bit of market research | *in French | *at the very start
One of the most valuable things about learning a second language is that it can give you more empathy towards non-native speakers of your own mother tongue. Watching people try to wrap their tongues around words we pronounce with ease probably evokes a different response now, compared to your pre-French learning days.
You’ll probably find yourself barracking for them rather than laughing at them, which could be worth bearing in mind next time you’re worried about making a mistake in front of a native French speaker, non*?
*don’t you think?
In Le Chouchou News de novembre*, we featured a new book by American-in-Paris Lindsey Tramuta about the accuracy (or not) of the storied Parisian woman.
Originally from Philadelphia, Lindsey has called Paris home since 2006. She has written for the New York Times, Glamour, Condé Nast Traveler, Elle Décor and Bon Appétit, among others.
Not content to rest on her laurels, for the last couple of years she has also produced and presented a fantastic podcast covering such diverse topics as bread-making with Apollonia Poîlane, saving Nôtre Dame, crop tops versus hijabs in France and even dating and romance in Paris.
Save this one for some après-Noël* exploration. There is much to be mined here. [Go to podcast]
*November’s Chouchou News | *post-Christmas
Name the French-speaking countries in which you'd find the following attractions touristiques*. The first person to contact us with all six correct answers will win a Lingua Franca En Voyage guidebook.
CLUE: 115 islands make up this sublime archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
CLUE: These surreal-looking gazelles are called les gérénuks and could not be plus mignons*.
CLUE: Sticky rice is a staple.
CLUE: The Historic Old Quarter was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
CLUE: Caught between two countries who enjoy a serious love/hate relationship. Starts with ‘G’.
CLUE: This destination is home to a significant Tamul community.
*cuter
I remember doing a translation for a mining company several years ago. The job involved translating an instruction manual for some mining software. Since I wasn’t (and am still not) au fait* with either of these domains, I asked a French friend to help me out.
We met in a café in the city. He’d been in town all day, and didn’t know we were going to meet up. When he arrived, he was carrying a tiny backpack with him. We ordered coffees and got to work.
We struck our first problème* a few minutes in, and I was astonished when he reached down into his backpack and pulled out a battered copy of Le Bescherelle to check a conjugation. The fact that he had prioritised his verb book, along with a bottle of water and his wallet, spoke volumes about the value the French place on this resource. It’s also the reason why you should consider getting one if you’re serious about your French.
A little red book of verb conjugations, given to all French schoolchildren at the age of 10.
The design. It has the conjugations for over 12 000 French verbs, yet the book is compact and slimline. The secret? All 12 000 verbs are divided into categories according to how they are conjugated and then one very common verb from each group is chosen to be conjugated in full. That is, it is conjugated for all ‘persons’ (je, tu, il, elle, etc.) and in all tenses (don’t freak out when you see them all - there are a lot). The rest are found in the index along with the category number for easy reference.
It takes a little while to work out how to use it and it’s easy to mix up the page number and category number (see above). Once you’ve got the hang of it, though, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it. I know there are fantastic apps for French verbs on the market and I use one myself, but there’s something about the seriousness and accuracy of Le Bescherelle that I really enjoy. Plus, being able to look at all the tenses at once without having to move a screen around is a relief, franchement*.
There’s also a Bescherelle for very young children called Mon Premier Bescherelle Illustré* which is absolutely beautiful as well as a great way to improve your vocabulary!
*knowledgeable | *problem | *pro | *con | *frankly | *My First Illustrated Bescherelle
See if you’re able to find and correct the mistakes in the following sentences. The first Chouchou* to contact us with the answers below will take home a Lingua Franca grammar cheat sheet! Bon courage!*
Lingua Franca’s Cheat Sheets regroup all the most vital elements of French in the one place, and are fantastic for your spoken and written French particularly.
Pack all four cheat sheets.
1 x ABSOLUTE BEGINER CHEAT SHEET :
Keeping all of the most important points in the one place, the Absolute Beginner Cheat Sheet will become your meilleur ami* the minute you open it. Including essential prepositions, numbers 0-100, the classic verbs être, avoir, aller and faire as well as the conjugation for regular verbs and much more, this is a resource you’ll want to keep à portée de main.
1 x BEGINNER CHEAT SHEET :
Students love the Beginner Cheat Sheet when taking their first steps towards speaking, as we encourage them to put down the books and to concentrate instead on getting the words out. Of course, we never want to leave our students unsupported, which is why so many of them cherish their cheat sheets and have them close by at all times. You know what it’s like: you start a sentence, and you know what you want to say, but you get halfway in and realise you can’t remember if you need to say ‘en France’, ‘au France’ or ‘à la France’, for example. A quick glance down at the prepositions for countries graphic and you’ll be back on track tout de suite*.
*straight away
1 x INTERMEDIATE CHEAT SHEET :
Students love the Intermediate Cheat Sheet when they start to get really serious about their French. They’ve learned a lot, and understand it in theory very well, but when asked to put their French into action, they find they need a little memory-jogger from time to time to maintain their flow when speaking, or a handy reference to ensure their writing is as accurate as possible.
1 x ADVANCED CHEAT SHEET :
Students turn to the Advanced Cheat Sheet when they want to perfect their French, especially their verb tenses. The centrepiece is a deceptively simplistic-looking verb tense summary. In fact, it contains all you need to know about eight verb tenses, from their English translations, to their various constructions and sample conjugations for both regular verbs and exceptions. If ever you want to finally get those verb tenses straight in your head, this is the resource for you. En plus*, it’s so pretty to look at!
* And plus
*Teacher’s Pet | *Good luck!
We only dropped a basket of goods to our friends at the World Wellness Group a few weeks ago, but our panier* is already filling up with generous donations from our Chouchous*.
We’d therefore like to do a final drop-off before the Christmas break, so if you have any spare goods lurking in the back of your cupboard, we’d love to take them off your hands and give them to our fellow Brisbanites in need.
Helping to keep their community pantry with staples such as rice, pasta, canned beans and UHT milk allows the WWG to maintain their high levels of care.
All contributions gratefully accepted, none expected.
*basket | *Teacher’s Pets
Here’s a challenge for you. Watch this video, and tell me that you don’t just fall in love with these Parisians trying out their English. A couple of things to bear in mind:
1) As a general rule, the French believe they are particularly bad at learning languages, hence all the comments about “I’m not very good”, “My accent is terrible” etc. (sound familiar?)
2) Despite the many mistakes they make, we can not only understand them really well, but they’re fun to listen to, non*?
*Don’t you think?
On the very odd occasion Word Reference fails me (see Ultimate French Resources #3), I turn to Linguee.com as a last resort.
Established in Cologne, Germany in 2008, Linguee is what is called an online bilingual concordance. That turns out to be a very fancy way of saying that the site trawls the web to find authentic documents that have been written in both French and English and places them side-by-side on the webpage. This is très pratique* when you want to see words used in their true context, not just in isolation as they often are in a dictionary.
A website of parallel texts, showing authentic, real-world uses of words along with how they’re translated in that particular context.
It is the very best place to find new words or néologismes, as they are called in French.
The example of social distancing below is a good one. Though Word Reference has now caught up, when I wrote about it in last month’s newsletter, it did not yet have its own entry. It was only contained in the forum, where members of the public had asked about it. Linguee, on the other hand, had examples months ago, as they use web-crawlers to find examples of the phrase being used in real documents across the internet.
There are two main things to watch out for:
1) Linguee’s review process is less stringent than a traditional dictionary’s. A human-trained learning algorithm is used to assess the quality of the translations so don’t stake your life on their accuracy, though generally they are more than good enough for learners like us.
2) Many of the bilingual documents are sourced from EU protocol papers and other government documents, so the examples do not make for the most scintillating of reading, though I guess that very much depends on your intérêts*.
The top section of the website functions as a simple dictionary, but it’s further down that you get to le bon matos*.
Et voilà*! Seeing the phrase in context really helps you to see how it is used.
*very handy | *pros | *cons | *interests | *the good stuff | *And there you go!
Photography : The Guardian
L'habit ne fait pas le moine* is a very well-known French expression. But in the case of the twin African cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, being a snappy dresser has taken on very special importance indeed.
Intéressé(e)*? Read more here and watch this :
*Never judge a book by its cover | *Interested?
The very first tab I open on my browser when I arrive at work each day is without fail Wordreference.com. It stays open all day and I would jump onto it at least ten times before I pack up my computer to go home. While not exactly a technophobe, I do tend to favour paper over a screen, but in the case of this fantastic online dictionary I have to admit that the digital version is simply supérieure*.
Unlike a hard copy dictionary, Word Reference is not constrained for space, and it therefore offers so much more than translations. Once you've typed in the word you're looking for and the 'direction' of the translation (English to français* or vice versa), you'll see the most obvious translations at the top (principales traductions). Next, you'll see some further translations (traductions supplémentaires), followed by compound forms (formes composées). Don't stop there though, for if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the entry, this is where things become really interesting: a forum where users can ask questions that have not been answered above. It's here you'll find some very recent developments in the language. For instance, in March when we all started talking about la distanciation sociale*, there were several people who had already asked what I wanted to know in the forum, though the translation had not made it into the top part of the entry. Let's hope that's a sign that this concept will one day become 'très 2020*'.
The best online dictionary we've found.
From students in need of a simple translation, to those on the cutting edge of the language who want to be able to speak of the very latest concepts en français*. Also really great for great big nerds, like me, who just loving poring over French words.
So up-to-date and comprehensive, it really is a credit to the developers. Also, for some of the more common words, you'll see a little speaker icon right at the top which allows you to access the pronunciation.
The quality of the advice given by the posters in the forum can vary. If you're able to, give preference to the senior members (Pie-Anne is a personal favourite - that woman 's knowledge of both French and English is époustouflant*).
*superior | *French | *social distancing | *very 2020 | *in French | *best bits | *weak points | *astounding
