Recette: baguette facile

Who doesn’t like the sound of a baguette magique*? Here’s la recette*…

Merci à Cuisine Actuelle pour la recette*.

*magic baguette (by the way, the word ‘baguette’ in French means so many things: chopstick, drumstick, conductor’s baton and, more colloquially, legs!) | *the recipe | *Thank you to Cuisine Actuelle for the recipe

Expressions sur la joie

As éphémère* as it may be, we’re all on the hunt for it in some fashion.

May simply reading about it bring some bonheur* to your day.

Merci à Élodie pour l’inspiration pour ce post*.

*ephemeral | *happiness | *Thanks to Elodie for the inspiration for this post.

La Petite Histoire

If you've ever done a group lesson here at Lingua Franca, you've probably come into contact with La Petite Histoire*. A tale with the very humblest of beginnings, it winds up becoming a rollicking schlockbuster as you move up the levels and your French improves enough to handle the outrageous (some would say impossible) turns of events of the six young friends.

La Petite Histoire is currently only available to our students, however La Préquelle is for everyone’s enjoyment. Below, another instalment of this new series, Chapter 1 of the Intermediate 2 level.

*The Little Story | *The Prequel

“Coucou !” j’ai crié quand j’ai ouvert la porte de notre appartement. “C’est moi !”

Silence.

“Jean-Louis ?” j’ai appelé. “Tu es là ?”

Rien. J’ai mis mon manteau sur notre lit et je suis entrée dans le salon. Personne. La salle était tout sombre.

“Il est quelle heure ?” Jean-Louis a demandé.

“Oh là, là !” j’ai crié. “Jean-Louis, tu m’as fait peur ! Pourquoi tu n’as pas mis la lumière ? Tu es malade ?”

“Non, je ne suis pas malade, Leïla. Je suis triste. Il y a une différence,” il a répondu.

“Ah, mon chéri ! Qu’est-ce qu’il y a ? Tu as de mauvaises nouvelles du Maroc ? Je suis désolée. Qu’est-ce que je peux faire ?” j’ai demandé.

Jean-Louis n’a rien dit pour quelques secondes. Il avait l’air un peu étrange.

“Qu’est-ce que tu peux faire, Leïla. Hmm, voyons, c’est une très bonne question. Bon, pour commencer, tu peux te comporter comme ma femme, pas comme une adolescente,” il a dit. Il était furieux.

“Quoi ?” j’ai répondu. J’étais dévastée. J’adorais mon mari alors pourquoi il me parlait comme ça?

“Tu as entendu,” il a dit.

“Mais Jean-Louis, quel est le problème ? Je suis allée à l’université, j’ai pris un verre avec une amie et puis je suis rentrée. Pourquoi tu es agité ?”

“Une amie ?” il a répondu. “Tu es sûre que ce n’était pas ‘un ami’, Leïla ?”

Je ne pouvais pas respirer. Je ne savais pas quoi dire. J’adore Jean-Louis, mais il est jaloux parfois.

“Non, une amie. Une amie que tu connais, en fait, Jean-Louis. Noëlle.”

“Ha ! Noëlle ? Tu penses que c’est une amie, Leïla ? Cette femme est une grande manipulatrice et tu es trop naïve de comprendre ça.”

“Moi, naïve ? Tu plaisantes. C’est toi qui a une petite vie. Tu travailles, tu rentres, et tu voyages une fois par an pour voir tes parents. Pour moi, c’est toi qui souffre de la naïveté.”

Avec ça, Jean-Louis s’est levé, et il s’est approché de moi.

“Et en plus, tu pues ! Ton parfum c’est du vin, aujourd’hui, ma femme. J’ai honte pour toi ! Tu es une mère !”

“Oui, ça c’est correcte, Jean-Louis, je suis une mère, mais tu n’es pas mon père ! Arrête de parler comme ça !”

Jean-Louis a pris mon bras avec beaucoup de force.

“Ne me touche pas, Jean-Louis. Je te promets, je te quitte.” C’était moi maintenant qui était furieuse. J’ai quitté le salon et j’ai claqué la porte derrière moi. Et puis, j’ai commencé à pleurer.

“Hi there!” I shouted as I opened the door to our apartment. “It’s me!”

Silence.

“Jean-Louis?” I called. “Are you there?”
Nothing. I put my coat on our bed and entered the living room. No-one. The room was all dark.

“What time is it?” Jean-Louis asked.

“Oh my goodness!” I cried. “You scared me! Why haven’t you turned on the light? Are you unwell?”

“No, I am not sick, Leïla. I am sad. There is a difference,” he responded.

“Oh, my darling, what’s wrong? Did you get some bad news from Morocco? I am sorry, what can I do?” I asked. Jean-Louis didn’t say anything for a few seconds. He seemed a bit strange.

“What can you do, Leïla? Hmm, let’s see, that’s a good question. Well, to start with, you could behave as my wife, not as a teenager,” he said. He was furious.

“What?” I replied. I was devastated. I adored my husband so why was he speaking to me like that?

“You heard,” he said.

“But Jean-Louis, what is the problem? I went to university, I had a drink with a friend and then I came home. Why are you agitated?”

“A female friend?” he responded. “Are you sure it wasn’t a ‘male friend’, Leïla?”

I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know what to say. I adore Jean-Louis, but sometimes he gets jealous.

“No, a female friend. A female friend that you know, in fact. Noëlle.”

“Ha! Noëlle? Do you think she’s a friend, Leïla? That woman is a huge manipulator and you’re too naive to understand that.”

“Me, naive? You are joking. It’s you that has a little life. You work, you come home, and you go once a year to Morocco to see your parents. For me, it’s you who is suffering from naivety.”

With that, Jean-Louis got up, and made his way over to me. “And what’s more, you stink! Your perfume is wine today, my wife. I am ashamed for you. You are a mother!”

“Yes, that’s correct, Jean-Louis, I am a mother, but you are not my father. Stop speaking like that!”

Jean-Louis grabbed hold of my arm really hard.

“Do not touch me, Jean-Louis. I promise you, I’ll leave you.” It was me now who was furious. I left the living room and slammed the door behind me. And then, I started to cry.

Sneak Peek into le Nid | Marque

France is home to many iconic brands. Think Evian, Moët & Chandon, L’Oréal, Longchamp, Sofitel, Peugeot and Bic. The list is as impressive as it is extensive. So which are the favourite marques françaises* of the Lingua Franca team? Read on.

*French brands

My French Adventure: Sam Rees

We credit Sam with a lot of things here at Lingua Franca. Among others, Sam’s suggestion we do her lessons via Skype when she moved back to Perth made the wholesale switch to Zoom relatively painless during the pandemic. Another student says it was Sam who inspired her to get her French ‘r’s under control (Sam’s are great!). So it’s lovely to see that learning French brings a lot to her life, too. Merci*, Sam!

I started French at school – and loved it, although never thought I was particularly good at it.  There was always someone else who seemed to have a better accent, a better understanding of the pesky grammar and the teacher at school was particularly scathing if she didn’t think you would get good grades.  But I loved it, so I kept at it….

Over the years, I kept returning to studying French – at Alliance française in my 20’s, for work in early 30’s – always with enjoyment and a love of anything French but an underlying belief that it wasn’t something that I would ever be ‘good at’.  I was lucky enough to have amazing opportunities to work and travel in France and Canada, with colleagues who would insist that I use my French whenever I could (they also told me that if I would only date a French man, my French would improve no end!)…. But still, I always believed that I would never be anything other than a basic French speaker, with a bad accent, who could get by…

All that changed when I walked past a sign on a Teneriffe Street in 2016 – a very chic sign for some place called Lingua Franca.  I must have walked past it for a month before garnering the courage to call and book in for classes.  From the moment I walked in, I felt very French and very comfortable…. The classes were different from anything that I had done before – they were fun, the materials were engaging and so stylish, the topics were real (no more ‘où est la librarie?’!) and all the other students shared my love of Francophilia….

When I moved back to Perth in 2017, I begged Katrina to set up a Perth school, or at least let me do lessons via Skype.  Once a week, I’d be up at 6am Perth time to fit in a lesson before work.  I jumped at the chance to travel with the team on their first set of France trips (and even took my mother, who had been traumatised by French at school, but who loved her daily classes so much that she took up lessons for a while too).  I’d never travelled with a tour before, but this was amazing – a group of like-minded people who got to visit fantastic places, eat great food and never have to worry about the logistics of where we were going next.

Over the years, even though I don’t live in Brisbane anymore, I’ve been lucky enough to have wonderful teachers to support me virtually.  I’ve read my first novel in French, I can stumble through a TV show without subtitles, I’ve enjoyed the weekends away to see fashion exhibits and I’ve loved the discussions on French culture and world events (all in French of course!).  And, with the support of these great teachers, I’ve gone from thinking that I would only ever be ‘ok’ at French to just savouring all things Francophile.  To anyone considering trying something new, I say do it!

*Thanks

It gets easier

I was doing a lesson with one of our very long-term students a few weeks ago, looking at all of the French verb tenses (there are 15 conservatively, more like 19 or 20 when you go deep). 

If you’ve not immediately smashed your computer screen and headed to the nearest corner for a soothing rock, stay with me, because this is a happy news story (je te jure* !).

In looking at all the tenses, we realised that beyond a certain point, they mostly become compounds of the ones you already know (and those that don’t are likely to be literary tenses and very rarely used).

For example, the futur proche* is really just a combination of the present tense plus the infinitive (je vais parler - I am going to speak). For those of you who have dug a little further back into the French grammar armoire*, you’ll know that the plus-que-parfait* is just an amalgam of the imperfect tense and the past participle that you’ve already seen in the passé composé* (j’avais parlé - I had spoken).

It goes on. The futur antérieur* is a combo of the futur simple* and the past participle (j’aurai parlé - I will have spoken) and the past conditional just takes it a step further (j’aurais parlé - I would have spoken).

So, it’s a bit like an apprenticeship, or apprentissage. You have to do the hard yards first in order to develop the skills that will allow you to master your chosen trade in the future.

This may not be sounding like a good news story yet, granted. It might just sound like plain old hard work, which it sometimes is (even though there are many moments of delight along the way).

But the good news starts here. 

Much like my Mum’s very sage advice to me the first time I had my heart broken (“It will never be this hard again, I promise”), your very first course will always be the most testing.

At Lingua Franca we have 16 different levels ranging from Absolute Beginner 1 to Advanced Revision. By far and away the first lesson of Absolute Beginner 1 is the trickiest. In fact, to be more specific, it’s the very first vocabulary list, about some seemingly benign basic greetings, that can cause intellectual panic to set it.

Take a look for yourself:

In that very first 15 minutes of the lesson, we touch on the following:

• silent letters

• strange vowel combinations (oi is pronounced wuh?)

• tu vs vous

• the supremacy of the masculine gender (in grammatical terms)

• standard vs familiar language (bonjour vs salut)

• liaison

• the difference between on and nous

• pronunciation exceptions (monsieur)

• how to pronounce French ‘r’s

• agreement (enchanté vs enchantée)

C’est beaucoup, non*? If you’ve been doing French for a little while, the above list probably doesn’t look that scary at all. You’ve may have even forgotten that these were new concepts to you once upon a time. But imagine how it feels to be back there at Lesson 1, trying to take all of this in. You’d think it was a foreign language.

Spare a thought for our Absolute Beginner 1 students, as it doesn’t let up for the rest of the workbook. Numbers to 100 (“what do you mean 4 x 20 means 80?”), nationalities without capital letters, the joy of their first irregular verb (hello, être*) and the back-to-frontness (for English-speakers) of the noun plus adjective situation. 

We can actually pinpoint the moment the shine will come off for most brand new students. It’s Lesson 4, when they learn to conjugate (huh?) their very first regular verb. The mood almost always goes from engaged and excited to focused and serious as they broach the verb vendre* and when the door opens at the end of the lesson, it’s like a wave of tension follows the students out. 

However, for the courageux* and courageuses* who front up for Lesson 5, it’s all good news. Having had their French hearts broken, it’s only upwards and onwards from that point. Places around town (fun!). A guessing game in French? Count me in!

And so it goes along the winding path of your French learning. Peaks and valleys, climbs, descents and periods of coasting.

Another of our students tells a very reassuring story of learning to be a volunteer guide at an art gallery. The training was extensive and the information new and copious. With so much information swimming around in their heads, the trainees felt as though they’d never be able to remember everything, let alone communicate it in a comprehensible (and engaging) way. 

Just when our student thought she could take no more, the trainer explained to her that it was totally natural at that point to be utterly confused.

The trainer explained to them that this period of confusion often represented the last moments before the information would start to synthesise and arrange itself in their heads. That is, that this was the worst it would get. As it turns out not only was Mum a master consoler, but she had some insight into brain function as well.

It might help to think of your learning as a series of waves of various heights, with blobs of confusion dotted along the way. Comme ça*, the next time you’re faced with a new and challenging concept, you can be secure in the knowledge that understanding and mastery is just over the next rise, and that, de toute façon* you’ve seen much worse before.

*I promise | *close future | *cupboard | *pluperfect | *past perfect tense | *future perfect | *future simple tense | *It’s a lot, isn’t it? | *to be | *to sell | *courageous (male) people | *courageous (female) people | *That way | *In any case

Actus français facile

Our first steps into listening to French can be slightly harrowing. My mind goes to preparing DELF students for their exams by listening to authentic audio tracks. Until I hit play, they have no idea what they’ll be faced with: are they in a train station, at the supermarket, is it a debate or simply a couple talking about upcoming holiday plans?

A lack of context can be a true impediment to comprehension which is why I really love Radio France Internationale’s Journal en français facile*. The subject matter is international current affairs, giving us at least some immediate context.

The language has been pared back and slowed down for a global audience, and there’s also a full transcript you can use to follow along. If you’re really keen, you could even read the dialogue ahead of time to translate any unknown vocabulary before your first listen. If you’re short on time, though, I still recommend just popping it on in the background (if only for the opening news theme which makes me feel like I’m right back in France).

*News in easy French

La Petite Histoire

If you've ever done a group lesson here at Lingua Franca, you've probably come into contact with La Petite Histoire*. A tale with the very humblest of beginnings, it winds up becoming a rollicking schlockbuster as you move up the levels and your French improves enough to handle the outrageous (some would say impossible) turns of events of the six young friends.

La Petite Histoire is currently only available to our students, however La Préquelle is for everyone’s enjoyment. Below, another instalment of this new series, chapter 6 of the Intermediate 1 level.

*The Little Story | *The Prequel

“Bonsoir Simon, comment allez-vous ?” j’ai demandé alors que mon professeur s’installait à notre table de café.

“Très bien, merci Leïla, et vous ?” il a répondu poliment.

“Simon, je vous présente mon amie, Noëlle. Noëlle, c’est Simon, mon professeur d’anglais,” j’ai dit.

“Enchantée, Simon,” Noëlle a dit et elle a sourit. “Vous voulez boire quelque chose ?”

“Oui, avec plaisir, mais c’est moi qui vous invite,” a répondu Simon. “Que voulez-vous boire ?”

“Ah, un vrai gentleman anglais, je vois,” Noëlle a dit gaiement. “Quelle plaisir de vous rencontrer, Simon.” 

“Vous aussi, Noëlle. Alors, mesdames, vous voulez du café ou autre chose?” il a demandé.

“Un petit café pour moi, s’il vous plaît, Simon,” j’ai dit. “Merci, c’est gentil.”

“Toujours très sage, notre Leïla,” Noëlle a taquiné. “Vous ne trouvez pas, Simon ? Elle doit être la chouchoute de votre classe, non ? Vous ne préférez pas un autre vin, Leïla ?”

“Non, je ne peux pas, je suis désolée. Je vais devoir partir bientôt et on a déjà pris deux verres. Ça suffit pour moi.”

Noëlle a levé les yeux au ciel et a dit: “Simon, un autre vin rosé pour moi, s’il vous plaît. Ou prenons une bouteille ?”

Simon a fait signe au serveur “S’il vous plaît !”. Le serveur est venu tout de suite. “Un café et un pitcher de vin rosé avec deux verres, s’il vous plaît. Et les toilettes sont en bas ?” il a demandé.

“Oui, monsieur,” il a répondu. “Juste derrière le bar.”

“Simon, quand vous allez aux toilettes, est-ce que ça vous dérange si on change de chaises ? Je voudrais bien profiter des dernières minutes de soleil,” Noëlle a dit.

“Bien sûr, Noëlle,” Simon a dit. C’est vrai, c’est un gentleman, Simon.

“Merci beaucoup,” Noëlle a dit et elle s’est levée pour changer de chaises. Elle portait une mini-jupe rayée avec de longues bottes blanches. Elle regardait Simon et elle a dit: “Une autre raison pour apprécier les Anglais - les mini-jupes. Mary Quant est anglaise, n’est-ce pas, Simon ? J’adore porter les mini-jupes. Je me sens tellement libérée !”

Simon a rougi un petit peu et il s’est excusé pour aller aux toilettes.

“Noëlle,” j’ai dit. “Arrête ! Tu as vu son visage? Simon est timide, ne fais pas ça avec lui. C’est mon prof !”

“Ah, Leïla, calme-toi. C’est un adulte, et de toute façon, c’est une blague ! Oh là, là, parfois je ne comprends pas pourquoi on est amies. Tu es tellement sérieuse. En plus, il est tellement beau, je ne peux pas résister !"

“Good evening, Simon, how are you going?” I asked as my teacher took a seat at our café table.

“Very well, thanks Leïla, and you?” he responded politely.

“Simon, I’d like you to meet my friend, Noëlle. Noëlle, this is Simon, my English professor,” I said.

“Pleased to meet you, Simon,” Noëlle and she smiled. “Do you want something to drink?”

”Yes, with pleasure, but please allow me,” responded Simon. “What do you want to drink?”

“Oh, a true English gentleman, I see,” Noëlle said gaily. “What a pleasure to meet you, Simon.”

“You too, Noëlle. So, ladies, do you want coffee or something else?” he asked.

“A coffee for me, please, Simon,” I said. “Thank you, that’s nice of you.”

“Always so good, our Leïla,” Noëlle teased. “Don’t you think, Simon? She must be the teacher’s pet of the class, no? You wouldn’t rather another wine, Leïla?”

“No, I can’t, I’m sorry. I am going to have to leave soon on we’ve already had two glasses. That’s enough for me.”

Noëlle rolled her eyes and said: “Simon, another rosé for me, please. Or shall we have a bottle?”

“Excuse me!” Simon called the waiter over, who came straight away. “A coffee and a pitcher of rosé with two glasses, please. And are the toilets downstairs?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” he responded. “Just behind the bar.”

“Simon, when you go to the toilet, so you mind if we change chairs? I’d like to make the most of the last few minutes of sun,” Noëlle said.

”Of course, Noëlle,” Simon said. It’s true, he’s a gentleman, Simon.

“Thank you very much,” Noëlle said and got up to change chairs. She was wearing a striped mini-skirt and long white boots. She was looking at Simon when she said: “Another reason to like the English - mini-skirts! Mary Quant is English, isn’t she, Simon? I love wearing mini-skirts. I feel so free!”

Simon blushed a little and excused himself to go the the toilet.

“Noëlle,” I said. “Stop! Did you see his face? Simon’s shy, don’t do that with him. He’s my professor!”

“Oh Leïla, calm down. He’s an adult, and anyway, it’s a joke! Gee, sometimes I don’t know how we’re friends. You’re so serious. Plus, he’s so handsome, I can’t resist!”

Create your carry-on

Le mois dernier*, we spoke about the almost-universal experience of freezing up when speaking French. If you’ve experienced it, you know how frustrating it can be. The minute the pressure’s on, all those perfect phrases we form in our heads when under the shower or driving the car partent en fumée* and we’re left fumbling, stumbling and, often, completely mute.

It’s terrible for your self confidence but there is a way to remedy it. You just need a little grab bag of phrases you can count on. Much like the items you put in your carry-on luggage when travelling, these phrases need to be simple, useful and easy to access at all times.

So how do you ensure you’re able to bring them out when you need them? I wish the solution were un chouïa plus inspirant*, but the reality is simply to practise them over and over and over again, (preferably out loud) until they become completely banal to you. Hopefully then, when you feel that deer in the headlights moment approaching, you’ll be able to reach into your in-cabin bag of a brain and pull out a phrase that works, no rummaging required.

We’ve provided some ideas below to get you going, but remember, these phrases are going to be your best buddies, so make sure you have a little stock that appeal to you, and that you’ll enjoy spending time with.

*last month | *go up in smoke | *a touch more inspiring

• Yes.

• I like that.

• Pardon?

• That’s great.

Keeping things positive encourages conversation, no matter the language.

• Yes, that’s true.

• I prefer…

• I don’t understand.

• I’m not sure.

Add a little nuance to your language and give the dialogue some room to move.

• Yes, I agree.

• Can I…?

• What does….mean?

• It was…

Asking for clarification is a really good way to make sure you’re on the right track as well as deepen your understanding of both the language and the culture.

• Exactly.

• Do you think that…?

• For me, it’s more that…

• And in fact…

Really get into the l’essentiel* by sharing ideas and opinions.

Bon courage*!

*the nitty gritty | *Good luck!

Breaking bread

If you’ve grown up in your country of birth, you’re likely so steeped in that particular culture that you’re unaware of the extent of the practices, customs and social etiquette you adhere to every day.

This explains why the first foray into navigating a new culture can make us so mal à l’aise* - there are just so many opportunities for embarrassment.

So let’s make a start by coming to grips with le pain* at least, in all its charming complexité*.

Un grand merci* to Géraldine from Comme Une Française* for this very helpful explainer vidéo.

*awkward | bread | *complexity | *A big thank you | *Like a Frenchwoman

Virtual Louis Vuitton

La mode* has been on our minds a lot récemment* here at Lingua Franca with some of our more advanced students enjoying an entire term devoted to high fashion, as part of our new Club de Culture series.

In Week 2, we looked at the story of Louis Vuitton, from the very humble beginnings of the man himself to the multi-billion dollar juggernaut it is today as part of the LVMH conglomerate.

With owner Bernard Arnault duking it out with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for the title of the richest person in the world, no-one would have been choqué* had he, too, decided to enter the race to Mars.

However, with a strong personal interest in the art world as well as a mission to make art and culture accessible to all, in October 2014, la Fondation Louis Vuitton was opened to the world. Housed in a futuristic Frank Gehry-designed building on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne’s Jardin d’Acclimatisation, it has been off limits to us here in Australia until very recently.

Such are the marvels of technology, though, that even if you’re not yet ready or able to dust off your passeport*, you can still pay a visit. Whether to appreciate the collections à l’intérieur* or to stand in awe of the architectural wizardry of the building itself, it’s all au bout des doigts* and won’t cost you a single centime*.

Simply download the Fondation LV app, and choose the theme of your virtual tour. Be sure to change the language from English to French if you want the full immersive experience, or simply turn the sound off to completely drink in la richesse* before you.

PS A bit bored by the purity of the all-white structure? Go here to see how it was transformed in 2016 by French visual artist Daniel Buren.

*Fashion | *recently | *shocked | *passport | *on the inside | *at the tip of your fingers | *cent | *the richness

SWOON Gorges du Verdon

From the point de vue* of a particularly long and cold Australian winter (we know, it’s all relative, but come on, it’s been froid*!), this is looking like le paradis sur terre*.

Located a two-hour drive from La Côte D’Azur and with shimmering turquoise water, soaring falaises* and peregrine falcons on offer, it’s yet another coup de cœur* to add to your wish list.

*point of view | *cold | *heaven on earth | *cliffs | *favourite

Manet vs Monet

Monet

Not sure you could pick a Manet from a Monet? According to this article, it couldn’t be more simple: Manet is people, Monet is spots.

If you need a bit more to make it stick, the trick may be in their names. The ‘man’ in Manet represents the people and the ‘o’ in Monet, the dots.

Voilà* (for a start, at least).

MANET

*There you go.

Why learn a language?

If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely you have your own answer to this question, but sometimes, when you’re knee-deep in the bizarreries* of the verb être*, it can be hard to remember why on earth you started in the first place.

A gently motivational response to the question by world-renowned linguist John McWhorter.

*quirks | *to be

Beaucoup de problèmes !

Beaucoup* is one of the words we learn very early on in French. En fait*, even if you’ve never really studied French, you’ll most likely know the phrase merci beaucoup, meaning ‘thank you very much’ or ‘thanks a lot’.

So what is le problème* ?

It’s often when we want to use the word beaucoup to mean ‘many’, ‘a lot of’ or, less formally, ‘lots of’ that we seem to run into trouble. And this is not big trouble we’re talking about. This is just a small error that many of us make repetitively and that is very easy to fix, so let’s hop to it!

The basic rule is this:

It’s natural for a non-native French speaker to want to say des as we are talking about something plural.

For example:

lots of flowers
a lot of opportunities
many baskets

So we’d quite logically want to say:

beaucoup des fleurs
beaucoup des opportunités
beaucoup des paniers

But please don’t. Just remember that we always say beaucoup de or beaucoup d’ (when your noun starts with a vowel or an ‘h’), despite the fact we’re talking about plural things.

It’s neat in a way, because as you know, de means ‘of’, so it’s quite easy to accept that beaucoup de translates to ‘lots of’ or ‘a lot of’. The correct way to say these things is:

beaucoup de fleurs
beaucoup d’opportunités
beaucoup de paniers

It’s actually quite liberating when you realise you don’t need to care about the gender or the number of the thing(s) you’re describing. Since it’s always going to be beaucoup de (except when you’re dealing with a vowel or ‘h’ and it becomes beaucoup d’), you can just go for it.

beaucoup de bonbons*, beaucoup d’hommes*, beaucoup de sucre*, beaucoup de villes*, beaucoup de temps*, beaucoup d’artistes*, beaucoup de vin*, beaucoup d’amour*…

Before you get too carried away, though, you may have heard that in French there are always exceptions. Ça te parle* ? Well, this is no exception.

This is the one time you can say beaucoup des. As we mentioned before, de means ‘of’, and when we add de to les (the), it becomes des and means ‘of the’. So if your sentence can be translated into English to mean ‘a lot of the’ as opposed to ‘a lot of’, then feel free to break the rule. Ouf* !

Beaucoup des films étaient trop longs cette année.
A lot of the films were too long this year.

Beaucoup des invitées sont arrivés avant lui.
A lot of the guests arrived before him.

C’était Anaïs qui a proposé beaucoup des idées pour le projet.
It’s Anaïs who suggested a lot of the ideas for the project.

Thanks to Thought Co. for inspiring this article.

*A lot / many / lots of | *In fact | *the problem | *a lot of lollies | *a lot of men | *a lot of sugar | *a lot of cities | *a lot of time | *a lot of artists | *a lot of wine | *a lot of love | *Does that ring a bell? | *Phew!

French Assist

We were contacted recently by one of the lovely volunteers from French Assist with what could be une opportunité fantastique* for our more advanced learners.

French Assist is a benevolent society based in Brisbane which helps distressed or isolated French people in Australia by providing moral or logistical support on an ad hoc basis. 

Often people who reach out to them are faced with language barriers or a lack of local knowledge, others are lonely and long for a bit of conversation in their native language.

They used to rely on the French community alone, but they’re now looking for French-speaking people with local knowledge to help out. Could this be you?

If your interest is piqued, I’d suggest reading the account below, and if it warms your heart as it did mine, contact them to offer your services.

A truly meaningful way to put your skills to use.

Ma fille de 21 ans qui venait de terminer son contrat de travail à Sydney a subi un grave accident, elle a donc été hospitalisée pendant un mois.

Je l’ai rejointe rapidement et au préalable j’ai contacté l’ambassade de France qui m’a mise en contact avec French Assist.

Grâce à Pascale qui s’est présentée le jour même de mon arrivée à l’hôpital, j’ai pu me consacrer à ma fille puisqu’elle s’est chargée de me trouver un hébergement, elle a pu traduire également les commentaires des médecins et m’a laissé son numéro de téléphone pour toutes mes demandes et interrogations.

Ensuite Jocelyne et Christian se sont proposés de m’héberger chez eux (à titre exceptionnel), c’est ainsi que j’ai pu rentrer tous les soirs après une journée à l’hôpital dans une charmante et chaleureuse maison, parler en français et bénéficier de conseils, d’un accompagnement lors des démarches administratives et même du transport.

Plus encore ils m’ont permis de manger un bon repas, de rire et d’échanger en français, ce fut des égards et une attention considérables.

Je remercie encore Pascale, Jocelyne et Christian ainsi que Judy, Rosa et tous les bénévoles de French Assist sans lesquels cette épreuve aurait été un véritable cauchemar.

Ma fille va mieux aujourd’hui. Nous sommes rentrées en France et seront reconnaissants à vie de l’action bienveillante et hautement utile de French Assist.

Leila R.

My daughter of 21. who had just finished a work contract in Sydney, suffered a serious accident and was hospitalised for a month.

I got in touch with her straight away then contacted the French Embassy who put me in touch with French Assist.

Thanks to Pascale who was there the very first day I got to the hospital, I could devote myself to my daughter since she took charge of finding me somewhere to stay, was also able to translate what the doctors were saying and left me her phone number for all my questions and queries.

Next Jocelyne and Christian offered to have me stay at their place (they don’t normally do this), which allowed me to come back every evening after a day at the hospital to a charming and welcoming home, speak in French and benefit from their advice as well as helping me with administrative tasks and even transport.

Even more, it allowed me to eat a good meal, to laugh and chat in French, which was incredibly kind and thoughtful of them and made me feel so at home.

I am still thanking Pascale, Jocelyne and Christian as well as Judy, Rosa and all the French Assist volunteers without whom this challenge would have been a true nightmare.

My daughter is going a lot better today. We’re back in France and will be grateful for life for the highly useful and caring actions of French Assist.

Leila R.

A quest for happiness

Le bonheur* is both a beautiful French word and a noble pursuit, one which French philosophers and writers have pondered for centuries.

Grab a coffee and take the time to reflect sur ces bonnes paroles*.

1. I recognised my happiness by the sound it made in leaving. - Jacques Prévert

2. Happiness is everything that happens between two hassles. - Jean-Baptiste Lafond

3. True happiness costs little: if it’s expensive, it’s not the right type. - François René de Châteaubriand

4. Happiness is continuing to desire what one possesses. - Saint Augustin

5. If you want to understand the word happiness, you need to hear it as a reward and a not a goal. - Antoine St-Exupéry

6. To dream, that’s happiness. To wait, that’s life. - Victor Hugo.

*Happiness | *these words of wisdom

The first Tour de France

Given many of you will be collés* to your TV screens from the 1st July as the Tour de France 2022 kicks off, we thought it timely to take a look back at how it all began.

If you have cinq minutes* and an interest in le cyclisme* or even simply like history, you’ll really enjoy this short video from TV5 Monde Plus.

By the way, you can choose English or French subtitles, or, if you’re really courageux*, none at all.

*glued | *five minutes | *cycling | *brave

Go back to basics

Arriving at work a few weeks ago, and with this article half-written in my head, I happened up on a scene that was not only très familier* but enabled me to round out my thoughts on the matter of how to learn French (or at least a very important aspect of it): what to do when you get stuck.

There was someone, let’s call her Catherine, talking to one of our tutors, let’s call her Marie-Hélène (because that is her name and she deserves most of the credit for the ideas in this article).

Those of you who come to lessons at Lingua Franca know there are (strangely steep) steps to arrive au nid* and that the front is all glass. As I puffed my way to the top, I grinned as I saw Catherine and Marie-Hélène speaking to one another in French (I could could tell by the way they were moving their mouths - French is all out front, with English the face is flatter). I was so rapt because I could see they were enjoying a really lovely little chat before they started their respective classes. They looked both engaged and relaxed.

However, as soon as I opened the door and they saw me, the conversation stopped dead. I encouraged them to keep going, and they did pick up the thread of the conversation but I could tell without even looking at Catherine that she was feeling self-conscious now that I was there. Her speech became halting, she made a mistake, corrected herself, then looked at me for reassurance, and within the space of a few seconds, simply gave up, exclaiming “And I was going so well!”

I agreed, she was going so well and I felt really bad that my arrival had put paid to a great little French moment for her. I felt for her, which is illuminating because as I write this, I realise that when the very same thing happens to me, I don’t feel empathy for myself, I just feel like une idiote*.

People are often surprised to hear that this also happens to me, but I can assure you it does. Even though I can rabbit on at full speed in French with my workmates sans problème*, the whole atmosphere changes if one of their (French) partners or friends walks in. All of a sudden, that critical voice in my head revs up and consequently mon français part en quenouille*. I start doubting myself, sure I’m making errors the owner of a French school shouldn’t, positive the partner or friend is judging me, then I start looking to my workmates for reassurance that I’m not making error and so it devolves. The whole thing would be funny if it didn’t make for such an awkward scene.

The only thing that is reassuring to me is that my workmates, who are second-language speakers themselves, all report feeling the same thing but in reverse when speaking English. In fact, I’ve really got nothing to complain about - I face this situation from time to time. They face it every day. And, when I lived in France, I faced it every day, too, and managed to overcome it to a degree.

I think when you’re speaking to someone you don’t know, it’s easier. Of course you may be a bit nervous or shy to trot out your French when you’re not used to it, but the stakes are relatively low, and if you’re forced to speak your second language day after day, you do lose a lot of that apprehension. However, place most of us in a situation where we actually care about the outcome, and our French can grind to a halt.

So, the solution I was going to offer in my previously-mentioned half-written article was simply this:

When we’re under stress and our mind is going a million miles an hour we tend to forget to breathe. By pausing and taking a breath, we can often put the brakes on the runaway train that is our mind.

For a brief second, just take notice of your surroundings and with any luck, you’ll feel your brain start to relax.

Then, in order to quieten that critical voice in your head, follow Marie-Hélène’s excellent advice, which is:

Marie-Hélène suggests going to back to phrases you know you know. According to her, this is not the time to try to break out a new phrase you learned last week and think you know. Fall back on the phrases you use all the time, even if they may seem too simple for the occasion. Better to get out a simple sentence than no sentence at all, non*?

This makes sense to me. If our brain is already stressed and our critical little voice is telling us we’re rubbish at French, pulling out a well-worn phrase or two may just be enough to stop it right in its tracks. Fake it till you make it.

Marie-Hélène suggests creating a stock of these simple phrases in your mind, and practising them over and over again until they become second nature. That way, when you’re under the pump, you should be able to pull out something of use quite quickly.

The way I imagine it is in terms of luggage. When we travel, we usually pack one piece of carry-on luggage with all our essential items for use in flight. It may not contain our prettiest or most sophisticated items, but it does contain things that get the job done (passeport*, téléphone*, portefeuille*, mouchoirs*, châle*). Reaching for a fancy phrase when under pressure is the equivalent of asking to disembark the plane to access your suitcase which is located at the back of the hold because you know, you just know, that once you’ve remembered how to unlock it, and under five layers of t-shirts and just next to your wash bag, you’re sure you have just the bon mot* for the occasion. Meanwhile, your fellow travellers have ordered their cocktails and are settling in to watch a movie.

Next month, what exactly are those phrases you want in your carry-on? We’ll take a look, and offer you some options according to your level.

In the meantime, continue to be courageous. Not everyone would even give it a go. Chapeau* !

*very familiar | *at the nest | *an idiot | *no problem | *my French goes down the toilet | *isn’t that right? | *passport | *telephone | *wallet | *tissues | *shawl | *clever turn of phrase | *Hats off to you!

Sneak Peek into Le Nid

Quels sont les produits français les plus appréciés par l’équipe Lingua Franca ? Voyons*….

*Which are the French products the Lingua Franca team enjoy the most? Let’s take a look…