Archive for April, 2010
The Burqa Ban in Belgium Posted by Jennie on Apr 30, 2010
Aujourd’hui, on va aborder (today we’re going to tackle) un sujet assez chaud (a pretty hot subject). I know this blog is about la langue et la culture françaises, and I hope you’re learning both from reading it. Today’s topic is at the center of la discussion actuelle (the current discussion) on French culture and…
The ABCs of French Slang: B Expressions Posted by Hichem on Apr 28, 2010
Aujourd’hui, nous allons couvrir la lettre ‘B’ (Today, we shall cover the letter ‘B’.) * Bachoter: Meaning to study crazily hard. For example: “Pour devenir un énarque, tu dois bachoter comme un dingue!” (“In order to become an énaque, you must study like crazy!”) What is an “énarque“? Well, see for yourself “What is an Énarque?” (https://blogs.transparent.com/french/what-is-an-enarque/)…
Ces petits riens Posted by Jennie on Apr 28, 2010
Il pleut (it’s raining) in New York, and all I want is to curl up with un verre de vin and …Serge. Serge Gainsbourg is un auteur-compositeur-interprète et cinéaste français: a French songwriter-composer-singer and filmmaker. I’ve mentioned him before, in a post about eating breakfast in the mornings in Paris and listening to the radio…
The ABCs of French Slang: A Posted by Hichem on Apr 26, 2010
Like we saw before, idioms are among the first challenges in learning a new language, and surtout (especially) French. Another challenge, almost as unavoidable, when you try to actually go to the country, meet and talk with its people, is the slang of that country, or as it is called in French: l’argot. L’argot is not necessarily…
Putting Your French Face On: Makeup Vocab Posted by Jennie on Apr 23, 2010
Évidemment (obviously), le maquillage (makeup) n’est pas nécessaire. But it’s fun to play with, and it’s one of the places you’re most likely to see French every day: Check your lip gloss. Does it also say “gloss à lèvres”? I learned a lot of the vocabulaire de maquillage from reading les emballages (the packaging) des…
Provence, terre insolite Posted by Jennie on Apr 22, 2010
Quand j’ai vécu (When I lived) en Provence, j’avais 15 ans. At age fifteen, I was already fascinée par la culture française, and especially by le sud de la France: the fabled South of France. When I decided to go to Provence (on a summer programme d’échange), I thought I would be Brigitte Bardot, passant…
The Zoo of French Idioms Posted by Hichem on Apr 21, 2010
Today, we will enter, in a visite guidée spéciale (a special guided visit), the parc zoologique des locutions (the zoological park of idioms.) Starting with le roi de la jungle (the king of the jungle), we find the expression “la part du lion“, which in this case (a rare one) can be directly deduced by comparing it to its English equivalent…