Archive for September, 2016
Julien Doré is Back! Check Out His Song “Le Lac” Posted by Josh Dougherty on Sep 29, 2016
Julien Doré est bien connu en France (Julien Doré is well known in France). After winning the 5th season of Nouvelle Star (the equivalent of American Idol) in 2007, the Alès-born singer/songwriter has released 3 chart-topping albums and over a dozen singles. He’s gone on to be a guest judge on The Voice France…
Finding A Job In French Posted by John Bauer on Sep 28, 2016
These past few months I have had to constantly think about mon mémoire et la soutenance. Now that I have finished my degree there’s one question that everyone asks me: “Alors, qu’est-ce que vous allez faire maintenant ?” (So, what are you going to do now?) La vie étudiante (student life) gets you into…
MDR* Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 27, 2016
Sometimes all you want to do is laugh. Au bureau la semaine dernière (Last week at work), I was introduced to a very funny video that I thought I’d share with you, chers lecteurs (dear readers). A collègue (coworker) over heard me speaking French with another collègue and thought we’d get a kick out of…
La Poésie (French Poetry) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Sep 26, 2016
It can be very difficult for non-native French speakers to read, comprehend, and even enjoy poetry in French. This is because the language can be more florid than in prose, there may me multiple layers of meaning not easily deduced by the non-native reader, and it may depend on cultural references. But, alas, not all is…
Defending My Thesis In French Posted by John Bauer on Sep 21, 2016
Last week j’ai passé ma soutenance de mémoire (I defended my thesis). After working hard on mon mémoire, everything came down to un exposé (a presentation) in front of mes professeurs (my professors). La soutenance is the last step in completing un master (a master’s). Finding a concise way to present all la recherche et…
Des livres au cinema* Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 20, 2016
J’adore lire. (I love to read.) Et pour entretenir mon français, je lis beaucoup en français. (And to maintain my French, I read a lot in French.) I especially love classic novels about the royal era of French history. Unfortunately, I don’t always have the time to read as much as I would like. BREAKING…
The French Causative Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Sep 19, 2016
The causative construction in French is somewhat self-explanatory. This kind of grammatical construction occurs when the subject causes something to happen rather than doing the action themselves. So, for example, a causative construction would be needed if you are describing that someone else will do the action of the sentence besides the subject of the sentence…