Archive for October, 2016
How I Prepared For My Thesis Defense In France Posted by John Bauer on Oct 26, 2016
Part of mon mémoire (my thesis) involved not just studying, but practicing my French and making sure I knew how to present my ideas clearly. I needed beaucoup de préparation (a lot of preparation) if I wanted to get un vingt. A few weeks ago Taghreed left a comment asking for some tips on la…
Mea culpa Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 25, 2016
Did you catch it? My mistake last week? Non? Well, I’m glad! But I’m also sorry if I misled anyone. Halloween of course is le 31 octobre (October 31) which is still a week away! I was either so excited for les déguisements et les bonbons (costumes and candy) or I was simply not paying attention…
La Toussaint (All Saints’ Day) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 24, 2016
As Tim mentioned in a recent post, Halloween traditionally wasn’t celebrated in France and has only been exported to France is recent years from American traditions. Even when I was living in France around eight years ago, you wouldn’t see children trick-or-treat in the streets of Paris. Rather, some friends would hold small Halloween parties and…
L’on vs. On – What’s the Difference? Posted by Josh Dougherty on Oct 20, 2016
Bon or bien? An or année? C’est or il est? Tu or vous? As a student of French, you often encounter tricky pairs that don’t have an exact equivalent in your language. They require additional studying with plenty of examples for them to finally click, but eventually they become second nature. We’ve discussed many of…
Hit The Snooze Button! – Setting Your Alarm In French Posted by John Bauer on Oct 19, 2016
Being busy looking for a job and finishing my thesis has left me with little time to sleep. Le manqué de sommeil (the lack of sleep) over the past few months has left me constantly searching for le bouton snooze (the snooze button). Tous les soirs (every night) before I go to sleep je règle…
N’ayez pas peur!* Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 18, 2016
Next week is Halloween. 25 years ago no one in France had any idea what Halloween was other than an obscure American tradition. Today, Halloween and it’s traditions have been exported around the globe including to France and many people observe it . . . Thanks in no small part to me (or so I…
French: Regional Variants Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 17, 2016
It’s easy to forget that French is a living language that is in a constant state of flux. We know this to be true, of course, because of new words that are added to the French dictionary each year, or the development of verlan. But sometimes it is easy to forget that language is very…