Archive for August, 2018
20 Questions With A Genie – Using Akinator To Practice French Posted by John Bauer on Aug 29, 2018
After several months of studying une langue (a language) it’s sometimes hard to find the motivation to keep going. Actually applying all the new information sometimes feels futile if you only use la langue in the classroom. Heureusement (luckily), there are many ways to bring French to life and make studying fun! Playing games and…
French Music and Vocabulary – Just say no Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 28, 2018
The French verb vouloir is a handy one for expressing what you want. It can also be handy for expressing what you don’t want, as in this song from Camelia Jordana. Camelia is preforming live at Les Victoires de la Musique a sort of French version of the Grammy Awards. If after listening to this catchy tune you…
Going Up – Escalators, Stairs, And Shelves In French Posted by John Bauer on Aug 22, 2018
There are many everyday words that can slip by unnoticed in textbooks. Learning how to perfectly conjugate le subjonctif is important, but realizing you don’t know how to ask for les toilettes ou un tourneavis (the bathroom or a screwdriver) at the wrong time will lead to a difficult situation. Le métro (the subway) may…
Follow the leader Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 21, 2018
This is the fourth post in my on-going series of lessons for young people from the depths of the 19th century. The French aren’t the only ones to have had interesting ideas about the roles of les garçons et les filles (boys and girls) or about how les enfants (children/kids) should behave, but these stories give us…
Fall In Love With A French Pop Song: Joyce Jonathan – Ça Ira Posted by John Bauer on Aug 15, 2018
La musique (the music) is a great way to keep practicing le français when you’re tired of doing drills and looking at vocabulary lists. For French learners, the catchier la chanson (the song) the better! Le but (the goal) is to sing la chanson for fun and forget it’s actually studying! I’ve mentioned it a…
Recommended for vous Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 14, 2018
Back at the end of mai (May) / début juin (start of June) I shared a couple of contes (stories, short tales) that I found online. I shared them both because they had some good vocabulary and because I was fascinated by the morality they (attempted) to share. Both tales reflected both a simpler and a more simplistic…
The Fortunate Word I Can’t Remember How To Spell In French Posted by John Bauer on Aug 8, 2018
L’orthographe (orthography, spelling) has been a weakness of mine since l’école primaire (elementary school). That same faiblesse (weakness) came back when I learned le français. Even after graduating en France, there are words I have trouble remembering how to spell en français. Heureusement (fortunately), in the age of computers I can rely on le correcteur…