Archive for 'Culture'
Work it! Posted by Jennie on May 6, 2010
Today we are going to aborder (discuss) a topic of which I have only une vague compréhension: l’exercice! En fait, j’aime bien faire de l’exercice (In fact, I like doing exercise). In Paris, my host sister introduced me to the local piscine municipale (city pool), which was conveniently on the way to the world’s finest boutique…
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…
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…
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 (Broken) American Dream of a French Football Team Posted by Hichem on Apr 17, 2010
Today is vendredi. A long week has mercifully come to an end, Dieu merci (Thank God.) What do you les gars (guys) like to do in your fin de semaine (on the weekend) ? Personnellement (personally), one of my favorite passe-temps (hobbies) when I have du temps libre (free time) is to play le football. Let us then… “tackle” a bit the…
What is an “Énarque” ? (2ème partie) Posted by Hichem on Apr 14, 2010
We have seen, il y a deux jours (two days ago), a “special species” of people in France called “les énarques.” We found out that they in fact represent the French élite, the crème de la crème of the civil servants, a position in la société française (the French society) which naturally earns them both admiration and outrage. At the beginning, the É.N.A…