Archive for 'Culture'
Third time is charming Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jan 24, 2017
Over the last few weeks I’ve been sharing some of my favorite French songs with you to help build vocabulary and pronunciation. While the 80’s where the heyday of rich story songs, all the great story songs aren’t from then. This week, a song that goes back a little bit further which many will recognize…
Les Meilleurs livres de 2016 (Best French Books in 2016) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jan 23, 2017
I’ve always been astounded, when walking into a French bookstore, at the amount of international literature (both translated and untranslated) featured on its bookshelves. Oftentimes, in the United States, American authors are highlighted to the exclusion of authors from other countries (although, of course, there are international authors who have enormous followings in the United…
The Best French Music of 2016! Posted by Josh Dougherty on Jan 19, 2017
2016 was a tough year for the music world. We lost a lot of fabulous and groundbreaking artists, but the year also introduced us to some new artists and new songs. Every winter, the popular radio station NRJ (pronounced like énergie, the word for energy) hosts an awards ceremony to honor the year’s top music. Just…
Longues Layovers – Delayed Flights In French Posted by John Bauer on Jan 18, 2017
I had un long vol (a long flight) back to les États-Unis a month ago to make it home for the holidays. Le vol was unfortunately delayed which led to many conversations with the staff in l’aéroport (the airport) trying to figure out how I was going to get home. Je me suis réveille à…
A pink canoe for two? Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jan 17, 2017
As promised, another “story song” this week to help you with your French. I find that des chansons (songs) – especially ones like this with extended spoken sections – can be very helpful in working on your listening comprehension skills and to model your own pronunciation on. [Parlé:] C’était pas l’année* dernière [Spoken :] It wasn’t…
5 French Idioms You Should Know Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jan 16, 2017
Idioms (les idiotismes, m.) are expressions that don’t necessarily make sense literally, but have a well known meaning to native speakers. In order to be able to understand a language’s idioms, therefore, you can’t just know the exact definition of a word but you must also understand the social and cultural meaning behind that word. It is also…
Music and lyrics Posted by Tim Hildreth on Jan 10, 2017
If you’ve been following my blog posts this past year, you know that I love a good song. And what’s a good song, other than a story set to music? And who doesn’t love a good story? The 1980’s was the heyday of good story-songs and they are a great tool for learning language and…