Jour de ratrappage

Today we covered a lot of ground in our review session: être and avoir, negation with ne...pas, forming questions, definite (le, la, l', les) and indefinite (un, une, des) articles, and contractions of articles (du, des, au, aux). Please read chapter 6 for next time. If you haven't done the Révision of chapters 1-5 in the textbook I'd also recommend that - it's a good review of everything we've covered so far.

Vous faites vraiment des progrès! Felicitations!

Une publicité drôle pour vous ;)

Etre and Avoir review

Yesterday we reviewed the verbs être and avoir and their uses. We also did some listening comprehension. If you weren't in class, here are the videos we watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytUfZL_JaLk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqHZNujfHZo


Next time we have our first "ratrappage" (catch up) scheduled. We will go over some key grammar points from chapters 1-5 in the textbook. We'll do some more listening and speaking practice as well. A mercredi!

Adjectives and a few new verbs

Today we reviewed using adjectives to describe oneself and others. You can view the powerpoint here.

We also learned two new verbs : aimer (to like) and avoir (to have). We learned how to say "I like" followed by various activities, as well as some idiomatic expressions with avoir. See this handout for more information and practice. It also includes some review of what we covered last class.

If you missed class today, please review the powerpoint and the handout if you can. Next time we will do some review to get everyone caught up and we'll also talk about Chapters 4 and 5. And feel free to email at lkatelloyd@gmail.com if you have questions about anything you missed!


A mercredi!

On continue...

Last class we went over chapters 2 and 3 in the textbook. Chapter 2 covers pronunciation and I mentioned in class that the best way to develop your pronunciation is to listen to spoken French. There are lots of authentic French language resources out there but here are some places to start:

TF1

http://www.tf1.fr

TF1 (Télévision française 1) is perhaps the most viewed television network not just in France but all of Europe. Check out the JT 13h (1 PM news) and the JT 20h (8 PM news) under "Info" for full news broadcasts. (There are lots of entertainment programs to choose from as well, including some familiar American titles.)

Here are some other popular French tv networks:
http://www.france2.fr
http://www.france3.fr
http://www.france4.fr
http://www.france5.fr


Or you can listen to the radio at http://www.radiofrance.fr 
(Click "ECOUTER LA RADIO" in red at the top.)

I've also been enjoying http://www.fipradio.fr -- although it doesn't play exclusively French music.

We also reviewed chapter 3 (articles, gender and plural of nouns) and practiced using the verb être (to be) with adjectives to describe people.  (More on this next time.) Here are the powerpoint and the handouts we used in class:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByJGo_Yai3DxSk1URTJYcDFZZ1U/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByJGo_Yai3Dxdl9jUG9vdV8tZkE/view?usp=sharing

A mercredi! (See you Wednesday)

Beginning French Language and Culture sur Internet!

Bonsoir. We're now officially official -- we have a blog! I will update it after each class with a recap of what we covered. I'll also upload any additional resources we used in class as well as links for further reading. With that in mind:

During our first class, we learned greetings, vocabulary for introducing yourself and getting to know others, polite expressions, and words for saying goodbye. You can view the full powerpoint here.

As you may recall, la bise is the French "air kiss," used as a greeting between family and friends. As a foreigner, navigating the rules of faisant la bise can be a little intimidating. When should you do it and with whom? When should you NOT do it?

Here are a couple of videos that explore the comic tension surrounding la bise. What social rules do you observe? (You might hear a few vocab words too!)

*Note: This first video has some mild English (and French!) profanity.

This next one is a bit more practical:

Did you hear Antoine mention that the number of kisses given depends on the region of France? Here's a map with averages for each region, based on polling data from residents:

http://combiendebises.fr/

A mercredi! 

Bises,

Kate