This blog post is for the French Beginners' Evening Class at the City of Portsmouth College, Highbury Campus.
A shortened link to this blog page is rebrand.ly/cfrb
N.B.
Links in blue will work for you, but if they are red, then they will only work for me while in class.
The classes are due to run on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7:30 pm on:
September 17th
September 24th
October 1st
October 8th
October 15th
October 22nd
(October 29th - Half term - no class this week)
November 5th
November 12th
November 19th
November 26th
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This class will run again in January at 6 pm on Tuesdays. The classes are due to run on:
Tuesday: 14th, 21st & 28th January, 4th, 11th, 25th February, 4th, 11th, 18th & 25th March.
(provided the minimum number of attendees is reached).
The improvers' class runs from 7:30 to 9 pm on the same day.
You can register your interest in classes in January by emailing Jennifer Parr, the Adult Ed courses administrator. Alternatively, you can use the links above to register via the college website.
See here for the latest Adult Education Newsletter from the College.
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Outside of class
To improve your listening and speaking skills in a social setting, why not come to the evening or afternoon events I organise in the city?
We have a twin city in Caen. I am the Chair of the Twinning Association for France and Germany. To find out more about our twin cities, visit this website
Tips for tuning your ear to French
Listen to French Music.
Watch French TV series and films (or at least videos/news in French)
There is a lot of stuff online for learning the French language (not all of it, correct!)
You can find some resources online to help you study French by yourselves here
Find some Francophone music you like - there's an extraordinary amount out there, and all can be seen on YouTube whenever you like. I have written much more about French music here.
I will use some materials from the course book Entre Nous 1, aimed at the European Language Standards A1 (beginners). You may find it helpful to get a copy for home use and self-study.
This blog page will help you learn how to get all those accents on your various devices.
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mardi, 26 novembre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to.
Click Here to be taken to further information.
Ce soir dans l'est de la France, des enfants vont être ravis de leurs petits cadeaux reçus de la part de Saint Nicolas.
Une histoire des faits de Saint Nicolas.
Qui a des origines de Lorraine, d'Alsace ou du Nord, connait bien Saint Nicolas !
Et met le soir du 5 décembre les souliers devant la cheminée, avec une carotte (pour l'âne), pour y trouver le lendemain orange, chocolat et pain d'épices en Saint Nicolas !
La légende de Saint Nicolas, très populaire en Lorraine, Alsace, Belgique…
Mais quelle est son origine ?
St Nicolas était évêque de Myre en Asie Mineure et, à ce titre, il assiste et souscrit au concile de Nicée en 325. Il était réputé pour être bon envers les pauvres et les enfants"Le bon St Nicolas" est honoré dans de nombreux pays en Orient et Occident.
En Lorraine, un chevalier de Port, près de Nancy, a rapporté , fin XIè siècle, une relique du saint, qui serait à l'origine de miracles. La ville s'appelle depuis Port-Saint Nicolas. Des miracles et de sa bonté , sont nées de nombreuses légendes. En Lorraine, il est le saint patron des enfants, des écoliers. Près de la mer, il est le patron des marins. Il aurait sauvé 3 naufragés implorant son aide.
La légende de St Nicolas, une légende du moyen-âge.
La chanson serait du 16 siècle.
PAROLES: (c'est chanté par Henri Dès)
Ils étaient trois petits enfants
Qui s'en allaient glaner aux champs
Ils sont allés et tant sont venus
Que sur le soir se sont perdus.
Ils sont allés chez le boucher : "Boucher, voudrais-tu nous loger?"
"Entrez, entrez, petits enfants, Y'a de la place assurément."
Ils n'étaient pas sitôt entrés
Que le boucher les a tués,
Les a coupés en p'tits morceaux
Et puis salés dans un tonneau.
Saint Nicolas au bout d'sept ans
Vint à passer dedans ce champ,
Alla frapper chez le boucher : "Boucher, voudrais-tu me loger?"
"Entrez, entrez, Saint Nicolas, Y'a de la place, il n'en manque pas.
" Il n'était pas sitôt entré qu'il a demandé à souper.
On lui apporte du jambon. Il n'en veut pas il n'est pas bon.
On lui apporte du rôti. Il n'en veux pas, il n'est pas cuit.
"Du p'tit salé, je veux avoir
Qu'il y a sept ans qu'est au saloir."
Quand le boucher entendit ça, Bien vivement, il se sauva.
"Petits enfants, qui dormez là, Je suis le grand Saint Nicolas."
Le Grand Saint étendit trois doigts, Les trois enfants «ressuscita».
Le premier dit : "J'ai bien dormi."
Le second dit : "Et moi aussi."
A ajouté le plus petit: "Je croyais être au Paradis."
Ils étaient trois petits enfants Qui s'en allaient glaner aux champs.
mardi, 19 novembre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to.
Click Here to be taken to further information.
* We will look at where French is spoken in the world.
La Francophonie
Un voyage au Québec from Entre Nous 1. We will look at how to talk about where you are going and the use of the pronoun «on» in French. EN1 Section Piste 31 Piste 32
We can look at the irregular verb «aller» in the present tense. Pour rire le verbe « aller »
This is from French TV and is about the city of Quebec. You'll not follow it all, but we can "mine" it for useful vocabulary and phrases to use when talking about cities in French (even if they are speaking with a Quebecois accent!!) Town
Chanson
Quels sont les mots manquants?
mardi, 12 novembre
Classes for next term are now live to be booked on to.
Click Here to be taken to further information.
Tonight, we will look once more at how to talk in simple terms about the family in FRENCH.
See the video below about 'Ma famille' number 4 for some more information.
You should be able to speak and write about your family.
Perhaps you can prepare a mini presentation about your family.
Tonight, from Entre Nous (P39-46) we will look at revising how to turn a sentence negative, revise possessive pronouns and possibly look at some elements of French Phonetics. Audio
Various grammar and vocabulary exercises from the book could be done for homework.
You may wish to complete a brief profile page based on those on page 35/36 of Entre Nous 1.
On this link are beginners' videos from the 1990s BBC—Quinze Minutes Plus First 4—covering much of what we have and will cover in this 10-week course.
This text should now be something you could use as a model and adapt to discuss your own situation.
« Dans mon quartier on a pas mal de maisons et quelques appartements. Les maisons sont assez grandes dans ce quartier avec des fenêtres en saillie. On a deux pubs, un qui est grand et vend des repas et un autre plus petit 'du coin'.
On a aussi deux superettes, beaucoup de vendeurs de plats à emporter comme une friterie, un pour les plats indiens et deux autres pour les plats chinois, une pizzeria et un fast-food pour les hamburgers, une petite poste et plusieurs coiffeurs pour les hommes et pour les femmes.
Il y a aussi un marchand de tapis, une fleuriste, un salon de tatouage et quelques bureaux. Non loin on a deux concessionaires de voitures d'occasion aussi, avec une pharmacie, un cabinet de dentiste et une autre superette Tesco. Il y un beau jardin public.
C'est assez tranquille comme quartier sauf le bruit de la circulation et parfois des ambulances.
Dans ma famille, il y a cinq personnes, il y a moi, ma femme et mon fils et mes deux filles. Mon fils s'appelle Jake et il a 7 ans, mes deux filles s'appellent Mary et Jane et elles ont 5 et 9 ans. Ma femme a les cheveux bruns courts et bouclés et les yeux verts. Elle est de taille moyenne, assez mince et très bavarde. Mon fils a les yeux marron et les cheveux bruns en brosse. Mary est très petite avec les cheveux longs et blonds et les yeux bleus. Jane est grande pour son âge avec les cheveux courts, raides et roux et les yeux verts. Nous avons deux chats et des poissons rouges. »
mardi, 5 novembre
La nuit des feux de joie/la nuit des feux d'artifices au Royaume Uni...
Tonight, with Remembrance Day coming up this weekend, we will look a little at what the French and French Canadians do to mark the Armistice of 1918.
We will also look at some French Speaking people and their jobs from Entre Nous
Le jour du souvenir
mardi, 22 octobre
We will look into the theme of the upcoming holiday in France. Halloween is not very French, but la Toussaint is.
To conclude the discussion of home, family, etc., we will examine some French-speaking people and their jobs from Entre Nous. Piste 21
Vocabulaire d'Halloween
La Toussaint
Halloween
mardi, 15 octobre
Firstly we should look at rooms in the house and see how far that takes us.
Then, we can add some new themes: house and home (possibly family and pets), which can be added to your Google Doc.
You will get some revision sheets to look at as well ...
Le mobilier - Où j'habite Ma famille - PPT Printable Files Class Display Files
Extra:
Personality: This link lists the most commonly used positive and negative personality trait adjectives and the noun associated with the adjective (often in English, this is ~ness).
Following today's class, you should be able to understand much of what is contained in these rather old videos, from BBC Schools and Colleges Collection.
mardi, 8 octobre
Avez-vous un numéro fétiche?
Building on the last couple of weeks' introduction to the city of Caen and what there is to see in a town (housing and locations), we will look at what the course book Entre Nous wants to introduce us to this week.
They are using the city of Nantes in the West of France, south of Brittany, which was once in Brittany before France annexed it.
You can see the course book here online.
We will then examine why people are learning French, some personal details and how to form the present tense of regular '-er' verbs... (the joy, the bliss!) and mention the reflexives (more joy!!).
Lille is also used in the course book.
Pour rire
mardi, 1er octobre
You should be able to introduce yourself, give your date of birth and spell at least your name... you ought to be able to spell the name of your town/village/city, your place of birth and your street name, too... Another skill is to be able to write words you hear being spelt out using the French alphabet.
You should be able to name a few buildings in a typical town or village.
La ville - the town...
We shall examine in more detail what is seen in the average city and prepare to discuss what is near your home in France.
You might be able to say a few sentences about your town or city in response to this question...
<<Qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans votre ville? >> e.g. Voici... l'église, voilà... la superette...
You may indeed have been able to adapt the text below...
We will look at compiling << un portrait chinois >> for vocabulary building. We don't have a name for that in English; we do call a similar thing "20 questions".
Depuis le dossier de l'apprenant, vous feriez votre vision de la France, en parlant de vos opinions sur: Free access page
A/C Link ISBN: 9788484439189
le petit déjeuner français, les films français, la gastronomie française, la France même, le sport français, et l'art français.
For your homework, you might want to write a little about yourselves, including some of your impressions from today's 'dossier culturel'.
You could start a document on your computer with the following information in French about yourselves and then add to it each time you learn a new item as a resumé of what you have learned. (A google doc is a good idea if you know how to do one)
Introduce yourself, spell your name(s), say your nationality and how you feel, and give your birthday… Say where you live and what sort of things there are near your home...
e.g.
Je m'appelle ... ça s'écrit ... je suis de nationalité anglaise/britannique... ça-va bien merci et vous? J'habite à ... au sud d'Angleterre dans une maison au bord de la mer et près de chez moi il y a une boulangerie, une poste, trois superettes, un pub et un petit jardin public on a plusieurs commerces de vente à emporter par exemple; une friterie, deux restaurants chinois de plats à emporter, un restaurant indien de plats à emporter, quatre salons de coiffure dont deux barbiers, une pizzeria à emporter... .
La Gastronomie de Caen
The course book (I use a few exercises from this book) uses Nantes as an example, but Caen is linked by ferry to Portsmouth, and it is our twin city, for which I am the committee chair...
mardi, 24 septembre
Let's look at numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year and how to construct the date in French. Then, we can give our date of birth.
For anyone young enough to be of this century, you would add «deux mille» before your year of birth's last two digits, e.g. 2002 = «deux mille deux». (This does not apply to us)
For the rest of us: 19 is «mille neuf cent» so 1971 is «mille neuf cent soixante-et-onze».
Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? See the video below for a song... lien
Mon anniversaire c'est le 18 mars. (mille neuf cent soixante-et-onze)
For this lesson, you might like to be ready to introduce yourself in French, give your name, and say where you're from. Also, spell at least your name...
Today, we will learn how to say when your birthday is, spell using the alphabet in French, and understand numbers (at least 1 to 31).
Revisions l'alphabet et épeler vos noms, les noms de vos villes et lieux de naissance.
Revisons les chiffres entre 1 et 20.
If time permits:
Travel to France - Portsmouth is twinned with Caen, so we will look at what can be seen in Caen (basic vocabulary initially based on the course book Voilà).
Revision
This very young French Teacher made these vlogs for his French beginners during the Coronavirus lockdown. However, he covers many of the things we covered in class today and last week, which can serve as a reminder!
In teacher training, they say if you do something at least 6 times, you might remember them!
He certainly seems to use that method... Here is his video for the places you might find in a town - if you need it...
Un peu d'humour français... Une réponse à la question brûlante...
mardi, 17 septembre
Today, we will begin learning to speak, read and write in French and listen to French being spoken.
In the first class, we will introduce ourselves and find our reasons for learning French as we do not all know each other yet.
- Comment vous appelez vous?
- Quel âge avez vous?
- Où habitez vous? / Vous êtes d'où?
Je m'appelle... (Je suis...)
J'ai ... ans
J'habite à .... en Angleterre/ en Grande Bretagne/ au Royaume Uni
Je suis de...
Tonight, we will answer the French questions for:
Who are you? Why are you learning French? What does France mean for you?
Qui êtes vous? Pourquoi apprenez-vous le français? Que signifie la France pour vous?
By the end of this session, you should be able to:
Introduce yourselves and spell your name (possibly the name of your street, city, or place of birth).
Can you give me your age? Your nationality? What about your occupation (i.e. student)?
What else?
What can you tell someone a little about French Grammar?
Gender, adjectives...?
An earworm which will teach you the alphabet.
Another earworm for the months of the year...
This guy does a lot of beginner's videos... Now there's enthusiasm, and then there's ~Thomas!
He can, at least, serve as a reminder of the correct pronunciation, should you need one...
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