CoPC - French Beginners Autumn 2025
- Andrew Starr
- Oct 20
- 5 min read
Updated: 23 minutes ago
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/cfrb25a
If the above link returns an error, ajstarr.short.gy/blog will direct you to the blog index, where you can locate your page by scrolling down.
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:
Tuesday, September 30th
Tuesday, October 7th
Tuesday, October 14th
Tuesday, October 21st
Tuesday, October 28th (half-term college is closed)
Tuesday, November 4th
Tuesday, November 11th
Tuesday, November 18th
Tuesday, November 25th
Tuesday, December 2nd
Tuesday, December 9th
*****************************************************************************
Outside of class
Friends in France - Some people maily from Caen looking for 'correspondants'
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 yourself on a Padlet 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.
If you're looking for a 'penpal' in Caen, here are some interested parties - mainly in their early 20s, studying at the University of Caen... One is a business and Economics teacher at the Lycée Malherbe in Caen. One lives in Belgium and is 77.
Please let me know if any are of interest, and I will provide you with their email addresses.
We have an exchange visit from Caen in June. There is also likely to be a day trip coming to visit Arundel on Saturday, 6th December, you would be welcome to join us and meet the French!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
mardi, 4 novembre
Le jour de l'armistice
We will revise the theme of family and descriptions in French first of all.
Then a bit more about where we live such as rooms and furniture.
mardi, 21 octobre
We will look into the theme of the upcoming holiday in France. Halloween is not very French, but la Toussaint is.
We will look at family in French first of all. Then a bit more about where we live such as rooms and furniture. I imagine that we will not get much further today...
Vocabulaire d'Halloween
La Toussaint
Halloween
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.
(If we get this far...)
To conclude the discussion of home, family, etc., we will examine some French-speaking people and their jobs from Entre Nous. Piste 21
mardi, 14 octobre
Today, 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, 7 octobre
GSR - Saturday, 18th and Sunday 19th October
For this lesson you might like to be ready to introduce yourself in French, giving your name, saying where you're from and when your birthday is...
Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?
Revisions l'alphabet et épeler vos noms, les noms de vos villes et lieux de naissance.
Revisons les chiffres entre 1 et 20.
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).
The course 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...
La Gastronomie de Caen
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, 30 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...?
Feuilles à télécharger
An earworm which will teach you the alphabet.
Another earworm for the months of the year... Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?
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...
Comments