CoPC - French Beginners Summer 2025
- Andrew Starr
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days 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/cfrb25
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:
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This class will run again in September at 6 pm on Tuesdays, tbc.
(provided the minimum number of attendees is reached).
The improvers' class runs from 7:30 to 9 pm on the same day. See here for provisional dates
You can register your interest in classes in September by emailing Jennifer Parr, the Adult Ed courses administrator. The college website will also, no doubt, have updated details on it.
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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, 1er juillet
mardi, 24 juin
mardi, 17 juin
mardi, 10 juin
mardi, 3 juin
Ma famille...
mardi, 27 mai - vacances du mi-trimestre.
These video clips were made in the 1990s for teens as revision of theme tools for schools. You should be able to follow the ones below to a certain extent by now. These could help keep things flowing over the half-term holiday...
mardi, 20 mai
Remember, it is half term for the class on May 27th, so we have lessons again after half term.
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...
For your homework, you might want to write a little about yourselves...
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 supérettes, 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... .
Building on the 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 may have time to learn 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.
mardi, 13 mai - classe reportée - l'intronisation du Lord Maire de Portsmouth.
mardi, 6 mai
I have visitors from Caen and Duisburg next Tuesday (the Mayor Making Ceremony at the Guildhall), so the class has been moved to July 1st. Notre ville jumelle
There is one space available on the upcoming exchange to Caen. I have visitors from Caen and Duisburg next Tuesday, so the class has been moved to July 1st.
You may be able to provide your names and their spellings, your age and birthday, and your address.
Just in case:..
This is one last reminder of 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)
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).
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...
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, 29 avril
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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