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N.B.
Links in blue will work for you, but if they are red, then they will only work for me while in class.
This post is for the French Beginners Class at the City of Portsmouth College (Highbury Campus) on Tuesday evenings from January to March 2024, 18:00 - 19:30.
16th, 23rd & 30th January
6th, 20th, & 27th February (13th is half term)
5th, 12th, 19th and 26th March.
Classes are now available to book for the Summer Term.
French for Intermediate/Improvers is often composed of people who have completed the beginner's class with one or two others with some basic knowledge. So often we are working at a slightly higher level than this class, focusing more on the grammatical structures.
The classes are due to run on Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. Just 8 weeks.
Tuesday: 16th, 23rd and 30th April
7th (14th) and 21st May
4th 11th, and 18th June
Sometimes, the start is delayed if there are many applications for all classes in at the last minute. On the 14th of May, I may be involved in Mayor Making; if I am, that week's class will be postponed until June 18th.
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?
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!) The sites below are usually accessible for free and have French-language content.
Free sources for TV (you will need to put the subtitles on)
All 4 (Walter Presents on Channel 4 has some French Series among the many foreign series)
France 24 (online news 24/7 in French)
TV5 Monde (an online bank of Francophone TV and Film)
BBC iPlayer (often under BBC 4 programming)
Free Sources for Radio (tunes in your ear and your brain to the rhythm of French).
Radio.Garden (Sadly, since October 2022, the UK government has blocked this website for working outside the UK). However, click on the ellipsis (...). You can see the option to visit the website - click there, and you can go to the website - click on 'écouter la radio'. It gives all the France Bleu regional stations in France... then you can listen (this option will work on most radio stations based on 'Radio.Garden').
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.
mardi, 26 mars
We can revise speaking about towns, houses, people and pets...
- Comment vous appelez vous?
- Quel âge avez vous?
- Où habitez vous? / Vous êtes d'où?
- C'est comment?
- Qu'est-ce qu'il y a près de chez vous?
- C'est comment chez vous?
- Vous avez des enfants? / des frères et sœurs? Comment sont-ils?
- Vous avez des animaux?
This is a bit of fun to learn animal names and the noises animals make in French... Definitely not the height of French Culture, though!!
mardi, 19 mars
Continue "Un voyage au Québec" from Entre Nous 1 with some looking into grammar structures in French. (L'Échange d'appartements).
Lannion, Bretagne Les blagues du poisson d'avril
A trip from Caen to the Sea.
mardi, 12 mars
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. Piste 31 Piste 32
We can look at the irregular verb «aller» in the present tense.
This is from French TV about the city of Quebec, you'll not follow it all, but we can "mine" it for useful vocabulary and phrases to talk about cities in French (even if they are speaking with a Quebecois accent!!) Town
Chanson
Quels sont les mots manquants?
mardi, 5 mars
We will look in more detail at the theme of "The Town" in French. p50-55.
«Quels sont les commerces de votre quartier?»
We will then describe your local area in more than just lists of shops.
You might wish to use the text below as an example for preparation for next week's mini-presentation in French about your local area, if you feel brave enough to start speaking a little in French.
« 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 supérettes, 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 concessionnaires de voitures d'occasion aussi, avec une pharmacie, un cabinet de dentiste et une autre supérette 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. »
You could also mention jobs, likes and dislikes... use the pronunciation practice website (link at the top of the page) to hone the pronunciation.
mardi, 27 février
* We will look at where French is spoken in the world.
La Francophonie
* We will revise, giving your name, age, and where you live.
* We will add civil status and ensure you have your jobs and can say at least one positive thing about where you live.
* We will report back about other people
* You should also be able to add about yourself and your family...
Using Entre Nous 1 Chapter 2 pp. 40-44. Piste 22
<< Une femme en vair qui s'appelle Vérène verra à travers ses verres son verre de vin qui contient un ver vert vers huit heures tout en récitant un vers d'un poème. >>
We will look in more detail at the theme of "The Town" in French. p50-55.
«Quels sont les sommerces de votre quartier?»
We will then describe your local area in more than just lists of shops.
You might wish to use that as an example for preparation for next week's mini-presentation in French about your local area.
« 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. »
Chanson
Quels sont les mots manquants?
mardi, 20 février
Tonight, we will talk about the family and describe people...
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.
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If we have time...
We will look at some French-speaking people and their jobs from Entre Nous.
HALF TERM - (13 février) Tonight, it is half-term, so do not come into the college, it will be locked!
mardi, 6 février
Chandeleur/mardi gras/La Saint Valentin
Le chandeleur - le 2 février
le mardi gras - le 13 février (cette année)
la Saint Valentin - le 14 février
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 over in the West of France, south of Brittany, but once was 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.
mardi, 30 janvier
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 a little 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:
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
mardi, 23 janvier
For this lesson, you might like to be ready to introduce yourself in French, giving your name, and saying where you're from.
Today, we will look at saying when your birthday is... looking at how to spell using the alphabet in French and getting to grips with 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).
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...
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...
Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? see the video below for a song...
mardi, 16 janvier
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...?
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...
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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