Portsmouth College Beginners

This blog is for those studying French beginners with me on Tuesday evenings at Portsmouth College

The easier to remember link for this page is: tinyurl.com/pcoll20ab

Once you have you Portsmouth College login, you will be able to access our Google Classroom, where more materials are kept that cannot be freely shared on the net.

Radio Garden is a website where you can easily access streaming radio through a web browser on any capable device.

This link will take you to France Bleu Normandie in Caen.

France 24 is the equivalent of BBC News 24 or Sky News in France it is free to watch in streaming here.

N.B.

As we are under Covid-19 rules, the college prefer to have a paperless, where appropriate class environment.

While this is not so easy, if I can put as much as possible here for you in advance of the class you can then access it on a phone or tablet if you can connect to the internet, alternatively you can bring in your own printouts and take them away.

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Course continuation is currently paused, until the college feels it is likely we can return to campus safely (under the previous safety measures).

The College website reflects this as of November 2020, click here to see the fun courses landing page

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Inserting foreign accents into documents

The blog post here will help you put the accents in documents on various devices.

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On Weds December 9th from 7 pm there is an online social in English for people who wish to drop in. There usually are some people from Caen there, ready to practise their English. Why not come along (it works the same way for the French, German and Italian meetings, it is just the main spoken language which varies).

This is the link where you can find out more and where future online meet-up dates, times and links where be placed. When the new normal is established we'll hopefully be able to meet up in the pubs once more.

Tuesday December 1st, 2020

This lesson will be online via Google Classroom

The Classroom Video Conference Direct Link is Here

You have prepared a little to present your likes and dislikes in French.

We will look at Christmas themed vocabulary and customs

Key Vocabulary linked to Christmastime

Glossary from an Italian Language School

Lexique_decembre_A1-A2

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Download PDF • 136KB

Food and Drink

French Traditions at Christmastime

AS_Christmas in Provence

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Download PDF • 630KB

Pour le Nouvel An

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Download PDF • 74KB

saint-nicolas

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Download PDF • 2.77MB

Further support is on the Google Classroom Feed

Vive le Vent - GR

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Download PDF • 24KB

Les anges dans nos campagnes

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Download PDF • 44KB

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année - A la prochaine fois en 2021 - peut-être.

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Tuesday November 24th, 2020

This lesson will be online via Google Classroom

The Classroom Video Conference Direct Link is Here

We will use the rest of Voilà Chapter 4 to look into stating your likes and dislikes and introduce shopping for clothing.

Clothing

clothesandcolours44

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Download PDF • 11KB

weather and clothes

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Download PDF • 358KB

Clothing Glossary

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Download PDF • 19KB

Likes and dislikes

We can use the section in Voilà Chapter 4 to complete discussing likes and dislikes along with clothing.

Une cantique de noël

If we've time we can study the lyrics of this song (if not next week) - Il est né le divin enfant, is pretty much the go to carol for French children to learn. A little like 'Away in a Magner' for British kids.

Annie Lennox - il est né

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Download PDF • 29KB

Further support is on the Google Classroom Feed

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Tuesday November 17th, 2020

This lesson will be online via Google Classroom

The Classroom Video Conference Direct Link is Here

Today we shall look at buying food in quantities and some other aspects of shopping in French.

We may use exercises from the relevant part of Voilà too and there will be further support on the Google Classroom page.

food_cover_worksheets

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Download PDF • 191KB

au_marche_dialogue

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Download PDF • 99KB

Int 1 speaking restaurant sheet

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Download PDF • 45KB

Les_quantités_beginners

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Download PDF • 149KB

food shopping

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Download PDF • 194KB

fr_boissons_match

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Download PDF • 79KB

fr_food_a_some_match

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Download PDF • 6KB

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Tuesday November 10th, 2020

This lesson will be online via Google Classroom

The Classroom Video Conference Direct Link is Here

I am hoping you all have your logins and can get in to the classroom.

Clicking on this link will take you to the Google Classroom login page for our class.

See this link for instructions on how to login to Google Classroom if you are having difficulty.

I will prepare a few things, I will post as much as I can here, in case you cannot access the Google Classroom Video Conference. I hope that if you find you cannot access the Google Classroom Conference, that you contact IT at the College, who are still supposed to be working. Do e-mail me anything you may have done and wish for me to look at.

Tonight online, we will look at...

The weather (see November 3rd for all worksheets)

I will use a few new things though.

Talking about Telephone Numbers and the higher numbers beyond 69 in French, where they are certainly not the easiest in the world!

If time, we'll revise dates once more and we may be able to learn another ear worm song about the months of the year.

Most materials I have for this have to be on Google Classroom

Telephone numbers require knowledge of all numbers as the French have a particular way of giving out their numbers - The sheet below was also on here under the first lesson back in September:

0-100a

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Download PDF • 37KB

Tomorrow is a public holiday in France - Le jour de l'Armistice 1918. This video will explain a little about this public holiday and why it is marked in France.

Dates - The French celebrate their "fête" each year. This link will give you an idea of how many Saints have their day today and who would be celebrating their "fête"

If you want a tune to remember the months of the year then this one which is asking "When's your birthday?" might just do the trick.

Quelle est la date

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Download PDF • 23KB

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Tuesday November 3rd, 2020

Using 'Voilà' Chapter 3, we will look at the typical things to do in a holiday destination (much of which is similar in vocabulary terms to English)

We will also look at weather today. There is further support on Google Classroom

meteo1-1

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Download PDF • 202KB

La météo

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Download PDF • 61KB

Il Pleut

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Download PDF • 40KB

weather

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Download PDF • 154KB

Quel temps fait

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Download PDF • 19KB

Holidays

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Download PDF • 17KB

A video on 'la météo' for learning purposes

Of course, there will be very little in this video that you will recognise, but here ia forecast recorded for October 22nd to 28th 2020...

Putting things we have learned about the town - something to see how much you can follow.

A perspective on La Toussaint - A video for beginners about French Culture.

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Tuesday October 20th, 2020

This will be the fifth lesson so the last one for this half term. The next lesson will be in November.

You may wish to present to me what you have prepared on yourself, family and pets, using the information from here, the lessons and Google Classroom.

We will look at jobs in French, in basic terms.

Les emplois

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Download PDF • 45KB

2 Les emplois

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Download PDF • 22KB

fr_jobs_match

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Download PDF • 256KB

Tuesday October 13th, 2020

This week we are covering more on countries and nationalities. This was something we looked into last week. You can find many relevant materials on Google Classroom.

We may use the relevant part of Voilà or Saison 1 Chapter 1 to reinforce what we have introduced in class.

countries

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Download DOC • 158KB

Les Pays et les langues

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Download PPT • 702KB

In your own time, now that you are able to access Google Classroom, you may want to prepare a paragraph describing your family and or pets. Alternatively you could make yourself part of a fictional family and introduce them instead.

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Tuesday October 6th, 2020

Today we will look in some detail at how to talk about the family.

The final part of Voilà chapter one, introduces some basic vocabulary for family. We will do more today than the book requires.

The files below will support you in working on the family in French. There is further support on Google Classroom

Ma famille et les animaux

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Download PDF • 16.17MB

Ma famille AS copy

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Download PPT • 856KB

Ma famille puzzle

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Download PDF • 61KB

Ma familleAS

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Download PDF • 19KB

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Tuesday September 22nd, 2020

Today we will look at the introductory section of the Coursebook Voilà to consolidate the things we learned last week and we will move on to look, in basic terms at what there is in an average town, including some landmarks in Portsmouth twin town of Caen.

The 4 documents are FYI (useful perhaps to have them on your devices ready, or printed out if you'd rather)

PCOLL Caen La ville

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Download PPTX • 10.68MB

là_ou_j'habite

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Download PDF • 270KB

J'habite en ville OHT

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Download PDF • 272KB

OHT places in town

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Download PDF • 465KB

The city of Caen's official brochure for 2020 is in Google Classroom:

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Tuesday September 22nd, 2020

During today's lesson, we will learn how to greet people. We will learn about the Alphabet and some of the numbers in French. We will look at the formal and informal register and possibly how to write the date in French.

We will also discuss your motivation for learning French.

Worksheets for use in class.

0-100a

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Download PDF • 37KB

Alphabet French

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Download PDF • 48KB

Florabelle_et_La_Mushroom_Family_–_L’alp

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Download • 30KB

les jours OHT

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Download PDF • 558KB

Les mois OHT

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Download PDF • 61KB

Microsoft_Word_-_La_date_en_français

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Download DOC • 25KB

Microsoft Word - Bonjour.doc copy

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Download PDF • 21KB

Florabelle et la Mushroom Family - L'alphabet en chantant - An ear worm, which will teach you the alphabet.

This guy does a lot of beginners videos... Now there's enthusiastic 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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Extras

A really useful way to tune your ear into French is to find some singers and bands who perform in French and begin to follow them on youtube or if you do have a paid for music streaming service, you may be able to access them on there.

Brand New from Mylène Farmer (The French Madonna around since 1987, but still gets to number one in France!)

Zaz...

Zaz does a wide variety of old and new songs and Jazz style. This one is a cover version of a Daniel Balavoine song. he was huge in the 80s, but unfortunately was killed in an helicopter crash. This song was part of a tribute album to him.

Kyo

A band from Rouen, big in the late nineties and early noughties and came back a few years ago...

I cannot possibly cater for all tastes in music, but searching YouTube will bling you a plethora of different artists...

There are so many more including a multitude of rappers!

For non-rappers, try: Shy'M, Keen'V, M. Pokora, Marc Lavoine, Renaud, Desireless, Louane, Patricia Kaas, Amel Bent, Calogero, Christophe Maé, Christophe Willem, Etienne Daho, Francis Cabrel, Patrick Bruel, Grégoire, Indila, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Joyce Jonathan, Najoua Belyzel. Navii, Raphaël, Vianney, William Sheller and Yseult....

All have a presence on YouTube and then of course there will be recommendations for more similar things down the side...

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Once you feel confident enough, why not join the French Speakers in Portsmouth group?

There is a Facebook page for this group and alternatively, a password-protected website. I would have given you the password if you are in the class.