France Tales » Alliance Française

Alliance Française- Niveau 4 farewell

Owen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:55:22 +0000

Last Friday was my final day for Level 4 at the Alliance Française and for French classes for a while. Here is a picture of everyone. Stay in touch.

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Rosetta Stone: Learn French Fast

Owen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:09:57 +0000

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Image from WikipediaRosetta Stone has really helped me continue learning French fast. I took a few French classes at the Alliance Française in Toulouse, but now I am on my own. Using Rosetta Stone, I can keep practicing and learning French.

Today I worked on Level 1, Unit 6, Lesson 10: Tout seul, plusieurs, une foule, des amis, la voix passive. My favorite part of Rosetta Stone is the typing and dictation part. The other elements are easy for me but the typing section really makes me think and learn. It will not mark something correct unless there is gender and plural agreement, accents are in the right places, capitals are correct, punctuation and spacing, and a whole host of other things that often language learners think of being outside of the actual process for learning a language.

The hardest part about Rosetta Stone is when a word is dictated and it sounds the same as many other words, for example gens, jeunes, jaune. It is hard to determine which French word to use just by sound so you have to think about the context. Even the context doesn’t give it away sometimes. Then you have to look for plural and gender agreement because, even though they are spelled differently, they often sound the same. This is what makes it hard to learn Frenc, many words sound so similar.

I will keep at it and I’m sure I’ll make progress. Ill try to keep track of the good and bad about using a language learning program to learn a language so you can decide if it is right for you.

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Alliance Française or Rosetta Stone

Owen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:57:05 +0000

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Source: WikipediaToday is the last day of my French class at the Alliance Française. I have been taking classes there since January. 3 months straight, 9-12:30 everyday Monday through Friday. I have enjoyed my classes and meeting all the people but I am burning out. The levels of the people in the same class are beginning to vary too much for me and I feel I am learning more outside of class than in it. I started using Rosetta Stone again and I find I really like it. So for now I am going work on my own.

The benefits of going to a class are easy to see. You get an instant community of people to share your experiences and practice the language with. It is harder to blow off doing classwork. The teacher is watching. You make a financial commitment and you feel obliged to continue. You have a live teacher so your mistakes can be corrected immediately etc. You can build a social life and learn about wonderful things happening in your city. ETC ETC ETC.

I like Rosetta Stone because it is quite dynamic. There is a listening, reading, speaking, and writing component to each and every lesson. Actually multiple ones for each lesson. You can use it extensively or just a little bit, it is really self paced. I find the dictation and typing part the most helpful. It helps me understand when I am being spoken to. It helps me learn the French keyboard. It helps me learn how to spell as well as learning gender, subject verb agreement (in French this is hard because many verb tenses have the same sound but are spelled differently so you need to examine the context), d’accord with the passe composé, and many more things.

The speaking part is interesting. You plug a USB mic to your computer. You do the lesson for a particular skill. The speaking part will show you a sound wave. It will speak the phrase to you and you see the sound wave. Next you speak into your mic and it records your voice and shows you the sound wave your voice made. You can listen to what you said and what Rosetta Stone said. You can also see how your sound wave compares to the model sound wave. It is very interesting. I did this more in the US but now that I live in France it is easy to practice with real live people so I don’t use it as much.

So we’ll see how it goes. The class gave me a quick jump start and a solid foundation but now I am ready to direct my own learning. Try the Alliance Française if you have the chance but for less than the cost of only one month of classes you can purchase Rosetta Stone and have the equivalent of all 9 levels. You can also try it out online to see if you like it. A mix of the 2 is probably best anyway.

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Last Day of Niveau 3 at the Alliance Française

Owen — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:03:59 +0000

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Today was the last day of niveau 3. Some of us are continuing and some of us are not. We were a diverse group covering the US, Canada, the UK, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Italy, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and I think that covers it. This time we did not all speak English so when we went out we really had to speak French. It also helped that we were all much more fluent so it was possible. This group reminded me of the Danish movie “Italian for Beginners”. It was a very different group than niveau 2. I looked for a clip of the movie on youtube but could only find one subtitled in an Asian language so if you are curious about the movie I highly recomeend it but you have to search it out on your own. I have hardly any pictures of the group this time so if anyone has a few pictures send them to me and I’ll post them. Bon Courage à tous!

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Funny French mistakes

Owen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:12:11 +0000

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When learning a language you must have a sense of humor and learn to laugh at yourself. Below is a collection of things I have said, and written in class and in assignments, that weren’t quite right. I added a few other things that “others” in class have uttered as well. What are your French mistakes, or any language for that matter?

When writing a piece entitled Souvenirs d’Enfance (childhood memories) I was writing about a cat I had and how I loved cats and how I would probably always have cats because I had such fond memories of my cat when I was young. I gave a plug to my current cat Jozi. I wanted to say that I love my big furry cat but I wrote “Je aime bien ma grose chatte poilu”. I cannot explain the mistake I made in mixed company. We were practicing tenses, when to use the imparfait and when to use the passé composé, and placement of adjectives but I learned a different lesson.

We read an excerpt from a discussion board about how to rent an apt. One very proper Chinese woman in class was having trouble understanding some of the concepts about renting in France. She rented an apartment but did not experience the same things searching for a rental because I think she lives in an apt at a University, not really a dorm though. The university helped them find it.
That reminded me that earlier in the class someone had meant to ask her if she lived at an academic institution but asked instead “Tu habites dans une institution?”, while it doesn’t have the same connotation in French, all the English speakers burst out laughing. She was asked if she lived in an institution, when you try to explain it in French the joke loses it’s punchline.

I had about 4 other examples in my head. Jean-Jacques just called and now I forgot them all. Maybe I’ll continue this as a series. When I remember those mistakes or make more I’ll add to it here.

*** Another one made today, not me though. We were practicing using double pronouns. We had to write a dialog to read to the class. We wrote about renting an apt. After a genial conversation between a locateur and proprietaire the locateur a dit

“Montrez le moi”,
which means show it to me. It was correct but someone in the class got very red and started laughing because she thought I had said

“Montez-moi”,
which you could take to mean mount me, which would have been an unusual way to consummate this new landlord tenant relationship.

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More photos of Niveau 2

Owen — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:46:21 +0000

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Since we have parted ways I have received many more photos of niveau 2. I made another small gallery of 21 photos here. I probably have 500 pictures of various combinations of us so I had to decide which ones to use. For now I think that is enough. I like the photo where Katerina is staring intently at the camera, I think she is trying to figure out how to take it apart and rebuild it more efficiently. What do you think?
svgallery=more_niveau2

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Pratiquez L’imparfait

Owen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:32:45 +0000

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Regardez la photo et imaginez que vous êtes un pompier. Comment etait les camions de pompiers. Decrivez-les, utilisez l’imparfait. Lessez un commentaire avec votre description.

Formation: on utilise la forme du verbe au présent avec nous (le radical) + les terminaisons de l’imparfait.

Parler –> nous parlons –> utilise parl + les terminaisons de l’imparfait

Parler

je parlais
tu parlais
il/elle/on parlait
nous parlions
vous parliez
ils/elles parlaient

Attention: N’oubliez pas que être est irregulier.

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Here is another picture of Niveau 2

Owen — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:09:25 +0000

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Jean-Jacques took this photo when we were at Patygul’s when she cooked for us. It is a bit serious but the other one was too silly. Click on it to see the full size image. Christian claims he made a joke just before taking it and we were all laughing. It is not too flattering. This one is nice, it is not everyone though.

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Alliance Française, Niveau 2, a sad goodbye

Owen — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:19:47 +0000

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Friday, Feb 1st, was the last day of class for our level 2 class. We had many wonderful times and experiences together. We had a party at our apartment, spent a long afternoon at a cafe together, went to various lunches, some went skiing, to Airbus, Salsa dancing, to the university cafeteria, to the various museums around Toulouse, other day trips, etc. I know it sounds a little cliche but it was very “L’Auberge Español”. We were from all over the world and a wide range of ages and we still managed to get along well and have great times. I am going to miss you all and I will leave you with some kind words. Feel free to add your own kind words in the comments.

Marcella
You are so adorable and have a beautiful smile, and mature too, I can’t believe you are only 16, we will one day see you in Sao Paolo or maybe back in Europe, I hate you and your Italian passport.

Oswaldo
You are an incredible person, so passionate about the environment and its conservation and very insightful about the economics end of it, when we are on our next trip to Brazil after seeing Marcella we will definitely come to your Eco Lodge in Matto Grosso. We will not be on an Airbus A380 though.

Laura
You are a kind, sweet, and thoughtful person. I didn’t know much about you until the end because you are so shy. I am so glad you came to the night of Salsa dancing. I hope your boyfriend didn’t mind watching you dance with Jorge because you two danced very nicely together.

Lucas
I think you were the best in the class at learning French. It seemed that you read and spoke with ease AND picked up the pronouns easier than all of us. Fortunately and unfortunately you will be in level 3, fortunately because you are still here, but unfortunately because you will put us all to shame again.

Jorge
You made the class fun. You don’t enter a room, you fill a room. A whirlwind of chaos follows you around, but in a good way. Good luck in Paris with your next classes, and in Dubai (I think that is where you are headed after Paris) and back at home in Panama. I’ll never forget how la poste works in Panama.

Federica
I am sorry that you had to leave early and I hope the mother is better in Italy. You brought that intensity to class that only Italians can bring, maybe only Romans can bring it. I loved how you were a very serious student but also loved to have fun as well. If it weren’t for you insisting, we might not have gone out Salsa dancing, and not have had the unprintable stories we now have. Take a picture of the world’s most beautiful city and send me one so I can drink it in.

Carmen
What an inspiration, every day to class on your bicycle after dropping your 3 kids off at school on the way. I have no idea how you manage with 3 kids and taking class and actually learning French. Some people make complicated balancing acts look so easy.

Christian
Forgive us for our impressions of Germans, hopefully many of us changed our minds. Young and fun as well as serious and smart. You are going to be an excellent diplomat. I still can’t believe you went to Carcassonne after our night out dancing, did you even manage 2 hours of sleep? At the same time you worked hard at learning French, there is a time and a place for everything in moderation, I’ve just not figured that out yet.

Katerina
So kind, gentle, and smart. I thought you cheated on your New Year’s Resolution, the one about wanting to learn to speak French fluently, you practically do. I know you thought we were just kidding but I actually bet you have some secrets like you dance ballet, play the piano perfectly, and throw the discus and javelin at Olympic levels. Remember when we talked about the things we imagine about others in the class, this is my imagination speaking. The Russians I have known have been very cultured and could play piano, do gymnastics, and creative things like that but also do some very practical things like take an engine transmission apart, replace all the valves, and put it back together. What practical thing can you do?

Yana
Will anyone forget Yana’s laugh? Hopefully she will laugh out loud when she reads this, at least I am imagining it. So fun and carefree and always ready to have more fun. Your story about what happened to you after you left our apartment after the Salsa club will go down in history as legendary. I can’t believe how you laughed as you told it, at first I thought you were joking, but you can’t make up stuff that funny. Too bad your Russian half didn’t mean you knew how to fix a car, after Puerto Habana that would have been useful. Onwards to level 3.

Andy
How is it that you took this French class and learned Spanish in the process? Can you ‘splain this to me Lucy? If you weren’t there next to Jorge to wake him up or show him what page we were on, I think Claire would have killed him. What can you tell us about Legos now too? Where is that video from Patigul’s?

Claire
The patient one, our teacher. Yes a patient French person. At times you were en coleur but overall very patient. I know we were hard because we talked so much, even if we talked in French, which we didn’t always, it must have been hard to forge ahead in some of the lessons. I have this game I now play, imagine something about a person based on knowing just a few things about them. You told us you played keyboard, not piano. I know you play in a band yet you didn’t tell us many details and you had a hard time saying what kind of music you liked other than “all kinds”. I imagine you playing with your band in some retro new wave club, you dancing on top of your keyboard, beautiful cacophony pulsing from the stage, black sunglasses, red Devo hat, “dun dun dun dun dun, ewn ewn, When a problem comes along, you must whip it”, thank god you didn’t have a whip in class.

Patigul
How do you do it? The only one in the group who didn’t speak any English. Here in Toulouse all by herself, family and children at home in China in Zhenzgen(?) she’s Chinese by nationality but ethnically Uurgyr(?) Sheh She mah?(?) One of the highlights of the experience was when she invited us all over to her dorm room and she cooked food from her province, hand made the noodles, Andy if you post the video I am putting it here, which tasted like Thai food, played some traditional music from her province, which sounded a little like slow Banghra, and danced a folk dance. She hardly participated in group events because she also took Economics classes at a university in French and I think communication was a bit of a problem for her. Some people are driven.

Here’s to level 2. Let’s hope those of us going on to level 3 have more of the same experiences. Anyone want to start a Google group to keep in touch rather than plain old email?

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Our first party!

Owen — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:00:49 +0000

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We finally have the apartment looking nice so we decided to have a party and invite the only people we know here, my fellow classmates from the Alliance Française. We are a motley crew from all over the world. We ate, drank, and danced. It stopped raining so we could spend some time on the terrace and balcony. We really had a good time. See the pictures below.

PS: A word about the blue pictures. I am trying to post a lot more pictures here. I have a rule, if I have to spend more than 5 minutes in Photoshop with a picture I don’t include it. There are 24 pictures in this gallery so that would have been a lot of time. The pictures that are blue I liked the content of but couldn’t correct in Photoshop well enough so I did this generic effect to hide the imperfections. Anyone have any tips on automating in Photoshop with the batch command so editing the photos doesn’t take too long?

svgallery=AFparty1