Une Nouvelle Étudiante

Welcome to Judith, our newest recruit!  Judith is a good friend of ours but is a new Café Français student. 

Here she is, getting 'stuck in' and doing her presentation on 'Ma Famille'.

Some vocab we encountered on Thursday:

enceinte - pregnant (you never know when you'll need that one!)

une prise de sang  - blood test (another useful one) 

le voisin  / la voisine - neighbour

une auberge de jeunesse - youth hostel

épuisé - exhausted
bâiller (reg ER verb) - to yawn
une boucle d'oreille - earring (les boucles d'oreilles - earrings)
un collier - necklace
un soutien-gorge - bra
un ruban - ribbon
un bandeau - headband
un décolleté - low-cut garment / cleavage. Can be used also as an adjective, e.g. une robe décolletée
les cheveux mi-longs - mid length hair
les cheveux en désordre - messy hair

Les Devoirs 
FDP, Page 304. Read and listen to the dialogue 'Blind date à la française'.  Do the exercise ' Avez-vous compris?' on page 305. Learn the vocab on page 305.

Travaillez bien! 

A Kiss Is Not A Kiss....

Last lesson we came across the word 'baiser', which literally means 'to kiss' but can also mean 'to f**k', so best to avoid it I say.

'faire la bise' or 'donner une bise' both mean 'to kiss' (the kiss on both cheeks, which is the usual French greeting among family, friends and close colleagues). 

You can also use 'embrasser', which means to kiss (usually in a more intimate sense like the picture above).

The French don't really do hugs as a greeting, so there is no real translation of 'hug'.  The closest is 'un calin' (faire un calin), which means cuddle (give a cuddle), so implies something a bit more intimate.  

Click on the link to explore this cultural minefield further. 

There is also an interesting thread here.  Go straight to the 7th July 2009 post by lorenzogranada.

By the way, do you recognise the picture? It is by Robert Doisneau, a famous French photographer and is called  'Le baiser de l'Hôtel de ville'. 

Reminder

Next lesson, Thursday 2nd February, is chez Malcolm.

Grosses Bises,

Evelyn

C'est Qui?

 Learning how to describe people lends itself perfectly to a game of 'C'est Qui?' which was enjoyed by all yesterday.

Vocabulary which cropped up in conversation:

le phare = lighthouse

poupre = purple (usually used for something bordering on deep red/purple)

les déchets = waste / rubbish

When speaking about the film, 'The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo', we learnt to say: 

Le film est aussi bien que le livre = the film is as good as the book

We know that there is another word for 'good' in French, 'bon'. Knowing whether to use bon or bien can be confusing.  The best explanation I have come across can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6PfIRMOprw

Angela regaled us with tales of 'le Japon' and brought back some confectionery (of which, apparently, the Japanese are very fond!)

 These were much appreciated during the coffee break. Merci Angela.

Presentations

My apologies for forgetting, at the beginning of the lesson, to hear your presentations, which you had all so assiduously prepared. In the end, we had time to hear only Angela's - which was fascinating  - all about her exploits in Japan.  Next week we will start with the presentations.

Les Devoirs

Don't forget to bring a few photos of family and/or friends so that you can present them to the class. e.g. Voici ma fille, elle est grande avec les cheveux blonds et les yeux bleus. Elle a vingt-cinq ans et elle travaille comme dentiste.

You can bring the photos on a memory stick if you wish, and we can put them on the big screen!

Encore!

Last lesson, Andy treated us to a delicious, home-baked Galette des Rois. I forgot to take a picture of the actual galette but it did look very much like the one in the picture - and it was divine, mmmm. Thank you Andy.

We also mentioned the use of 'la cédille' (cedilla), which looks like an upside down question mark and when placed under a 'c', turns the 'c' into an 's' sound, e.g. garçon.

I hope you all noticed that the lovely orchid you gave me is still thriving. This is no mean feat for someone who does not have green fingers (avoir la main verte). As we will be revising colours next lesson, we will look at some of these types of expression.

Whilst on the topic of my horticultural prowess - the bulbs which Joan kindly gave me at New Year have just come into flower - amazing (or should that be 'amazemont?). For any French speaker who stumbles across this blog, I do know that there is no such French word as 'amazemont' - this is a private joke!

Bienvenue!

Welcome to the first post on the Café Français Blog! Many thanks to Julian for this very apt photo.

The intention is to pick up on vocab, topics or grammar covered in the lessons. A little additional support in between lessons.  Last Thursday we had a long conversation about your Christmas and New Year's activities.

Some of the vocab which cropped up:

la veille de noël = Christmas Eve
la dinde = turkey
le canard = duck
l'oie = goose
le houx = holly
le voisin = neighbour
arbre de noël  / sapin de noël = Christmas tree (le sapin = fir tree)
avoir besoin de - to need ( j'ai besoin = I need)