Friday 28 January 2011


twenty eight: second post about French

This morning's post was about various aspects of the immersion technique for language learning.

This evening's post is about the more 'traditional' textbook and audio technique, which I am also using.

The following is what I'm able to write after completing chapter one of this book:

bonjour, je m'appelle Chris. et vous? j'ai vingt ans. vous avez quel age? quelle est votre profession?

un deux trois quatre cinq six sept huit neuf dix onze douze treize quatorze quinze seize dix-sept dix huit dix neuf vingt, trente, quarante, cinquante, soixante.

j'habite á Leeds, en Angleterre. oú habitez vous? je suis anglais / britannique. je suis né á Maidstone, en Angleterre / Britain. quelle est vous nationalité?

Ça va? bien. Tres bien. Je suis bien. Pas trés bien. comme ci comme ca.
hello, my name is Chris. and you? I am twenty years. How old are you? what is your profession?

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty.

I live in Leeds, England. Where do you live? I'm English / British. I was born in Maidstone, England / Britain. What is your nationality?

Okay? well. Very good. I'm fine. Not very well. so-so

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beau travail Chris ! I'm very happy you and Alex are working on your French. And we'll be able to practise in March :)

    Do you allow me to correct one tiny mistake ?
    You should say : Quelle est votre nationalité ? (rather then vous)
    Vous = you
    and votre is the possessive pronoun = your.

    x
    Camille

    ReplyDelete
  4. still working out how to use this comment feature :p

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Camille! Thanks for your comments; corrections are welcomed! That's the best way for me to learn after all. I'll update the vous/votre differentiation in my notes when I get home :D

    I look forward to practicing in March too; hopefully we'll have moved beyond the introductory chapters and be able to speak about something interesting :p

    ReplyDelete
  6. Also, do you know why seventy is soixante-dis and not septante or something? that confuses me :p

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well the Belgian and the francophone from Switzerland do still say septante, octante, nonante.
    But I think French started compting on a twenty basis apparently because of a Danish influence in the XVth century.
    So the remnants of that are soixante-dix (60 + dix), quatre-vingts (4x20), quatre-vingt-dix ((4x20)+10)
    ...well you've probably got that already :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've not encountered anything beyond 'soixante-dix' yet due to the course layout, but it sounds like I'm in for a treat :p

    Your explanation makes sense though, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not bad going :P
    Did you not do GCSE french at school?? We had to do it.. I somehow managed to get an A lol despite having the most appalling accent known to man!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks! Nah our year group was split in half; half French, half Spanish. I was in the latter half.

    Managed to scrape myself an A too! Wish I had done French then, although if I persevere with these lessons then I'll have French and Spanish which will be cool :)

    I'm sure your accent is lovely :p

    ReplyDelete
  11. We did French in Y7-9, then Spanish or German Y8-9, in Y10 you had to pick one of them or do fastrack and do 2, which is what I did.. All those after-school hours wasted on a crappy accent :P

    ReplyDelete
  12. that sounds intense! we just did Spanish yr 7-11, although I did the GCSE a year early so had 4 free periods a week in yr 11 8-)

    did you do Spanish or German? can you remember much now? I'd be interested to see how well I could fare in Spain with what I remember.

    ReplyDelete