Following on from Barbara, you can tell the songs that people like because of their facial expression, their gestures, and singing along is usually a sign that they are enjoying themselves. There is a DVD of Johnny Hallyday, the Elvis of the French singing world (but Johnny is still alive) and it shows the audience singing along. I particularly remember a song called sang pour sang which I believe is about him and his son.
Another way that you can find out about French singers is to ask someone about their favourite French singer. I think that my favourite French song is Joe Dassin's Champs Élysées, and my favourite singer is Maxime le Forestier. I remember someone telling me that their favourite singer was Francis Cabrel and their favourite song was elle écoute pousser les fleurs.
Cabrel's song is about man's technological advances compared to the natural environment, and the need to take the time to listen to the flowers growing. This is a theme with his songs. I discovered most of the French singers that I know by personal recommendation. I went on to find out about those singers mostly by having conversations in French. So enjoy the songs and enjoy the conversations.
A bientot
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Monday, 16 February 2009
Barbara
When I am watching any French singer I always like to see the audience reaction. Are they singing along? How interested do they look? Do they show any emotion? You don’t need to ask any member of the audience if they can recommend any French singer as you just need to look at their faces.
Monique Andrée Serf, better known by one name, Barbara, was a great French singer who died on 24th November 1997. I was in France on Saturday the 24th November 2007 and the main event on prime time television was a tribute to Barbara. A top performer in England would not get this attention. Just think what would happen if Ant and Dec were taken off air so that a programme about a fifties and sixties singer who had died ten years earlier could be shown.
It is interesting to note that she knew both Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel, both great singers, and she used to sing their songs. I have played guitar and sung the songs of all these singers with French people and I have been amazed at their emotion and their gestures.
Search for the name Barbara on the internet. Listen to her songs. In particular listen to a song called L’Aigle Noir. If you translate the song literally then it is very strange but your vocabulary should increase. Learn the chorus and sing along with it. At the end of the song Barbara misses out more and more words and you become the singer. Is this the first karaoke? If you have enough emotion then you might even add the gestures.
Monique Andrée Serf, better known by one name, Barbara, was a great French singer who died on 24th November 1997. I was in France on Saturday the 24th November 2007 and the main event on prime time television was a tribute to Barbara. A top performer in England would not get this attention. Just think what would happen if Ant and Dec were taken off air so that a programme about a fifties and sixties singer who had died ten years earlier could be shown.
It is interesting to note that she knew both Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel, both great singers, and she used to sing their songs. I have played guitar and sung the songs of all these singers with French people and I have been amazed at their emotion and their gestures.
Search for the name Barbara on the internet. Listen to her songs. In particular listen to a song called L’Aigle Noir. If you translate the song literally then it is very strange but your vocabulary should increase. Learn the chorus and sing along with it. At the end of the song Barbara misses out more and more words and you become the singer. Is this the first karaoke? If you have enough emotion then you might even add the gestures.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Motivation 2
As I mentioned in my last blog, some pupils in the 1970s were not motivated to learn a language.Pupils can get through years of learning a language without knowing the basics of that language. I am sure that it is not because teachers have not told them so why does it happen? Every pupil has a different level of ability and some pupils will have less knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. However even the weakest pupil should be able to say something. If the French can speak French then it must be easy :-) Listening is perhaps the hardest of the language skills but every pupil should be able to recognise routine words.
In primary schools there is an enthusiasm for languages which is not as obvious in the secondary schools and motivation is the key. Pupils cannot get their motivation from cinema or music because it is not on the syllabus. They can't get it from holidays because most of them haven't been to France. They can't get it from speaking to any of the 60 million inhabitants of France because it is extraordinary to go on a school trip or set up any international school links.
The motivation has to come from enjoyment. Top pupils will enjoy any subject because of their positive feedback. Less able pupils may get rewards for being enthusiastic. Basically enjoyment comes from le sourire on your face.
A bientôt
In primary schools there is an enthusiasm for languages which is not as obvious in the secondary schools and motivation is the key. Pupils cannot get their motivation from cinema or music because it is not on the syllabus. They can't get it from holidays because most of them haven't been to France. They can't get it from speaking to any of the 60 million inhabitants of France because it is extraordinary to go on a school trip or set up any international school links.
The motivation has to come from enjoyment. Top pupils will enjoy any subject because of their positive feedback. Less able pupils may get rewards for being enthusiastic. Basically enjoyment comes from le sourire on your face.
A bientôt
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Motivation
Where do you find motivation (it is in italics because it is a French word) to learn French? Do you go on holiday to France? Do you have a second home in France? Are you at school and you have to learn French? The best answer to learning anything is that you enjoy doing it. So how do you enjoy learning French? Enjoyment may not be the correct word if you go to the shop, ask for something and then get it, but it is a lot better than not getting it.
Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote 'l'enfer c'est les autres'. He did go on to explain that he meant hell may be other people, but I prefer to think that we are social animals and we need to communicate with others. We need to show respect and be given respect as well as have good relations with our family and friends. So we have to communicate verbally and French allows us to communicate with more than 60 million people just across La Manche.
Are you a stick or a carrot person? Personally, I respond very well to praise and I am not too fond of criticism. However I do remember when I was at school in the 1970s and the teacher stopped shouting at one particular pupil a few months before the O level examination. It struck me that the teacher had attempted many avenues of encouragement as shouting was not his first or even his second method. Eventually it got to the stage when the teacher realised that he could not motivate the pupil. I am not a fan of shouting but the absence of shouting at one pupil made us realise that when the teacher shouted at us then he felt we could make more progress.
Find your motivation. It might be travel or cinema or music or any other aspect of French culture or talking to one or two of those 60 million people. Whatever it is I promise not to shout in this blog.
A bientôt
Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote 'l'enfer c'est les autres'. He did go on to explain that he meant hell may be other people, but I prefer to think that we are social animals and we need to communicate with others. We need to show respect and be given respect as well as have good relations with our family and friends. So we have to communicate verbally and French allows us to communicate with more than 60 million people just across La Manche.
Are you a stick or a carrot person? Personally, I respond very well to praise and I am not too fond of criticism. However I do remember when I was at school in the 1970s and the teacher stopped shouting at one particular pupil a few months before the O level examination. It struck me that the teacher had attempted many avenues of encouragement as shouting was not his first or even his second method. Eventually it got to the stage when the teacher realised that he could not motivate the pupil. I am not a fan of shouting but the absence of shouting at one pupil made us realise that when the teacher shouted at us then he felt we could make more progress.
Find your motivation. It might be travel or cinema or music or any other aspect of French culture or talking to one or two of those 60 million people. Whatever it is I promise not to shout in this blog.
A bientôt
Friday, 13 February 2009
Bon Courage
How do you translate bon courage? Good courage? That's not English as I know it. I have a big French dictionary and I looked up courage. There are 27 lines of explanation which are mostly to do with courage or bravery but there is no bon courage. So then I looked up 'luck' because I had been told that bon courage was good luck. The dictionary said I could use le bonheur or bonne chance but no mention of bon courage!
Then I looked at the word bon and there are far too many lines about bon to allow me to count them, but I eventually found bon courage. The dictionary tells me that it means good luck. It was slightly easier to look in a small dictionary and find the same information. The point is that it is much more enjoyable to hear someone say bon courage to you than it is to look up a word in a dictionary.
My French desk diary today says bonne chance ce soir. I would prefer bon courage ce soir because you have to work a bit harder to translate courage than you do to tranlate chance. You can guess that chance is luck, but you can't say the same thing for courage.
Today's date is vendredi le treize février. Perhaps the French have the same superstitions.
A bientôt
Then I looked at the word bon and there are far too many lines about bon to allow me to count them, but I eventually found bon courage. The dictionary tells me that it means good luck. It was slightly easier to look in a small dictionary and find the same information. The point is that it is much more enjoyable to hear someone say bon courage to you than it is to look up a word in a dictionary.
My French desk diary today says bonne chance ce soir. I would prefer bon courage ce soir because you have to work a bit harder to translate courage than you do to tranlate chance. You can guess that chance is luck, but you can't say the same thing for courage.
Today's date is vendredi le treize février. Perhaps the French have the same superstitions.
A bientôt
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Adverbs of time
If you want to improve the quality of your French sentence then why not throw in an adverb of time. If you are talking in the present tense then put in a maintenant. It probably won't add any information but it gives you thinking time and if you say it in a French accent it can make you sound a little more French.
If you want to improve your French the worst thing to do is say nothing. Be prepared to make erreurs but you can't go far wrong with words like souvent, normalement and de temps en temps. If you are talking about yourself then how often do you do something, find the appropriate word in French and use it.
If you have any hint of an English accent then most French people pick up on this and try to speak English. If you want to learn French then try to keep speaking French and get in there quickly with an adverb of time.
A bientôt
If you want to improve your French the worst thing to do is say nothing. Be prepared to make erreurs but you can't go far wrong with words like souvent, normalement and de temps en temps. If you are talking about yourself then how often do you do something, find the appropriate word in French and use it.
If you have any hint of an English accent then most French people pick up on this and try to speak English. If you want to learn French then try to keep speaking French and get in there quickly with an adverb of time.
A bientôt
Monday, 9 February 2009
How to choose a French film
It is a useful test of a film to see who are the stars. In French a star is une vedette and it doesn't matter whether it is a man or a woman, it is still la vedette. I mentioned earlier that my favourite French film is Jean de Florette. If you enjoy a French film see who is la vedette and watch their other films. It is as good a way as any to choose your next film.
The stars of Jean de Florette are Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu. Do a search on either of them and you will see a wide choice of films. Recently Gerard Depardieu had a role in the film La Vie en Rose, the film about Edith Piaf. This is a fine film which I can fully recommend. Daniel Auteuil was in the film Le Bossu which is ironic considering that Depardieu plays the hunchback in Jean de Florette. You may want to watch La Veuve de St Pierre, or Caché.
As for French actresses the film 8 Femmes was not universally acclaimed but you will find eight very famous French actresses. Check the filmography for any of them. I enjoyed this film. In particular I enjoyed the songs. Learn peu à peu and you can do this by listening to Emmanuelle Béart sing about heads or tails – A Pile ou Face.
A bientôt
The stars of Jean de Florette are Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu. Do a search on either of them and you will see a wide choice of films. Recently Gerard Depardieu had a role in the film La Vie en Rose, the film about Edith Piaf. This is a fine film which I can fully recommend. Daniel Auteuil was in the film Le Bossu which is ironic considering that Depardieu plays the hunchback in Jean de Florette. You may want to watch La Veuve de St Pierre, or Caché.
As for French actresses the film 8 Femmes was not universally acclaimed but you will find eight very famous French actresses. Check the filmography for any of them. I enjoyed this film. In particular I enjoyed the songs. Learn peu à peu and you can do this by listening to Emmanuelle Béart sing about heads or tails – A Pile ou Face.
A bientôt
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