Messages récents

#81

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Présentations / Introduct...

Dernier message par Thomas - 24 Août 2012 03:24

Hi Coxxie, and welcome to the forum. It's good to hear that you're able to use the advanced lessons now, it sounds like you're coming along well with your English.

Question for you: you've lived in Ireland for a bit, but also California -- what accent do you have when you speak English? I think Irish accents are neat, but I have a hard time imitating one myself!

#82

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Présentations / Introduct...

Dernier message par coxxie - 22 Août 2012 10:50

Hi There!

I'm 22 and I'm french. (I never use my real name online.).

So, I have no excuses I must introduce myself in English.
I lived in Ireland for 8 months and in California for one year.
I try to practice everyday but that's not easy since I'm back in France.
As it says, practice makes perfect. My dream is to be fluent. I'm working on this 

It's nice to meet you all.
@Thomas: You helped me to get ready to go to US. Now I spend time listening to Advanced lessons. I'm very proud of me. Thank you!


Coxxie

#83

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Apprends l'anglais avec moi :D

Dernier message par AndrewJC - 16 Août 2012 15:27

Salut tout le monde! Je suis anglais, et je cherche une personne qui veux pratiquer francais/anglais avec moi. J'ai besoin d'un conversation, et je peux en produire pour toi aussi!

contact me if you are interested! - andrewfisher111@hotmail(dot)com

merci!

#84

New Episodes (Les Nouveaux Episodes) / Re : Lesson 034

Dernier message par greg62219 - 12 Août 2012 20:17

Merci Thomas pour ces nouvelles leçons!

Ça faisait un moment que je n'étais pas venu sur le site car je croyais qu'il n'y avait rien de neuf mais je suis content de voir que si !! J'ai vraiment aimé les précédents épisodes qui nous font apprendre sans ennui des nouvelles choses en anglais, et un peu de culture américaine, un petit voyage sans quitter son PC ou son MP3 :-)

J'ai aussi beaucoup apprécié l'apparente gentillesse de Thomas à qui je souhaite dire merci pour tout le travail que ça représente et cela simplement pour sa passion pour les langues et son envie d'aider les autres !!

Encore merci 
Grégory

#85

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Présentations / Introduct...

Dernier message par Thomas - 01 Août 2012 22:58

Hi Guillaume, and welcome to the forums! I'm glad the lessons are helpful for you. And also glad you found those parts funny, I'm always worried that the humor won't translate well

#86

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Une suite de mot . . . en...

Dernier message par Dguigui - 01 Août 2012 15:41

bear with a hat ( from de circus) ?

#87

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Comment je fait pour pouv...

Dernier message par Dguigui - 01 Août 2012 15:40

Il y a aussi les leçons avancées, elle parle d'un sujet, ça te permet de savoir en gros se que Thomas dit. Essaie aussi de te parler en anglais le soir dans ton lit. demande toi se que tu va faire le lendemain etc. Même si tu fais des fautes se n'est pas grave, tu va finir par faire des rêve en anglais puisque c'est la dernière langue que tu a utilisés.

#88

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Présentations / Introduct...

Dernier message par Dguigui - 01 Août 2012 15:32

Hello everybody,

My name is Guillaume and i find all this fabulous podcast 1 week ago

I'm actually listen lesson 26 at my job. Your lesson are very informative and funny.
That's cool see the progression in your life in your podcast.
I found very funny the moment that you bought 2 mic HAHA.
Anyway ( no "s" as you say in your lesson) keep the good job you done

#89

General Discussion (La Discussion Générale) / Re : Comment je fait pour pouv...

Dernier message par adrienovich - 23 Juil 2012 17:20

Salut !
Ton oreille doit s'habituer aux sons, pour ça, pas de secret : il faut du temps et... de la pratique !
Comment pratiquer ? Ecoute des livres audios, tu pourras suivre le texte en même temps et voir comment c'est prononcé ; écoute la radio ; regarde des films en VO

#90

Questions (Les Questions) / Re : Lesson Interview 01 - Inc...

Dernier message par Thomas - 10 Juil 2012 17:33

They say that we should learn English . Yes but which ?

That is definitely a good question, and I know that many people want to know the answer. Here it is, the answer to the ever-present "Do I learn British English or American English?" question:

It depends. 

There's actually both good and bad news about it, though. Here's the bad news: Unfortunately, the answer is not simple and is not the same for everyone. If someone wants to learn French, and they live in Vermont (a US state that borders Québec province in Canada), I would easily recommend Canadian French. If a British person wants to learn French, I would easily recommend French French. But what about someone who lives in California? Or Australia? The answer is not as easy. I remember when I was in high school, I learn le parking and une voiture. But then I went on vacation to Montréal and saw Stationnment Interdit on signs and heard people talk about le char instead. It was confusing, at first.

Here's the good news: which one you pick is not actually a super important decision. Just like French French and Canadian French, English is very similar between America, England, Canada, Australia, etc. Obviously there are some differences, especially with pronunciation, but as an English speaker, I can understand a British person just fine (at least most of the time ). And even though my first trip to Canada had difficulties due to the differences between the French French I had studied and Canadian French, it did not take too long to adjust. There are definitely still times when I hear a Canadian speaking French and have to really concentrate, but those times have become less and less common.

What I would say, is to pick the accent that you want to have, and learn that version of English, including pronunciation, slang, etc. Make that your "primary" version. But don't forget to from time to time listen to the other version(s), and their expressions and slang, too. You'll find that even though you are mostly focusing on the primary version, you'll end up understanding and being able to speak with people who speak other versions, too.

This past year I taught French at a university here in the US, introductory French levels 101 and 102 (the first two classes students would take in French). The book we used was teaching them French French, as for most people and most situations France is the center of the Francophone world. The book also had excerpts from other countries, though, Canada, Senegal, Morocco, and more. Also, this was not in the book, but in addition to soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix, I chose to teach them septante, octante, huitante, and nonante as well. I told them "In France, you would use the first set of numbers, and in several other countries as well. But in Belgium, for example, or in some older texts, you would see the second set." because I knew that they might encounter those variations on the numbers.

My question Thomas is below :
What do we really learn from English ? Try to put in place of the laymen !

Again, like the first question, it depends. For some people it opens up business or career opportunities, getting a promotion, traveling for business, working for an international corporation. For some people it's for personal enjoyment, reading literature, traveling for fun, watching movies. Some people like to just talk to people of different cultural backgrounds, and speaking their language makes that easier. Other people like learning about the language and seeing the linguistic traits it has. For example, in my class, I told them how many English words are from French, because of the Norman conquest in 1066, and the split between the nobility who spoke French and the common people who spoke English. They knew words like hors d'oeuvres or cul-de-sac or bon appetit were French, those we use in English commonly (though the pronunciation differs!). But they were surprised to learn that words like "mansion" came from maison and "poultry" came from poulet and so forth. They were also surprised when I mentioned how entrée really doesn't make sense in America, because we use it to mean "main course" whereas it clearly is different in French. So by learning some French, even at the introductory level, they learned more about their own language. That's something that you will get no matter what if you study English, you will learn more about your own language. But those other opportunities, business, travel, entertainment, meeting new people, those are some of the most common benefits that you can get from learning English.

Of course, if you meant "Why English, as opposed to German, Spanish, Chinese, etc.?" instead, that's a very different question. But it always depends on your personal situation, on why you want to learn another language in the first place.