8/31/07
How to introduce yourself (part 3) – Lesson 1
How are you ? : Comment-allez vous ?
Where are you from ? : D’où venez-vous ?
You can also say : D’où êtes vous ?
Do you speak English : Parlez-vous Anglais ? !
Sorry if there is not much in todays lesson but I had tons of things to do so I had to shorten the post. There will be no post until monday. Have a good weekend, study but not too much. It's much more important to free your mind by going out during the weekend than to try to study as much as you can. See you monday
8/30/07
Improve your learning of French by practicing it
Practicing French as any other language is crucial in your education. If you practice often you could accelerate your training. Practice forces your brain to remember what you have learned. It makes your memory work. And the more you make it work the easier it is to remember stuff.
Internet regroups millions of people from all over the world who speak various languages.
FriendsAbroad is a website that gives you the ability to meet people from different countries in order to learn foreign language in an online language exchange environment.
So for example, if you speak English and want to learn French, you can find French speakers who want to improve their English - you help them and in return they help you.
Their service is absolutely free. FriendsAbroad is a learning network composed of millions of users in over 200 countries speaking over 80 languages.
Visit FriendsAbroad and improve your French today.
8/29/07
How to introduce yourlself (part 2) – Lesson 1
First step : Say hello to the person you want to speak with
Second step : Present yourself
My name is Dave : Mon nom est Dave
You can also say : Je m’appel Dave
Once you have said your name you can ask the person for his/her name.
What is your name ? : Quel est votre nom ?
Less formal would be : Quel est ton nom ?
You should also use this form if you are speaking to a young person (18 years old and less)
When the person has told you his/her name you can say…
Nice to meet you :
If you are a man you say : Heureux de vous rencontrer
If you are a woman you say : Heureuse de vous rencontrer
You can also say :
If you are a man you say : Heureux de faire votre connaissance
If you are a woman you say : Heureuse de faire votre connaissance
Or more simply (for both man and woman) : Enchanté
Fact : Heureux and heureuse are adjectives. In French, adjectives are different depending on your gender. You will learn more about this in further lessons.
Practice : Here is a little scenario that is going to help you review the content you have learned in lesson 1.
Dave is walking in the street and meets a good looking woman(smiley). It’s 3 pm.
Dave : Bonjour
Woman : Bonjour
Dave : Je m’appel Dave. Quel est votre nom ?
Woman : Je m’appel Jessica
Dave : Heureux de faire votre connaissance
Jessica : Enchanté
8/28/07
Tips to help you in your language learning
Learning a foreign language is not an easy task. I found an interesting website where you can get free tips on language learning. Here are a few tips from the website that I found quite helpful:
° Study on a regular basis
Instead of spending 3 hours once a week studying, you should try to disperse your study sessions during the week. The best would be to allocate a certain amount of time (half an hour for example) each day.
° Review your lessons many times
If you want to make sure you remember what you have learned you should review your lessons regularly. When you complete a lesson, try to come back on it the day after and several days later. I’m not saying you should review the lesson completely. Don’t spend half a hour on it again. I think 5-10 minutes should be enough.
° Don’t discourage yourself if you think you are not progressing
Some days you’ll progress faster whereas some other days you won’t progress at all. That’s exactly why you should revise your lessons. Some words or some concept are more difficult to understand/learn. Remember when your where at school. Did you always understand what the teacher was saying ?
° Have fun learning
This is a tip that I find very helpful and I’ve been using it for a long time my study times. Let me give you an example. I study microbiology. When it comes to learning the immune system I try to picture the different element of this system as people who are interacting together. Maybe you could try to picture yourself speaking with a French. Make yourself a mental movie.
To get more tips on language learning visit Omniglot
8/27/07
How to introduce yourlself (part 1) – Lesson 1
The first thing you may want to do when trying to speak to someone is introducing yourself. Makes sense…no ?
First step : Say hello to the person you want to speak with
There are 6 ways to say hello :
Depending on the time of the day you may want to say :
Good morning : Bon matin
Good afternoon : Bonne après midi
Good day : Bonjour
Whether it’s morning or afternoon you can use Bonjour.
Good evening : Bonsoir
Good night : Bonne nuit
Hi : Salut
Salut is usually used with friends of yours, not with people you don’t know.
To engage a conversation you should either use Bonjour (Good day), Bon matin (Good morning), Bonsoir (Good evening). So when you want to say hello to somebody you should use Bonjour (Good Day) when the sun is up and Bonsoir (Good evening) when the sun is down.
Bon après midi (Good afternoon) or Bonne nuit (Good night) are usually used to wish somebody a good afternoon or a good night.
Let’s say a friend of yours is going to sleep. The appropriate words to tell him before he goes to bed would be : Bonne nuit (Good night)
When the same guy (or girl) wakes up in the morning you could say to him (her) : Bon matin (Good morning)