Learn French, It's not that difficile!

La Table francaise

2010-01-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

The UGA weekly French conversation group is meeting again, on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 5:30 at the Globe. Bring your friends, and speak French with us! All levels welcome!

Clovis

Mano Solo est mort

2010-01-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

Friends,

Mano Solo, a great French artist whom I liked a lot died on Sunday. He was famous in France for his songs that celebrated life. He had been struggling with AIDS since early in the 1980s. His lyrics tackled difficult subjects like suicide, drugs and AIDS with hope and poetry.

Link video Youtube

Lyrics:

Y'en avait plein les jardins
Y'en avait plein les cours d'immeubles
Des p'tits bambins, des p'tits parisiens
Et même des p'tits gavroches
Les deux mains au fond des poches
Qui te matent avec des airs de p'tits malins.

Alors j't'ai dit allez viens mignonne 
Allez viens on en fait un.
On l'tiendra par la main
Tous les trois on rigolera bien
Mais c'est là qu't'as dit
Qu'la vie c'est pas du gâteau
Et qu'on fera pas de vieux os
On fera pas d'marmots
Pour leur gueuler tout haut
Qu'la vie c'est pas du gâteau

Même si je gagne pas ma vie
Et même si j'ai l'sida
Moi ça me coupe pas l'envie
Moi j'me dis pourquoi pas.
J'voudrais mordre à pleine dents
Dans les joues roses d'un enfant
J'lui dirais Salut mon p'tit gars
Lui il m'diras salut papa!
J'l'emmenerais faire des conneries
Tous les trucs qui sont pas permis
Comment guédra les meufs
Comment c'est qu'on fait la teuf

Moi tu vois avant d'crever
J'voudrais laisser couler
D'la morve d'un p'tit nez
Un p'tit sourire, un p'tit bout d'éternité
Tu m'dis que tout ça c'est des fantasmes
Et j'ai du mal à te contredire
Mais j'voudrais quand même
Laisser une trace avant d'partir, avant d'mourir

Et même si la vie c'est pas du gâteau
Et qu'on fera pas de vieux os
On fera pas de marmots 
Pour leur gueuler tout haut
Qu'la vie c'est pas du gâteau.

Repose en paix, Mano.

My teaching experience

2010-01-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

You may have read my blog, and wonder what my experience as a teacher is. Here are a few paragraphs that detail what my approach to language learning is, and what I have accomplished.

My teaching philosophy is that education is a necessity, because it empowers people and opens possibilities. As a teacher I want to help every student achieve their full potential, and make them realize that they are capable of anything!
My students described my teaching style as "challenging", "witty", "subtle", "funny" and "encouraging".

I spent the last year in Maine, where I worked as French teacher at
both a private language school and a private high school. During this
year I participated in conferences, teacher workshops, and
professional meetings. I learned how to design effective lesson plans
and activities, as well as how to incorporate different media and
materials in my classes, including Rosetta Stone. My class activities
varied for each level, and included student-centered role-playing,
aural comprehension using audio and video clips, and composition
exercises based on the vocabulary for each lesson, one of which was
“Write a review of the last movie you saw.” My beginner and advanced
beginner classes featured grammar exercises, texts, clips and songs
followed by comprehension questions. In the advanced beginner,
intermediate and advanced groups, I showed recent French movies that
were followed by discussions where every student could express their
feelings and opinions about the piece we had just seen.

Part of my responsibility as a native language teacher is to share my
knowledge of French culture through ideas and anecdotes, so that my
students may experience French culture without ever leaving the U.S.
To help create a French atmosphere, I hosted a weekly conversational
lunch where students and I discussed both French and world news, and a
monthly potluck dinner which featured French or French Canadian food
and games. A French cooking class, taught partly in French and partly
in English to accommodate students of more modest proficiency, was
another way of discovering various French cuisines and cultures. This
unique lesson and meal blended flavors from Provence, Paris, the
Northern regions of France, and the tropical island of Reunion and was
received with much enthusiasm.

I also designed and planned two immersion weekends, where I was
required to lead not only each and every activity during a three-day
period, but also to delegate responsibilities to a group of
assistants. Through my own perseverance our second, more successful
immersion was held at a local camp where the students and I had access
to beautiful natural surroundings which provided us with the space and
inspiration for themed-activities such as a treasure hunt and students
skits and songs.

Before this year in Maine, I worked as a computer laboratory
supervisor for the University of Reunion Island, where I monitored a
laboratory of 14 stations, and taught college students the use of
spreadsheets and word-processing software. I was also a tutor for
students from any and all disciplines, from history to math to French.
These experiences allowed me to become familiar with the challenges
students face, and how the learning process can be facilitated by
effective communication and an early, strong assessment of needs and
difficulties.

Tutoring and classes

2010-01-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

Bonjour les amis,

The new year just started and it is time to get back to work. I will be available for private classes and tutoring throughout the semester. My schedule is flexible and we can arrange evening or weekend classes.

I have taught all ages and levels, so I am very confident that I will be able to adapt to your personal level.

My rates are typically $25 an hour for private lessons in the Athens area. We can meet either at you house, or in a public place, at your discretion. Contact me for any other information. You will find a link to my email in the "About Me" section.

A plus !

Clovis

French for kids at the East Athens Community Center

2010-01-05T09:18:00.001-08:00

Bonjour les amis,

On Mondays, from 5 to 5:30, do not miss the French for kids mini-lesson and story time at the East Athens Community Center! During this 30 minute informal class, I will be reading a French children's book (with translation, bien entendu!) and teach a few simple words and expressions.
This Monday, the children and I shared anecdotes to find out what other languages are spoken around us. We also exchanged greetings in French and learned the most important word : "Bonjour"!

So come join us next MOnday, from 5 to 5:30. All ages are welcomed!

Clovis

Reading list

2009-11-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

Bonjour les amis,

Voici une petite liste de livres, romans et nouvelles que j'ai lus et que j'ai aimés. You can click on the links provided if you want to read an excerpt of the text. Please tell me when a link has expired so that I can fix it and find a new page to give you.
Most of these books are written in standard French, which means you will need to know the Passé Simple and other advanced tenses.

For intermediate students, I recommend the Linguality collection. These books have the difficult words in French bolded and then the words defined on the facing page. It is very handy, and saves you loads of time, because you will not have to use a dictionary so much!

Niveau avancé

Au bonheur des ogres, de Daniel Pennac. I love this author. It may be quite difficult to read, but if you want a challenge or if your French is good, you should definitely give it a try! He is, hands down, one of my favorite contemporary French authors.

Le fleurs du mal, de Baudelaire

Niveau intermédiaire-avancé

Germinal, de Zola. Probably one of Zola's mostly read books outside of France. Many movies have been made out of this piece. It can be a good exercise to read the book and then watch the movie, or to do it the other way round.

Le roman de Renart.

Niveau facile-intermédiaire

Le petit prince, de Saint Exupery.

Dictionaries

2009-11-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

It is always helpful to have a good dictionary handy when you navigate in a foreign language situation. Here is what I have been using every day since I found out about those websites.

Wordreference, a French-English/English-French dictionary, and much more.

Lexilogos provides dictionaries in almost any language you can think of: You can click here if you want the French dictionary directly. I use this website all the time, especially when I study Japanese characters.

First post on my first blog! Bienvenu(e)s!

2009-11-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to this blog.

Although there is no need to reinvent the cassoulet, or as you would say in the U.S. reinvent the wheel, this is my personal space where I will be posting useful resources for students of French. To make it a little bit more "special", I will also be posting links to interesting articles, short stories, news events, and anything related to French culture, and language learning. You will also find pictures of the different events I organized or participated to, along with a short description of what you missed if you were not there!

A blog's life expectancy being not really high, I nevertheless wish this one all the best, and a (relatively) long and happy life! Do not hesitate to post when you feel like commenting or if you have an interesting link you wish to share.

Votre serviteur,

Clovis

Oh and by the way, we French also say the wheel thing. Il n'y a pas besoin de réinventer la roue!