It’s been too long ! Ça fait trop longtemps! Yet at the same time, le temps passe si vite et nous voilà déjà en été !
La dernière fois que j’ai écrit dans ce blog, c’était en février pour vous souhaiter une joyeuse Saint Valentin and here we are, more than 4 mois plus tard (it rimes ;-))
Je ne sais pas ce qui s’est passé de votre côté, mais pour moi, la vie has been, well, crazy, challenging, lovely, and not so lovely.
But before I share with you toutes ces folles mésaventures, je veux vous proposer un nouveau Summer French Book Club : vous savez certainement déjà que les Jeux Olympiques auront lieu à Paris, du 26 juillet au 11 août, dans moins d’un mois donc. Will you go? Most of us won’t. Oui je sais j’habite à côté de Paris mais les grands événements avec plein de monde ne sont pas ma tasse de thé. Puisque la plupart d’entre nous ne serons pas à Paris pour les Jeux Olympiques, j’ai sorti de ma bibliothèque un très joli petit livre called Paris sera toujours une fête, little book in which les plus grands auteurs célèbrent notre capitale.
Le titre est inspiré d’une citation d’Ernest Hemingway.
Le livre est un hommage littéraire à Paris.
Since we can’t be à Paris this summer, why not celebrate her (une ville est féminine en français) à travers la littérature ? Voici some of the authors qui figurent dans ce livre : Victor Hugo, Jacques Prévert, Michel de Montaigne, Raymond Queneau (avec lui vous apprendrez l’argot typiquement parisien des années 1950 c’est très drôle), Anna de Noailles, Louis Aragon, Émile Zola, et bien sûr, Ernest Hemingway ! Et beaucoup d’autres ! Des textes joyeux, intimes, et plein d’amour et d’admiration pour la plus belle ville du monde !
ONLINE FRENCH BOOK CLUB 2024 July 9, 16, 23, 30 – 6pm French time
(If you’re unsure of your level, contact me to schedule a free Skype call.)
What will the Online French Book Club look like?
-A series of 4 Zoom classes
-Spread out over 4 consecutive weeks
-Each class will last 1.5 hours
-I will divide our book into 4 parts, each part corresponding to 1 class.
-$249 for four 1.5 hour classes (total of 6 hours) + homework + no need to buy the book, I will send you a PDF version.
-Limited number of spots so tickets are NOT REFUNDABLE.
I hope to see you there!
Et maintenant des nouvelles de 2024 :
J’ai commencé l’année en janvier by losing everything that was on my computer. Absolument tout. Des années de travail, de créations, de documents, de factures, d’écriture, de templates, de university work, de présentations, de cours, you name it. TOUT. Ça fait un vide, littéralement. Dieu merci j’avais envoyé mon mémoire à mon professeur, et chaque chapitre de mon roman à quelques amis !
Fin janvier j’ai été sélectionnée pour faire l’objet d’un contrôle fiscal (an audit). Fun times. And not quite over yet. Très bientôt j’espère.
And last but not least, my Angel Sophie, ma petite fille, mon petit coeur d’amour si doux, died on April 4th à cause d’une tumeur au cerveau.
On the day I called the vet to make “the” appointment, le 2 avril, j’ai commencé à ressentir des douleurs très fortes dans le cou et dans le dos. Finalement je suis allée passer une IRM (MRI : les mêmes lettres mais pas dans le même sens!) et le docteur m’a dit que quelque chose poussait sur ma colonne vertébrale… So of course I deduced that I also had a tumor growing on my spine. I had to wait several days for another doctor to tell me it was… une hernie discale ! Granted une hernie discale est très douloureuse et pas amusante du tout, mais enfin ce n’est pas une tumeur tout de même !
En juin j’ai passé mes 5 derniers examens de philosophie avec mon coeur et mon cou en compote, mais maintenant at least that is fini et je n’ai plus qu’à attendre les résultats.
Voilà donc un résumé (résumé in French means summary, a resume is un CV) d’une année 2024 un peu compliquée. C’est la vie, comme on dit. Elle vous fait tomber, mais il faut se relever. Remember this passage from Rocky VI quand le merveilleux boxeur parle à son fils et lui dit : “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward! How much you can take and keep moving forward! That’s how winning is done!”
J’espère que mon ange Sophie s’amuse au Paradis, et qu’un jour nous pourrons y jouer de nouveau ensemble.
—————————————————————————————————————————
Learn French online with Virginie
Join French Truly’s online immersion course and online school, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page.
Each French online course is packed with video & audio files along with written material, to make it as fun, easy, and user friendly as possible for you! Come and learn French online with me!
French online book club
Benefits
Improve your French comprehension skills in a completely safe & friendly environment avec moi.
Practice reading, speaking, and listening to French while bursting out laughing at every page. This will ensure a rich discussion as well as expand your French vocabulary and sentence structure.
Learn French grammar & conjugation in a natural way thanks to a practical context.
Relax knowing that I’m here to manage our time together and make sure everyone gets a fair opportunity to participate.
In this course, you will find 15 videos (+ 10 bonus ones) to help & accompany you every step of the way through the course + for each word, each sentence, each expression, each conjugated verb, I have created an audio file of my voice, slow and slightly faster speed. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
Did you know…
You can converse (speak + understand) in French with only 600 WORDS?
The average French person only uses between 300 & 3,000 WORDS?
This means that if you can master a relatively short list of words, you’ll be able to express yourself like the average French person! Plus you’re much more likely to understand the French when they talk back to you!
This course will teach you…
1- How to speak French
2- How to pronounce French
3- How to make French sentences
4- How to conjugate all the most common French verbs
5- How to polish your results
6- How to self evaluate your French
More info HERE
-It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons
-This course is designed for a beginner / intermediate level. If you are intermediate but feel like you could really reinforce your foundations, you will love it.
In this course you will find 11 videos + 150 audio files + 92 pages PDF format to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. In some parts of the videos, my face will appear close up and profile so you can easily see how I make these sounds with my mouth. The 150 audio files are composed of the 100 most popular French words and the 50 most common French phrases. They are recordings of my voice, speaking slowly enough so you can easily grasp every syllable. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
NB: if you are the proud owner of my previous French online course 600 WORDS, don’t worry, this is not a repeat as we are now exploring 1 letter words and up, whereas in 600 WORDS we began at 4 letter words and up.
Combine knowledge with confidence…
For you to be able to have a pleasant and efficient conversation with a French person, one thing is key… can you guess what it is? Confidence! How well do you think you will communicate in French if you don’t feel confident about your accent? If you are scared that people won’t understand you? Or even worse if you think someone might make fun of you? Without a minimum of confidence there is no room for communication. Yet if you feel confident, you can afford to make a few mistakes here and there because people will still understand you. What prevents a conversation from happening isn’t just a lack of knowledge, it’s also a lack of confidence. You need to have both to make it work, not to mention, to make it fun!
This course will teach you…
1- How to pronounce every letter of the alphabet
2- How to pronounce every digraph & trigraph
3- How to make every French sentence flow
4- How to pronounce the 100 most popular French words
5- How to pronounce the 50 most popular French phrases
6- How to avoid the pronunciation mistakes everyone makes
More info HERE
-It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons
-This course is designed for a beginner level. If you are intermediate but lack confidence when it comes to talking and feel like you could really benefit from focusing on pronunciation, you will love it.
In the PERFECT SPELLING online course you will find 20 videos + 10 audio files to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. Why 20 videos? Because there are 10 dictées in total, each focusing on one particular topic, and for each dictée I have prepared 2 videos. Let’s say the video focuses on both French past tenses called imparfait & passé composé. The first video will go though the grammar, the conjugation, and all the tips on these two past tenses to help you understand and remember how and when to use them. The second video will be the actual dictée, a short story written by me, describing everyday life situations conveniently packed with imparfait and passé composé verbs! Boom! Efficient! The dictée will also be read by me, slowly first and then a little faster, with a close up on my face so you can more easily recognize the words and copy the shapes I make to improve your own pronunciation.
Become a French language expert
How do you become an expert at anything? By focusing on one thing at a time.
I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic per dictée, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.
Here’s what you’re going to learn
What grammar & conjugation points will each dictée focus on?
Dictée # 1: Present tense
Dictée # 2: Past tenses – imparfait & passé composé
Dictée # 3: Future tenses – futur proche & futur simple
Dictée # 4: Conditional, imparfait, asking questions
Dictée # 5: Imperative form
Dictée # 6: First group verbs all tenses
Dictée # 7: Second group verbs all tenses
Dictée # 8: Third group verbs all tenses
Dictée # 9: Numbers
Dictée # 10: Prepositions
Each dictée is a short story written by me about practical everyday life situations. This means that not only do you get to work on conjugation & grammar drills, but you also improve your conversational skills at the same time: a magic combination for your next trip to France!
Grow your confidence talking about practical everyday topics
The dictées will refer to common topics that you are very likely to hear or very likely to use to express yourself such as:
-Traveling to France
-Socializing
-Childhood memories
-Family dynamics
-Everyday life routines
-How to express your ideas, opinions, and dreams
Two videos per dictée
First video: key grammar and conjugation reminders explained very clearly so you feel prepared and confident entering each dictée.
Second video: the actual dictée. I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.
And for you challenge lovers over-achievers?
Yes I have prepared something just for you! I have also made 10 audio files, 1 per dictée, so that if you wish to, if you want it extra difficult, if you want to test yourself more deeply, you can solely rely on sound. Indeed there are many occasions in life where we hear a language but we don’t see it: speaking to someone on the phone or listening to the radio for instance.
20 videos? 10 audio files? What else?
This new FRENCH DICTÉES online course also comes with written files with both the French text along with the English translation, so that you can evaluate yourself when you’re done taking notes.
To summarize, you’ll be able to use video, audio, and written material.
Dictées worked for me, they’ll work for you!
Let me tell you, I LOVE dictées because THEY WORK. And clearly you realize this too and that is smart of you. So now let’s see how something as simple as a dictée can truly help you become a little bit French! Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
%20(6).png)