La mission française - basic French by July 2012 | Page 3 | My language mission and my log | Forum

Tuco said
C'est si injuste! Hier j'ai apprendu, avec Pimsleur, comme se dit "I need to go into town to buy a hat"! 

Celui-ci est le meilleur dictionnaire ce que j'ai vu jusqu'à maintenant.

Pimsleur was useful in the past, mais il n'est pas bon pour moi à présent.

Merci pour le dictionnaire.

Natalia enjoy your trip to Japan, bon voyage!

Malbouffe.

Well, I quite dislike Paris, but I feel offended while seeing it associated with " capital of malbouffe". Of course, if you don't venture outside touristic areas , you won't get anything cheap and tasty. This how it works in every city : just leave touristic areas, you can be really surprised.

"As if they have no pride in good things from France" : ahem… I will probably sound a bit nationalistic, but we DO have pride in good things in France ( ex. : pain, vin, foie gras, cassoulet, violette, choucroute, pruneaux à l'armagnac, pousse rapière, etc…).

C'était mon petit quart d'heure chauvin…

Je l'avais vu avant que tu répondes – merde! Mon français est très rouillé après 2-3 semaines sans rien étudier =(. Quoi qu'il en soit, ce soir je vais reprendre mes études.

Just one thing : merde is extremely vulgar. For my part I would say "zut" ( c'est très édulcoré mais bon ^^ ), or "crottes"; which means basically the same thing.

J'aime Paris. Je ne vois pas de problème avec le malbouffe. Chacun ses goûts – en plus, la malbouffe est bon marché; c'est souvent  l'unique choix pour beaucoup de personnes.

Moi, je mange des légumes tout le temps. Toutefois, lorsque j'étais à Paris, je mangeais du kebab  tout le temps  – parce que c'était si peu cher: 5 euros pour un kebab immense avec des frites et du coca-cola light. Vraiment, c'était à Saint-Denis (où j'étais/ je vivais), pas à dans Paris même; quand même, c'était une option moins chère que celle de déguster de la cuisine française tous les jours – et ça ne prend pas autant de temps que de cuisiner. J'ai préferé m'engraisser un peu que diventer pouvoir ( I just don't understand what you meant by "diventer" ?)

Well, I don't have any problem with malbouffe in general ( I also do love kebabs , and chich taouk too ^^ ), but I don't agree with Paris being "capital of malbouffe " that's all ^^

I don't eat pruneaux, or foie gras everyday : this is neither good for health nor for my bank account.

Hi !

If you want a very easy movie in French, then watch Tha Artist ( French only used on interscreens).

Then here is a non exhaustive list of French movies worth seeing ( although each for different reasons ):

Huit femmes ( musical, vintage) Le dîner de cons ( comedy = really difficult )

Les visiteurs ( comedy = seems difficult, but I think that would fit for an intermediary level)

 Intouchables ( it's in theaters in Montreal on April 13th)

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain ( I think this is the easier : dialogues are not too numerous)

 Podium ( funny if you know who is Claude François and you know his songs)

 Les émotifs anonymes (funny ) Le père Noël est une ordure ( really difficult, but it cult)

 Les femmes du sixième étage ( not really difficult, must be aware of Spanish immigration during Franco dictatorship until 1970s)

 Chouchou ( comedy about a homosexual immigrant living in a church and who wants to be integrated in French society. I love that movie. Gad Elmaleh is one of the best French humorists by far ))

Ne le dis à personne ( suspens)

L'artiste ( no dialogues, and the few ones are written on interscreens == ++ good movie)

 Didier ( quite stupid, but funny : the story of a dog turned into a man)

 RRrrrrrrrrrr….. ( about prehistory, really stupid but funny )

Le premier jour du reste de ta vie ( sad…)

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime ( a woman jailed for murder just finished her condamnation)

Entre les murs ( about French secondary schools in our suburbs )

Vilaine

Des hommes et des dieux ( about Tibhirine monks massacre)

Gainsbourg, vie héroïque ( about French singer Gainsbourg = little weird sometimes, but it's nice)

Tout ce qui brille ( living in our "banlieue")

Le bruit des glaçons ( a man who meets his cancer = sarcastic, weird atmosphere but good)

Astérix et Cléopâtre

Some Quebec movies :

L'empire bossé ( a documentary about a fictitious Quebec entrepreneur and his links with corruption etc…. = comedy ) Monsieur Lazhar (++++)( about immigration in Qubec, mostly)

I surely forgot a lot of movies, but it were those ones which came into my mind

Rebelle ( War witch) ( about infant soldiers in Africa + beautiful music )

Hi there ! if you enjoy war films, there are some great French movies : 

Joyeux Noël : French, British and German soldiers during WW1 fraternize for Christmas. (they also speak German and English)

un long dimanche de fiançailles (a very long engagement) : on WW1 too

Indigènes : the story of Algerians and Morrocan soldiers enroled in the French army

There are also many films on French Resistance during German Occupation, the most famous being La Grande Vadrouille (comedy) Almost everybody in France has seen it.

then 2 comedies : 

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (could be quite difficult) : stereotypes about Northern France and the Ch'tis, the people living there.

Rien à déclarer : this time about the French-Belgian rivalry. 

We almost dub all foreing movies in France (especially blockbusters), therefore there are plenty movies you can watch in French

I went to my first French class today.  It was 3hrs long, I was bored, and I still can't count to 10. I also don't like the fact that the textbook is French-German. But I met many nice people there, and learnt greetings and numbers.

Today I bought bilingual books "Little Prince", "Alice in Wonderland", "Vegetables" & "Home" for kids so all bilingual. I also bought a really interesting looking thesaurus. I also made an effort to talk to a French woman at a supermarket, and she was really helpful teaching me words writing them down for me.  Institut Francais in Berlin has free French films, so I will be going to see all if I can, and I'll also borrow some textbooks from a library. I probably won't go to class as it's just too exhausting, and some are too expensive, and they drag things too long.

I also listened to the first song I posted here- "Pour la peine" and was singing it on the subway with headphones, like karaoke so I'm sure I looked funny to some.  So I'm making a real effort for 30 days to master enough French to write my book about Paris.

Gaius (and all), if you want, add me on Facebook and I can add you to Expatriates in Paris group, or you can go yourself. I've made many friends there already, and maybe we could encourage more people there to study.  They have many French members there too.  Up to you and feel free to ignore. http://www.facebook.com/NataliaRoschinaJapan

Merci & bon weekend