Language Notebook

Tokyo / Current Focus: French, Spanish, Japanese

[beardedmrbean]

[pompadourpink]

Free MOOCS

About fantasy in literature (artois’ university)

About science fiction in literature (artois’ university)

The government’s list

Popular websites : fun, francophone, my moocs, digischool

Other online resources. My books hashtag.

[pompadourpink]

How to improve pronunciation

Salut! How would you recommend someone to improve their pronunciation in French if they don’t have access to a class/live in the country where French is spoken? I’m trying so hard but I struggle a lot with pronunciation but it’s so so important to me to be able to pronounce words properly and speak well because I love this language so much and it’s very important to me but I’m struggling a lot

You don’t have to live somewhere in particular or go to school to get any kind of skill. Practice and hard work will always be enough. Now :

Study this post about phonetics

Study this post about pronunciation

Listen to audiobooks while reading the written version (see below) 

Watch subtitled stuff (Netflix, TED talks, hacked content, TV5 Monde’s Sept jours sur la planète, Public sénat)

Speak to yourself, pretend to be a Youtuber, debate out loud (…) and record it so you can listen to it later

Some resources :

Youtube’s pronunciation channels

The website Forbo (natives pronouncing words)

The website Reverso (translation, pronunciation, context)

The website Linguo.tv (french videos + subtitles)

Phonetic transcription

Audiobook/ebook combo :

Le Petit Prince - Saint Exupéry AU / EB 

1984 - George Orwell AU / EB 

The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo AU / EB 

The Art of War - Sun Tzu AU / EB

The Call of Cthulhu - Lovecraft AU / EB 

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Caroll AU / EB 

L’Île mystérieuse - Jules Verne AU / EB 

The Bible AU / EB 

The Fellowship of the ring - J.R.R. Tolkien AU / EB 

Pride and prejudice - Jane Austen AU / EB 

Le Horla - Maupassant AU / EB 

Candide - Voltaire AU / EB 

The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe AU / EB 

Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde AU / EB 

Hope this helps! x 

[missjodie]

“蔵焼けて 障るものなき 月見哉 (Since my house burned down I now own a better view of the rising moon)”

— Mizuta Masahide, 17th Century Japanese Poet & Samurai

[logogreffe]

French TV show recommendations :

L' Art du Crime (2017- en production) : -> A policeman teams up with an art expert to investigate art related crimes. Each episode is about a specific artist. The policeman knows nothing about art and the art expert (who works in the Louvre) often imagines herself having conversation with famous (dead) artists. One of my favorite shows ! If you like dark/light academia you might like this show ! ✅ : Art History, casual everyday French, ART HISTORY ! (Bonus point : The main actor) ❌ : The episodes are very long !

Fais pas ci, fais pas ça (2007-2020) -> If you want to have a good idea of what French everyday life is like, this is the TV show for you ! The show follows the lives of two completely different French families. The show started like Modern Family with the characters speaking to the camera before becoming a more "regular" show. ✅: Casual everyday French, really good insight on French culture, really funny, you see all the characters grow and evolve, the theme song is fantastic. (You also get to see the evolution of France between 2007 and 2020 which is interesting) ❌ : Nothing extraordinary is really happening, you get an idea of French life, so it might be a bit boring.

Kaamelott (2005) : -> "Based on the Arthurian legends, it followed the daily lives of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table in Camelot." This is a comedic show, I feel like French people either HATE or ADORE this show, there is no in between. One of my favorite shows ! ✅ : Hilarious + knowing this show will make you sound extremely cultured to French people. ❌ : Not only do you need a good French level for this one (a lot of Knight related vocabulary I guess) but also some ...French humor ? I don't know if foreigners might like this one ...

Bref. (2011) : -> Web-serie, the episodes are super short. During each episode the narrator, a Parisian guy tells you about specific events in his life. The way it's shot is really interesting. ✅ : Casual French + slang, very short episodes ❌ : The main character is, in my opinion, kind of annoying

Le Visiteur du Futur (2009) : -> A man coming from the Futur, trying to save the world from terrible things, classic right ? Well, his way of saving the world involves stuff like "stopping Clément from buying a sandwich at the bakery because he's going to fall in love with the Baker's daughter, and live a happy life and have a child BUT the child is going to join a far right extremist movement and become the new face of the neonazi movement and cause WW3 and..." This show was first made with the lowest quality imaginable, the makeup is NASTY, but the plot...the plot is fantastic. ✅ : Casual French + slang , you get to see the quality of the show increase ❌: The quality of the set is questionnable in the beginning and the humour is a bit ..."pipi caca" as we say in French.

Very Bad Blagues (2011) : -> Web-serie, sketches and parodies of French shows, (or French people) ✅ : Some episodes are hilarious, (some are maybe a bit cringy) ❌: Some parodies might be a bit hard to get for foreigners as you might not know the original shows or characters.

Bloqués (2015) : -> Web-serie, super short episodes. Two friends and a couch, each episode is about a different subject like "Si j'étais riche" (If I was rich) ✅ : Casual French + a lot of slang ❌: They make a lot of references to popular French culture - But on the bright side, if you look up every cultural references that they make you might be able to get a Master in French popular culture (I personnaly get only a third of their references).

L'Effondrement (2019) : -> During each episode you get to see a family or group of people trying to survive after the collapse of the society. No electricity, little to no petrol, shortage of food... ✅ : Casual French + Really interesting ! ❌: A bit "anxiogène" as we say in French (anxiety-provoking) because ...well... it could happenned exactly as it's portrayed in the show.

La Flamme (2020) : -> a parody of the Bachelor  ✅ : Casual French + slang , the main character is played by Jonathan Cohen who is hilarous ❌: Warning : French humour

Family Business (2019) : -> "The plot revolves around a failed entrepreneur, Joseph, who finds out that cannabis is about to be legalized in France. He consequently decides to change the family kosher butcher shop into the first marijuana coffeeshop in France"  ✅ : Casual French + a lot of slang , extremely funny , Jonathan Cohen again ❌: Warning : French humour

BONUS : La Demoiselle d'Avignon (1972) -> Koba, from Kurland meets, François Fonsalette, a French diplomat. They fall in love in France but Koba has to go back to her country. Missing Koba, François manages to get a job as ambassador in Kurland and Koba, missing François, manages to find a job as an AuPair in France... ✅ : Formal French ( French from the 70 sounds sooooo nice), really cute story + you get to see France in the 70s ❌: Nobody speaks French like this anymore, (unfortunately)

(Some of thoses shows are on Youtube in France, but I don't know if the videos are visible outside the country) (feel free to ask me for links)

[eteru]

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[artoffreddieniem-blog]

【Our Wedding Film at Japanese Shrine 熊野本宮大社 神前結婚式（视频截图）】【视频：暂时不能上传】

SHIBA 和  KOJI 在2018秋，记录了两人在一起十年之时，从求婚到举办传统日式婚礼的全过程。在同年12月去夏威夷办理和领取到结婚证书。本视频在他们自己编辑了半年时间后，于今年四月发布在油管 ｜

图九：罗针盘文字：感谢@眠君 翻译：“说起来，我俩在一起已经10年了。生活悲欢、饮食起居都在一起。今后十年还要随着心的方向一起走下去。” ｜

Hezans：择良辰，定吉日。今天我们在熊野本宫大社举行结婚仪式。从今以后无论苦乐，互爱互敬，相守夫道。图7的誓词 我哭了   

   CP的IG分别是：koji_slk 和 nexadventure 💕

我在微博：@ 森林画册

[memeclassheroes]

[myothercarisauhaul-original]

[astraldreadnought-deactivated20]

[whitepeopletwitter]

[pompadourpink]

Bonsoir! J’adore ton blog :) En fait je suis assez contente de mon niveau de français mais il y a une chose que je comprends toujours pas, et c’est la différence entre l’an et l’année ... je sais que c’est l’année scolaire etc mais ughh 😩 aide moi s’il te plaît

Bonjour,

Merci! Those are technically synonyms of year but it’s all about the context :

L’an :

when counting, without extra elements : ça fait trois ans

expresses a date : la mode en l’an 2000 c’était n’importe quoi

after “tous les” + expresses a habit : tous les ans je vais à paris

set expressions : en l’an de grâce 1207 (medieval movies)

L’année :

after an ordinal number : c’est la troisième année que j’y vais

after a quantifier (plusieurs, quelques, etc) : ça fait plusieurs années

about memories : je suis allée à barcelone l’année dernière

with an adjective : c’était une belle année

with a determiner (not le/la) : je te souhaite une année pleine d’amour

Hope this helps! x 

[tchaikovskaya]

french people be like “en fait”

[fluencylevelfrench]

Les articles partitifs

after this ask and this correction I thought it would be a good idea to make a post about the articles “du, de la, des”, because apparently there’s more to it than I thought!

When are they used? 

du/ de la/ des are used to talk about a part of a quantity

-about an indefinite part of an uncountable amount of sth: 

Il boit de la bière. / Il y a du bruit./ Je veux du chocolat (=I want some chocolate)

-about an indefinite part of a countable amount of sth:

Je cherche des allumettes./ Ce sont des fleurs.

Exception: if there is an adjective in front of a plural, you only use de, not des

des films –> de mauvais films/ des progrès –>d’important progrès

[Exception to this exception: This is, however, not the case when adjective and noun are considered one unit of meaning. des jeunes gens (adolescents), des petits-enfants (grandchildren)]

No article partitif used when:

1) after expressions with “de” as preposition

e.g. parler de, avoir besoin de, avoir envie de, rêver de

J’ai besoin de calme. I need calmness. / J’ai envie d’alcool. I want alcohol.

difference of meaning: Il s’occupe d’enfants. = He takes care of children.

(no article partitif)

but: Il s’occupe des enfants.= He takes care of the children.

(preposition de + les)

We can use an article after the preposition “de” if we talk about one specific object:

J’ai envie du chocolat qui est dans le frigo. I want the chocolate that is in the fridge. vs

J’ai envie de chocolat. I want chocolate.

2) after nouns and adverbs that express an amount of sth

un kilo de pommes, un tas de sable, assez de/ beaucoup de/ trop de travail

3) after negations

Je ne mange pas de pain. /Il n’y a plus de bière. [Exception: a) after être: Ce n’est pas de la bière allemande. b) and when the meaning is positive: Je ne veux pas acheter de la bière française. = they want to buy beer, but not french one but: Je ne veux pas acheter de bière.]

[Okay, I think these are the most important rules for the use of de la, du, des and when not to use it. Let me know if there are any mistakes or anything I should add.]

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Chinese calligraphy by 南宫雁小二

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[nualie]

because you stole that word from french lol

Queue: consonnant sound

Queue: you can’t follow a q with a e, you need a u in between. in french u gotta

Queue: the eu sound is actually not like how you say q at all, it’s a french e sound but it’s longer (also distinguishes from the word que)

Queue: it’s a feminine word so it gets a e at the end

[gaphic]

u say that like its somehow better and not just a crushing indictment of french

[aaoposts]

You have no idea how many 1 yen coins I have absolutely everywhere. They’re so hard to get rid of

[allmyknivesaremadeoutofbutter-d]

so you just make an effort? and then it pays off?

[capacity]