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Bonjour chers francophiles and welcome to this special Back to School Edition of our podcast, Brush Up Your Français with Prêt à Parler!
If you are new to this podcast, bienvenue!
I’m Isabelle Nicolas, the founder and CEO of Prêt à Parler. Back in 2015, I had the idea to create Zoom-powered private French tuition and Prêt à Parler has since become Switzerland’s leading online French language school. To better understand why our methodology works so well with our clients, I must tell you a little bit more about myself!
I am a native French speaker from Quebec, Canada, born to a Franco-Belgian family, and I have been living in Suisse romande (French-speaking Switzerland) for almost 7 years now. As you can see, the francophone world is vast and beautiful, so learning French can and will make you travel around the globe!
I am also the mother of two adorably tiring toddlers so I am indeed no stranger to the busy expat parent reality!
As some of you might already know, I was trained as a professional opera singer. For as long as I can remember, I have always had a real passion for arts and languages. This led me to become what I would call an ambassador of the French language & francophone culture, i.e. a French Teacher!
For the past 6 years, the amazing Prêt à Parler team and I have been hard at work helping busy professionals and parents improve their language skills by providing a high quality, eco-friendly, fun, no-nonsense approach to learning French online!
Our podcast, Brush Up Your Français, is meant to be the perfect learning companion if you are currently learning or relearning French! My Super Profs and I are all multilingual native French speakers based all around the world. We are really passionate about sharing our love and knowledge of the French language, which is Pardon my French, really contagious! The more you listen to us, the more you will want to learn French. I must confess that it’s a bit addictive, a kind of treat for your brain, like a good chocolat or bouteille de vin!
If you are starting to learn French or you are here to improve it, I highly recommend that you don’t only listen to our podcast, but that you read the transcript as well, whenever you need it. Please know that you can find the transcript of all our episodes on our website, (www.pretaparler.ch).
Let’s continue this special Back To School Episode with my chronique, The French Sounds of Music. Together, we will look at another very famous French song and I’ll give you a few pronunciation hacks which, I hope, will help you feel more confident when you speak French in the future. You already know that I am a professional opera singer and I looove everything related to diction!
In today’s episode, since we are going back to school, let’s say one last goodbye to the summer holiday season by looking at a very famous French song from 1987 that many people know called Voyage, Voyage by Desireless.
After this episode, I invite you to listen to the original version to keep improving your pronunciation. As always, the link to the YT video will be in the transcript of this week’s episode, on our website, where you can also find the English translation of the French lyrics.
So, this week, let’s focus our attention on the very pure French ‘‘i’’ sound. My little pronunciation hacks will definitely help you sound more like a native French speaker!
YT video :
- Original: https://youtu.be/Srq2Y40nnYs
I hope you better understand how to create a real French “i” sound!
Now, let’s talk about time management and efficiency when learning a language.
Like many of you out there, I’m a busy working mom. When I learned English, German or Italian, I wanted the process to be efficient, useful, and fun! I didn’t want to spend precious hours of my life learning things I would never use later on in my daily life. It just doesn’t make any sense to me and really frustrates me.
Tell me, when was the last time you spoke French and felt good, i.e. confident about it? If you are pretty happy about your French level, do you feel confident expressing what’s on your mind exactly so people fully understand you?
Perhaps you have noticed that despite hours spent diligently learning grammar and textbook dialogues, you still find yourself without words when asked a simple question like Que puis-je faire pour vous in a restaurant or a boutique situation?
As expats, we have all had embarrassing moments during which we felt stupid for using the wrong verb tense or inappropriate faux amis which made everyone around us laugh. Yup. Been there, done that... in many languages!
That might be because you haven’t learned to speak French using your gut and intuition. To dare to speak a new language, you need to feel confident enough to make mistakes. You can’t worry about sounding ridiculous. That will block you. In order to relax and ease into the new language, it is really helpful to build your trust in your “Frenchiness” within a safe environment, completely devoid of judgments.
Does that exist? Is that even possible?
Yes, it is!
This is what my great team and I have created with Le Club de Conversation Prêt à Parler.
Now is the time to finally put into practice everything that you have learned… and more! Grab your laptop, a nice cup of coffee or tea and... join our Club de Conversation!
For only 200 CHF, you will get 10 x 60 minutes group lessons of 8 participants maximum. Our online group lessons on Zoom will help you develop your French conversational skills in a wide range of topics useful for your everyday life.
With your Super Prof, you will :
Learn at least 200 new words and expressions
Make real improvement with your speaking, understanding, and pronunciation skills
Acquire Useful tips to hack the French language
Get a real big boost of confidence when speaking French
For more information about our Back to School Offer, please visit our website or contact us at info@pretaparler.ch.
Registration closes on September 8th.
Don’t wait any longer and reserve your spot maintenant!
So, we are now at the end of this special episode. I hope it was useful for you and you enjoyed my little pronunciation tips.
Next week, Super Profs Brice and Sandra will be back with On en parle and Super Prof Catherine will make us discover a new word with Le mot mystère.
Merci beaucoup et à la semaine prochaine!
Isabelle
As a native Québécoise, born to a Franco-Belgian family, now living in Nyon with her two children, Isabelle is no stranger to the expat reality! Trained as a professional opera singer, her passion for arts and languages led her to become an ambassador of the French language & francophone culture, i.e. a French Teacher!
She founded Prêt à Parler in January 2015. Since then she's been hard at work helping English-speaking learners from the international community of Suisse romande make French part of their everyday life! Prêt à Parler's mission is based on what Isabelle does best: helping busy professionals and parents improve their French language skills by providing a high quality, eco-friendly, fun, no-nonsense approach to learning French online!
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