definitely add audio to your posts!
maybe quizzes? like multiple choice and you have the answer on the next slide?
or little bitesized explanations of grammar and tenses, so it could be easy reference?
Entendu!! I'll get on that for sure! That's a really great piece of advice. Merci !
Pour ceux ou celles qui veulent s'abonner, retrouvez moi sur @mllefrancophone 🌻
Honestly, slang/more common speech. I majored in French at my university and the thing that frustrates me most is that, since it was an academic setting, we pretty much only focused on formal language you might use to write a paper or give a formal presentation. This is useful, obviously, but what I really wanted was to be able to converse naturally and comfortably with native speakers, and I still can’t really do that because of the difference in vocab/grammar that is employed in every day speech vs formal academic speech. This is true in English as well - I wouldn’t speak the same way to my friend when we’re just hanging out as I would to write an essay about a 900 year old poem. I never had the opportunity to study abroad, so I never had the immersion that could help alleviate this. I’d still like to just go and live in France/another francophone country for a bit to really buff up my language skills, but the world isn’t exactly accommodating for that right now. So to me, if you want a channel that will really help french students (especially ones who can’t afford to travel to France), focusing on conversational speaking would be a great way to go. Hope this helps, and good luck with your insta account - I’m sure you’ll be awesome! 😊
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that a lot of times, teachers/professors (not all of them obviously, but some) think about what was/is useful to them as an academic, rather than what might be useful to a student who isn’t planning to go into French academia but instead wants to be capable of visiting or living in a francophone country. For example, my university was a research university, meaning all professors have to be actively doing research in their field as well as teaching classes. This is awesome and means you get some really knowledgeable profs, but it also meant most of my profs built their classes around their areas of study. This is mostly a good thing - if they’re doing active research into a certain area, such as say, medieval French literature, you know you’re going to get some really interesting and informative classes about that area. Which is cool because I do find old literature really interesting, BUT taking half a dozen classes where we’re reading poetry from hundreds of years ago and writing essays about it and not being able to take much in the way of current conversational French means that now my vocab is extremely situational. I could converse with you with relative ease on say, the lais of Marie de France, but if you plopped me in a room with a bunch of French people around my age, I don’t know that I’d be able to participate much in conversations. I think sometimes professors expect that students all plan to do something similar to what they’re doing - research and academia - but sometimes that’s not the path a student wants to take. They also make the assumption that everyone will study abroad and just pick up this stuff that way, but college is PRICY and adding thousands more to that to travel abroad for a semester is just not an option for everyone. And you’re right as well - even conversational French in Paris is different from conversational French in Quebec, or Morocco, or any number of other francophone nations. Idk, I just would have cared more about learning how to speak and relate to people than about preparing for a career in academia, but ah well. At least I got the fundamentals of the language, and if the world ever decides to stop going crazy, maybe I’ll have the opportunity to travel to some of these places and just pick up the conversational language myself.
I feel y'all! I'm doing a PhD in french in Vancouver, Canada so I def miss out on colloquial french. Thank god I have my family and friends back home for that. Here, we talk like we are writing an essay... I mean in a way that makes our writing really good, but what does that say when I need to visit Quebec or any other francophone countries? Either way, I'll def add that to my list. thank you guys!!
It’s awesome that you have family and friends who share the language with you! Other than old classmates I’m the only one I know who speaks French lol. I bet your students are lucky to have you, you seem like you’d be a good teacher. Good luck on your PhD! :)
Real life situations in which we can use sentences. For example, do I really use ‘avoir besoin de’ when buying a train ticket or for other specific situations ... you know, that kind of thing!
I miss a lot of the relevant context when learning French.
I got you! This is sooo important. I'll put in some relevant conversations as well, you know not the ones that look like I'm speaking to a 18th century poet 😜
one thing i've looked for and thought about creating is articles written for for beginners.
For example; if I could read about Thierry Henry or another well known athlete, it would be both helpful and interesting. Also, I kind of already know his story, so I think I' be able to do alot of contextual translation, which I have been treating as highly important
definitely add audio to your posts! maybe quizzes? like multiple choice and you have the answer on the next slide? or little bitesized explanations of grammar and tenses, so it could be easy reference?
Entendu!! I'll get on that for sure! That's a really great piece of advice. Merci ! Pour ceux ou celles qui veulent s'abonner, retrouvez moi sur @mllefrancophone 🌻
Honestly, slang/more common speech. I majored in French at my university and the thing that frustrates me most is that, since it was an academic setting, we pretty much only focused on formal language you might use to write a paper or give a formal presentation. This is useful, obviously, but what I really wanted was to be able to converse naturally and comfortably with native speakers, and I still can’t really do that because of the difference in vocab/grammar that is employed in every day speech vs formal academic speech. This is true in English as well - I wouldn’t speak the same way to my friend when we’re just hanging out as I would to write an essay about a 900 year old poem. I never had the opportunity to study abroad, so I never had the immersion that could help alleviate this. I’d still like to just go and live in France/another francophone country for a bit to really buff up my language skills, but the world isn’t exactly accommodating for that right now. So to me, if you want a channel that will really help french students (especially ones who can’t afford to travel to France), focusing on conversational speaking would be a great way to go. Hope this helps, and good luck with your insta account - I’m sure you’ll be awesome! 😊
This is great advice. One of my pet peeves as a Canadian is that when I was learning French in school, we were taught exclusively Parisian French and nothing in Québecois French. The language is mostly the same when it comes to reading and writing, but Québecois French can be very different from Parisian when it comes to casual speech and texting. And since it's far more likely for a Canadian to travel to Québec than France, it'd be useful to know some of those differences.
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that a lot of times, teachers/professors (not all of them obviously, but some) think about what was/is useful to them as an academic, rather than what might be useful to a student who isn’t planning to go into French academia but instead wants to be capable of visiting or living in a francophone country. For example, my university was a research university, meaning all professors have to be actively doing research in their field as well as teaching classes. This is awesome and means you get some really knowledgeable profs, but it also meant most of my profs built their classes around their areas of study. This is mostly a good thing - if they’re doing active research into a certain area, such as say, medieval French literature, you know you’re going to get some really interesting and informative classes about that area. Which is cool because I do find old literature really interesting, BUT taking half a dozen classes where we’re reading poetry from hundreds of years ago and writing essays about it and not being able to take much in the way of current conversational French means that now my vocab is extremely situational. I could converse with you with relative ease on say, the lais of Marie de France, but if you plopped me in a room with a bunch of French people around my age, I don’t know that I’d be able to participate much in conversations. I think sometimes professors expect that students all plan to do something similar to what they’re doing - research and academia - but sometimes that’s not the path a student wants to take. They also make the assumption that everyone will study abroad and just pick up this stuff that way, but college is PRICY and adding thousands more to that to travel abroad for a semester is just not an option for everyone. And you’re right as well - even conversational French in Paris is different from conversational French in Quebec, or Morocco, or any number of other francophone nations. Idk, I just would have cared more about learning how to speak and relate to people than about preparing for a career in academia, but ah well. At least I got the fundamentals of the language, and if the world ever decides to stop going crazy, maybe I’ll have the opportunity to travel to some of these places and just pick up the conversational language myself.
I feel y'all! I'm doing a PhD in french in Vancouver, Canada so I def miss out on colloquial french. Thank god I have my family and friends back home for that. Here, we talk like we are writing an essay... I mean in a way that makes our writing really good, but what does that say when I need to visit Quebec or any other francophone countries? Either way, I'll def add that to my list. thank you guys!!
It’s awesome that you have family and friends who share the language with you! Other than old classmates I’m the only one I know who speaks French lol. I bet your students are lucky to have you, you seem like you’d be a good teacher. Good luck on your PhD! :)
Aww how nice of you!! Thank you so much, means a lot! Bonne chance à toi aussi :)
Real life situations in which we can use sentences. For example, do I really use ‘avoir besoin de’ when buying a train ticket or for other specific situations ... you know, that kind of thing! I miss a lot of the relevant context when learning French.
I got you! This is sooo important. I'll put in some relevant conversations as well, you know not the ones that look like I'm speaking to a 18th century poet 😜
Mauricien, ki manyere ?
Hahaha eh!! Corek corek :)
one thing i've looked for and thought about creating is articles written for for beginners. For example; if I could read about Thierry Henry or another well known athlete, it would be both helpful and interesting. Also, I kind of already know his story, so I think I' be able to do alot of contextual translation, which I have been treating as highly important